How much was Gannon, a.k.a. Guckert paid, and by whom?

I am wondering if the funneling of taxpayer dollars was indirectly shuffled via Karl Rove's office to get this Gannon nut to shill for the administration.

The whole situation is spurious and quite wholly unethical, and perhaps even against the law, if not just down right misleading to the American public.

Check out the open letter to Louise Slaughter from the Niagara Falls Reporter Editorial Staff.

Dear Rep. Slaughter,

As a small newspaper located in your district, we are asking for your help. It has come to our attention that an individual who calls himself "Jeff Gannon" has been credentialed by the White House to attend press briefings and presidential news conferences.

He is affiliated with an organization called Talon News, and is frequently called on by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan and President Bush. This individual has no background in journalism whatsoever, and his "syndicated column" appears solely on his personal Web site, www.jeffgannon.com. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, "Jeff Gannon" isn't even his real name.

In his biography at the Talon News site, where he holds the title of "Washington Bureau Chief," he claims to be a graduate of the "Pennsylvania State University System" and the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism.

While the 23 schools in the Penn State system award diplomas, the system itself does not, and the Daily News investigation has thus far failed to turn up a "Jeff Gannon" who holds a degree in education from Penn State, as this person claims he does. Furthermore, the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism is a right-wing diploma mill where anyone with $50 and two days to waste can receive a degree.

As for Talon News itself, it seems to consist solely of a Web site that links directly to a Republican site called www.gopusa.com. Both Talon and GOPUSA have the same mailing address, a private residence in Texas. It isn't clear whether anyone at Talon News is paid, as one portion of its site asks, "Want to join the Talon News team? Click here to find out more about being a volunteer reporter for Talon News."

Looking at the staff biography section of the site, none of the 10 individuals listed appear to have any training or previous experience in journalism, although all list credentials as Republican activists.

We respectfully ask your office to look into how a partisan political organization and an individual with no credentials as a reporter -- and apparently operating under an assumed name -- landed a coveted spot in the White House press corps.

Sincerely,

Bruce Battaglia, publisher, Mike Hudson, editor in chief, Rebecca Day, senior editor, David Staba, sports editor, Bill Gallagher, national correspondent, John Hanchette, senior correspondent, Frank Thomas Croisdale, contributing editor, Bill Bradberry, contributing editor, Niagara Falls Reporter.

End statement:

More from Mike Hudson, Niagara Falls Reporter: "Jeff Gannon or J.D. Guckert or whatever his name is isn't a real journalist. Here at the Niagara Falls Reporter, we do 22,000 print copies a week, have a half million Web visitors and a Pulitzer Prize-winner and Peabody Award-winner on staff. Does anyone think we could get an audience with the President? This isn't an issue of old media versus new media. It's an issue of fraud. Among other things, I've had my nose broken over stories I've written, and the way Gannon folded like a cheap suit when his credibility was called into question should tell everybody what he's about. We're running the gay cheesecake shots of him next week, by the way.''

End slice:

I suggest we blog on over to the Niagara Falls Reporter and link up to send the folks in the "Right"house a clear message that this unethical and outrageous use of "journalists" to shill for their agenda is simply wrong and must be stopped. Punishment should be some sort of jail time for someone. We don't live in Communist USSR now do we? You can't use the "press" like that.

And another thought, why aren't the riechwinger blogsters out there posting about this and just as infuriated as the rest of us?