How does a person who writes acerbic anti-gay propaganda while posing naked for gay pornography Web sites, who evades $20,700 in personal income tax and who strides through the White House under a false name receive daily press passes while White House officials deny reputable journalists from obtaining one?
Bush and Co.'s unsavory plot to circumvent reality continues to unravel. James D. Guckert -- a.k.a. Jeff Gannon -- has attended White House press briefings for the past two years. Indeed, he was one of the few reporters to pitch President George W. Bush a softball question at a press conference last month: He asked how Bush could collaborate with Democrats given that they "have divorced themselves from reality?"
Jeff Gannon worked for TalonNews.com (he has decorously resigned), a spurious news organization that is "committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news coverage to our readers." However, the site is operated by a Texas-based Republican Party delegate and political activist who also runs the Web site GOPUSA.com, a site dedicated to disseminate "the conservative message to America." (Frequently the Web sites' material, comprised of numerous White House press releases, overlapped.)
Bruce Bartlett, who served under former presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, added, "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." If not, the Guckert-Gannon affair was an egregious breach of security, particularly post-9/11.
This scheming is only part of this administration's grandiose vision of coloring reality. Last month, the USA Today discovered that the White House paid the pundit Armstrong Williams $240,000 of taxpayer's money, which was furtively dispersed to him through the Department of Education and a private public relations firm, so he would promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act during an election year.
Williams has further divulged that he has "no doubt" there are other people being salaried to peddle this administration's policies; he openly disclosed that this scheming "happens all the time."
Moreover, since the Williams story broke, we are aware of other cases where federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Census Bureau and Office of National Drug Control policy, have aired (on CNN no less) fake news reports performed by "journalists" under Bush's tenure. Subsequently, two Government Accountability Office investigations have concluded that these "Orwellian stunts violated federal law that prohibits 'covert propaganda' purchased with taxpayers' money," as Frank Rich of the New York Times confirms.
This is not the onset or coda of this administration's duplicitous efforts, either. During election season, Bush held several "Ask President Bush" town hall meetings; however only registered Republicans who were willing to sign a loyalty oath could attend. Thus, unsuspecting TV viewers who thought they were observing an open forum were furtively fed Bush propaganda.
Since Bush took office, a Pentagon Office of Strategic Influence was shut down for airing specious propaganda to foreign media outlets. Now, the Dish Network is offering Americans the Pentagon Channel for free. The Social Security or Medicare Channels can't be far behind. And the list goes on.
The administration has spent $250 million on P.R. already (with much of it unaccounted for). It's amazing how much time, effort and taxpayer money this administration expends to sustain such a scripted and distorted reality.
Oh, incidentally, my asking price is $1,000 per column.
Write to Russ at rjwebster@bsu.edu
Visit http://rjwebster.iweb.bsu.edu/index.htm
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