Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Gonzo Bozos

Rich Galen

Wednesday February 23, 2005

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From Madison, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Manufacturer's Association

You've heard the story: A guy billing himself as "Jeff Gannon" wrote for a Republican-oriented website, attended the daily briefings in the White House briefing room even though he didn't have press credentials.

"Jeff Gannon" is not James D. Guckert's real name. James D. Guckert is.

Also, being a writer for Talon.com was not James D. Guckert's real job, or at least not his only job. According to a long Sunday piece by the New York Time's Frank Rich, Mr. Guckert's other job was as a "$200-per-hour escort" which Guckert promoted with a photo on the "hotmilitarystud.com" website.

Escort. Hah.

Military. Hah.

Stud. That, I have no way of knowing.

Here's what I do know: This is another of those Claude Raines moments in which the press corps expresses utter shock and horror over something they have actually known about all along.

Every member of the press corps on every bus, plane and in every filing center knows the provenance of every other reporter.

I guarantee you there was never a moment in one of those briefings when the regular White House press corps waited with curled fingers poised above the home position of their laptop keyboards for Gannon/Guckert to ask his question.

Mr. Rich reveled in outing poor Mr. Gannon/Guckert as an outgrowth of the Armstrong Williams case. The popular press is trolling in the shallows of the public relations business looking for more incidents of the Administration's having hired columnists or commentators.

This notion of Gannon/Guckert being a pseudo-journalist is of interest to real journalists like Mr. Rich who have had to deal with, and explain the likes of: CNN (Peter Arnett), CBS (Dan Rather), USA Today (Jack Kelley), Boston Globe (Mike Barnicle AND Patricia Smith), and Mr. Rich's own New York Times (Jayson Blair) - all of whom produced plagiarized, embellished, or just plain faked news stories.

Speaking of which, the Bi-Coastal Intellectual Crowd is mourning the death of Hunter Thompson. For those of you who missed it, Hunter Thompson was the 67-year-old drug-addled, anti-establishment writer whose time, if it ever was, has long since passed.

The morning after his death, NPR aired a comment by a woman who said that Thompson was at his best when he was producing "highly personalized or even fictionalized journalism."

Whoa! Check please! "Fictionalized journalism?"

I get it. It is ok to say good things about Hunter Thompson's work because everyone knew he was making it up. But then how is that different from the Jeff/Jim Gannon/Guckert situation?

Hunter Thompson was an opponent of what the Red States believe to be good and decent, so naturally he was beloved by the Old Limousine Liberals who have had so few misanthropes to rally around recently.

I raise this point because of a piece in yesterday's Chicago Tribune by Robin Abcarian about President Bush's iPod and Mrs. Bush's on-line shopping. She wrote that we thought we knew everything there was to know about Mr. Bush including "his rejection of the Eastern elitism that is his birthright."

If he had kept on drinking, and had continued down the path he was on in his early 30's, that "rejection of Eastern elitism" might well have led to his being the darling of the New Left today.

However, as he found religion, stopped drinking, and became a model husband, father, and world leader, the Left does not consider him to be a vital man.

Not like Hunter Thompson.

New and important topic:

One of the planet's best people, Fox News' Tony Snow, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of bowel cancer. The treatment is going to be just as aggressive in response. If you have a few extra seconds today, please join me in saying a prayer for the successful and complete recovery of this good and decent man.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the Frank Rich piece in Sunday's NY Times; a Mullfoto study-guide for Lent; and a pretty good Catchy Caption of the Day.

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