The Best Journalism Money Can't Buy

Unfortunately, I'm not here to write about the best journalism. I'm here to write about a shameless shill. In case you've not heard about the too-weird-to-make-it-up case of Jeff Gannon, it's time you did.

Jeff Gannon works for an outfit called the Talon news agency. Talon claims that "Talon News is a news company which covers political, national, and world news. Talon News focuses on those stories often overlooked by other media outlets."

Sounds pretty interesting, eh? We can always use more intrepid journalists finding the stories the others let get away. But lest you think that maybe they actually are an in-depth unbiased news source, here's a few of their story titles:
"Kerry's Alleged Intern Identified"
"Kerry Could Become First Gay President"
"Swift Boat Vets focus on "Kerry's bitter legacy that haunts many Vietnam veterans"
"Put Abu Ghraib "in proper perspective"

Now that's some journalism, doncha think? And surely you don't think the story ends there, do you? Jeff Gannon--not his real name--is on the White House Press Corps. How does one get on the White House Press Corps? I have no idea (and without more time than I have, or a research staff, I'm probably not going to know by the end of this article). But logic tells me this: you don't get on the White House Press Corps without having an outstanding and traceable journalistic background.

Whoops #1: Jeff Gannon doesn't have one. Mmm...how does a guy representing a rather bizarre right-wing "news" agency get on a White House Press Corps? It wouldn't have anything to do with having...connections, would it? An inside lead perhaps? I suspect it would. Investigative journalists: this is your cue...
Whoops #2: Jeff Gannon managed three gay porn sites for men. Big Oops! Why would I think they're gay sites? The titles kinda give it away: HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
Whoops #3: There's even a "come hither" picture of Gannon himself. In what strange world does it make sense to a gay man to be a shill for the only president who's ever tried to get a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage? This is a highly conflicted individual...

For a good general overview, former conservative David Brock's media matters is pretty outstanding. But then, it's pretty outstanding all the time. I recommend it always.

So the last question I have is this: why is this not a huge, major breaking scandal that the 24-hour news networks are milking for all its worth? Surely there's a Bush administration connection...otherwise, how would a hack get on the White House Press Corps? And if this hack's job is to write great stuff about Bush while getting access under the guise of being a press corps pro, that's a big smelly scandal. Throw in the gay web sites, and suddenly, Monica Lewinsky seems such small change. Yet I've heard hardly a peep from the liberal press.

Liberal press...hell-llo...where are you?