There's more in the blogosphere today about fake reporter Jeff Gannon.

• Crooks and Liars has the video from last night's Daily Show and a string of questions that Gannon asked McClellan.

• Raw Story has the answers to why the Dems won't touch the sex stuff.

• Congresswoman Louise Slaughter asks why was Gannon in the White House before Talon News ever existed?

• Jeanne at Body and Soul is mostly on the side of those who don't get the attention being paid to the story, in light of all the other Administration abuses to concentrate on. But at the end, she seems to be willing to go along, whatever takes Bush down.

Frank Rich writes up the Jeff Gannon story in his New York Times column. He lays it outin such a way that the MSM should now be ready to pick up the story. The primary issues are: how did this fake journalist get White House credentials to cover press briefings for two years (or more)? Did someone in the White House give him access to information about the Valerie Plame investigation?

Rich mentions the sex stuff, but it is relegated to this paragraph:

"Jeff" has now quit Talon News not because he and it have been exposed as fakes but because of other embarrassing blogosphere revelations linking him to sites like hotmilitarystud.com and to an apparently promising career as an X-rated $200-per-hour "escort." If Mr. Guckert, the author of Talon News exclusives like "Kerry Could Become First Gay President," is yet another link in the boundless network of homophobic Republican closet cases, that's not without interest. But it shouldn't distract from the real question - that is, the real news - of how this fake newsman might be connected to a White House propaganda machine that grows curiouser by the day.

Rich points out six other instances where the Bush Administration has used fake news to get its message out.

by TChris

By the overwhelming margin of 389-38, the House of Representatives sent a strong message about the importance of keeping nipples covered during the Superbowl -- at least Janet Jackson's nipple. The House passed a bill that increases the maximum fine that can be imposed upon a broadcaster for "indecency" from $32,500 to $500,000. The bill apparently does not apply to right wing lunatics who shriek at their talk show guests, a sight far more indecent than a briefly exposed breast.

Unsurprisingly, the White House says that higher maximum fines "will make broadcast television and radio more suitable for family viewing." Creative artists worry that they will become the target of fines, which (until now) have always been levied against broadcasters rather than individuals. The House bill increases the maximum that can be assessed against an individual from $11,000 to $500,000. A similar bill in the Senate would set the maximum fine against broadcasters at $350,000 but makes no change in the maximum that performers can be ordered to pay.

Rathergate is back in the news. The New York Observer reports that Josh Howard, Betsy West and Mary Murphy, the producers asked to resign after the release of the independent report on Dan Rather's infamous '60 Minutes Wednesday' segment on President Bush's National Guard service, are not leaving. Instead, they have hired lawyers and are contemplating legal action against CBS for breach of contract and possibly, defamation.

After the 224 page report (pdf) was released on January 10, CBS President Leslie Moonves publicly criticized executive producer Josh Howard in this statement(pdf). Short version, according to the Observer:

Mr. Howard, Mr. Moonves said, "did little to assert his role as the producer ultimately responsible for the broadcast and everything in it. This mistake dealt a tremendous blow to the credibility of 60 Minutes Wednesday and to CBS News in general." The producer, he wrote, had been asked to resign, and the network was "taking a variety of actions to put this crisis behind us."

Howard reportedly has demanded a retraction.

Sources close to Mr. Howard said he believes that the report—which was assembled by an outside team of former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and former Associated Press head Louis Boccardi Jr.—contradicts Mr. Moonves’ statement about Mr. Howard’s share of the blame.

Mr. Howard also believes, those sources said, that the report itself excludes evidence that would implicate top management at CBS and restore Mr. Howard’s reputation in the television news business.

Two prominent New York lawyers say CBS has potential exposure if Howard sues for defamation:

Former Texas Congressman and DNC Chair contender Martin Frost has signed a deal to comment for Fox News. [link via Suburban Guerilla]

Ok, this is funny.

... This wouldn't be the first time Rock has gotten into a Drudge match. In March 2003, the comedian blasted the Internet maven for an online report alleging studio bosses at DreamWorks pressured Rock to refrain from making any un-funny remarks against President Bush and the War in Iraq before his comedy Head of State hit theaters.

At the time, Rock said: "I don't know Matt Drudge, I never met Matt Drudge, but if I see Matt Drudge, I'm going to take my red-blooded American foot and put it up his un-American a*s for trying to disrupt the opening of my movie."

Actually, I met Drudge once, during the Clinton impeachmentand Paula Jones days-- he accompanied the she-pundit with long blond hair to a live Leeza show she and I were guests on in L.A. about sex scandals in Congress and the White House. I liked him, he was by far the friendlier of the two.

Denver is getting a new bi-weekly called Bias. Targeted to a young audience, Westword reports that the promotional materials indicate that sex and homicide are the themes.

Among the first items in a sample issue of Bias magazine that's been shown to potential clients in recent months is "Drink to the Lost," a feature urging readers to "Find your luck in living with this fun murder map!" An accompanying street guide of downtown Denver spotlights locales where prominent slayings took place, along with toasts to the victims. Guzzlers are encouraged to laud assassinated talk-show host Alan Berg with this remark: "If we're all to be mowed down for the shit we talk, then the devil's got a full clip for each of us."

Here's a promise from the promo material:

[Bias] "will help you carve up your market like Jeff Dahmer at a Rohypnol party."

It's a bit of a surprise who's funding the publication:

Bump and Update: Show Chris some heart and tell the Academy how you feel.

Here's a chance to see how much power conservatives have over MSM. It's just begun in the last couple of days so follow along and see how it plays out.

It begins with Drudge bashing Chris Rock as a choice to host the Oscars due to some quotes from his routines that are sure to enrage conservatives, particularly the radical right and evangelicals.

Drudge expands his reach by taking it to Hannity and Colmes Monday night, where he is granted not one, but two segments-- alone --with no guest taking the other side. Crooks and Liars has the video....

Despite Drudge's ambiguous denials of an agenda to get Rock de-invited to host the Oscars, I'm not buying it. He repeated the same lines by Rock over and over, hoping to cause a firestorm and create a groundswell of support for Rock's ouster.

Variety reports that the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences is firm in having Rock host the Oscars. It also says it hasn't heard any opposition from members. Not only that, the Academy released a firm statement of support today for Rock.

Off topic: I've had the Grammys on in the background for an hour and ten minutes (I missed the first 20 minutes), and it has been the most boring show ever--I almost turned it off after Jennifer Lopez and her husband did a sticky sweet duet--until just now. They woke up with a vengeance with, of all things, a tribute to Southern rock--an Allman Brothers medley that segued into Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama. Even the crowed was on their feet cheering.If there's a re-run, don't miss it. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Gretchen Wilson on Sweet Home Alabama were especially great. Here's who they were: Gretchen Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dickey Betts, Elvin Bishop, and Keith Urban. Tim McGraw too. The only one I recognized from the old days was Dickie Betts.

Update: Green Day (American Idiot) rocks. Second best moment. And not just because they are an anti-Bush band. It's like watching the Energizer Bunny. With pyrotehnics.

John Aravosis of America Blog was on CNN's Aaron Brown's Newsight--he did a fabulous job--Crooks and Liars has the video.

by TChris

Here's more on the demise of JeffGannon.com (reported here by TalkLeft).

Jeff Gannon, the reporter whose GOP connections, lack of conventional journalistic credentials, and softball questioning of President Bush raised questions about the White House's decision to grant him access to news conferences, abruptly quit yesterday after bloggers connected him to websites apparently devoted to gay sex.

Gannon wrote for TalonNews.com, "a website operated by a Texas Republican Party operative that has run articles skeptical of what it calls 'the homosexual agenda.'" Many of Gannon's reports "have been criticized for consisting largely of passages from official press releases reprinted verbatim."

Gannon came under scrutiny after Bush called on him during a rare and nationally televised news conference two weeks ago. Gannon's question attacked Democrats as having "divorced themselves from reality" and repeated an allegation against Senate minority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, that turned out to be a joke by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Regardless of the ethics underlying the "outing" of Gannon's alleged non-political writings, it's worth asking how Gannon, whose real name is James Dale Guckert, became such a favored reporter at the White House.

JeffGannon.com is no more.

The voice goes silent.

Because of the attention being paid to me I find it is no longer possible to effectively be a reporter for Talon News. In consideration of the welfare of me and my family I have decided to return to private life. Thank you to all those who supported me.

World o'Crap has the background. I don't like this outcome. It's one thing to criticize a person's politics, even to question their journalistic credentials and ethics. It's another to force them underground.