I've been ranting about James Guckert and the Orwellian implications of the White House's manipulation of the media over in Blue Notes; I think I've managed to link to every major piece of evidence on the gay prositute-turned-White-House-reporter, but the fact remains:
THIS SHOULD BE A MAJOR FUCKING STORY.
Reporters have lied before. Reporters have made up stories. Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair are just two recent examples of this journalistic dishonesty. But this is bigger. Guckert had access to the White House. More importantly, the White House seemed to be using him to further their political agenda. He may have even been involved in leaking the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, a felony. Guckert wasn't making up stories, per se; he was parroting GOP press releases and spouting White House propaganda as if they were real stories. Talon News isn't even a real news organization...it's more like a GOP press release generator. Yet, there "Jeff Gannon" sat, asking the President of the United States softball questions. "Oh," THEY say, "but we all knew he was conservative. That's fine for a reporter to ask politically pointed questions during White House press briefings." Really? I wonder, are writers for Daily Kos afforded the same privileges as Guckert?
And we know the White House has paid columnists to spout propaganda as if it were the truth. Armstrong Williams gets caught doing it. The White House then LIES about it, saying it's an "isolated incident." Then - shocker - we discover that columnist Maggie Gallagher was also bought by the White House. But, I'm sure it stops th - - oh, a THIRD columnist, Michael McManus, was also on the take.
And then comes the Guckert bombshell. In little over a month, we have discovered that the WHITE HOUSE has planted, played, and paid off the media. FOUR SEPERATE CASES of deliberate manipulation...and what? Where's the outcry? We've been lied to; bamboozled, as Malcolm X would say. And what do we do? Nothing. The lies continue and we sit back, knowing we've been lied to before, and we swallow the new lies. It's an abusive relationship at its worst - how long do we need to be beaten before we take a stand? Even J-Lo knew when ENOUGH was enough. If J-Lo can do it, so can we. It's time for all Americans to stand up - maybe take some kick-boxing lessons - and say, "Enough."
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