Manufactured journalism/External Links

The following are External Links related to the file manufactured journalism.

Alternate terms include fake news, fake reporters, fake journalism, faux journalism, phony journalism/ist, manufactured propaganda

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Photos

• Blogged by Brad, "CNN's 'North Korean' Nuke Plant Shows Up Again at U.S. GOV FUNDED 'News' Site!," BradBlog.com, February 15, 2005: "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty used Photo of same Nuke Plant -- presumably from Iran -- in a N. Korea Story in Early 2004! Filename for that photo is 'IRAQ-Nuclear.jpg'!"
• "Hard Proof of JD Guckert's Hard Pass," Max Blumenthal Blogspot, February 18, 2005: "But Milbank affirmed, in an interview posted today at the popular blog Daily Kos, 'A hard pass has your photo and news org and name on it. A daily pass is just a brown and white striped pass that says, Press, on it and comes on a dog-tag style chain.' Note that [the posting includes a photo] the one Gannon wears in the footage on TV is a blue lanyard - not the sort of thing a day pass comes on." Also see Greg Mitchell's "Milbank, Dowd, and Others Weigh In on Gannon/Guckert," Editor & Publisher, February 17, 2005.

Video & TV

• Edward Wasserman, "'Dean Scream' clip was media fraud," Miami Herald, February 23, 2005: "In fact the Dean Scream was a fraud, probably the clearest instance of media assassination in recent U.S. political history."

Articles & Commentary

• "Hall of Shame: Cheaters, Fake Reporters, Foul Mouths and Conduct: Expect to Be Posted Here," toheroes.com.
• Jonathan Miller, "Globe and New Republic editors admit oversight failures in long-running cases of fictitious reporting," Society of Professional Journalists, SPJ News, November 1998.
• "Death to public service journalism" (cache file), DaveCopeland.com, June 3, 2002: "Those geeks at the IRE conference in San Francisco were told this weekend that 'Quick and cheap celebrity gossip, gruesome snippets on accidents and crimes, and fluffy features about cute pets usually drive out costly, complex reporting on politics and economics, creating the media equivalent of a sugary, junk-food diet.' ... More interesting was Jimmy Breslin's talk at the conference: Breslin told reporters and editors that 'there's a lot of boring writing' out there (I think we can thank Gannett for its style of manufactured journalism as a big factor in the death of any kind of art in most newspapers)."
• Tim Graham, "No Honest Eyewitness. There’s little truth coming out of Baghdad," National Review, April 1, 2003: "The imbalance of media criticism right now is leveled at the embedded correspondents, caricatured by reporter-activists like Time veteran Eugene Linden as government stooges, men and women who have 'jumped into this leash like golden retrievers eager to be walked.' ... ABC’s Cokie Roberts was widely scorned a few years ago by appearing in a coat in front of a green screen and pretending to be on Capitol Hill when she was across town. That’s not a high moment for American journalism, but at this time, the American people would be better served by reporters standing in front of fake Baghdad backdrops with truthful reporting than they are by reporters with a true Baghdad backdrop and completely fake reporting."
• Joseph Sobran, "Airbrushing History? A Lasting Journalistic Scandal," Sobran.com October 23, 2003.
• Chris Tryhorn, "US government faked Bush news reports," Guardian UK, March 16, 2004: "TV news reports in America that showed President George Bush getting a standing ovation from potential voters have been exposed as fake, it has emerged. ... The US government admitted it paid actors to pose as journalists in video news releases sent to TV stations intending to convey support for new laws about health benefits."
• Joe Gandelman, "He's baaaaaaaaaaaaack and Coming To a Bookstore Near You...(Joe Gandelman)," Deane's World, June 4, 2004: "In the ultimate example of phoney, manufactured journalism, CNN, in a piece on John Kerry's choices for Vice President, lists Bill Clinton. This kind of 'analysis' deameans [sic] serioius [sic] journalism. There has not been one shred of evidence that Bill Clinton is on anyone's list for Vice President on a Kerry ticket, except someone trying to create news where there is none. Matt Drudge links to this truly idiotic piece on his website. After The Moderate Voice read it, he was puzzled. He thought Brothers Grimm died years ago."
• Missouri Mule, Whistlestopper Blog Posting, September 11, 2004: "... it is exactly what went on in the 1970's when Richard Nixon was doing the cover-up on Watergate. It is called stonewalling. What we have here is a 'third-rate' vast right wing conspiratorial assault on press freedom (according to Dan Rather). ... Don't believe it. I followed Watergate. I know what I am talking about. ... This thing is falling apart like week old used toilet tissue. ... The NG general who originally 'authenticated' the documents now says that CBS told him the memos were 'handwritten.' That was a palpable lie. He now believes this is a fraud. ... This is manufactured journalism. In the old days it was called 'yellow journalism.' It is awful. It is truly an assault on our freedom because it invalidates our ability to make an informed decision at the ballot box. All people regardless of party affiliation should utterly condemn this type of fraud. It is totally unconsionable." Re George W. Bush's military service/Documents.
• Ceci Connoly, "Drug Control Office Faulted For Issuing Fake News Tapes," Washington Post, January 7, 2005: "Shortly before last year's Super Bowl, local news stations across the country aired a story by Mike Morris describing plans for a new White House ad campaign on the dangers of drug abuse. ... What viewers did not know was that Morris is not a journalist and his 'report' was produced by the government, actions that constituted illegal 'covert propaganda,' according to an investigation by the Government Accountability Office."
• Perry Bacon, Jr., "Fake News," Time, January 17, 2005.
• "Fox News: Behind the Scenes of its Propaganda," News Hounds, February 15, 2005: "Subtitle: If you question whether Fox News is a propaganda machine for the right, read this."
• David Rossie, "White House Has Lots of Mouthpieces," Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, February 16, 2005: "Now we learn that the self-proclaimed guardians of the hen house have turned out to be if not foxes, at least weasels. And we've been paying some of them. Or more precisely, the Bushies -- the moral values crowd -- have been paying them. With our money."
• Katrina vanden Heuvel, "Faux journalism," The Nation, February 15, 2005.
• Rhonda Chriss Lokeman, "Fakers and frauds fool American taxpayers," Knight-Ridder, February 16, 2005: "A congressional inquiry came up with $88 million that the Bush administration spent last year on public relations contracts, mostly for furthering policies favored by the conservative president and his allies. ... That's taxpayers' money that was spent on influence-peddling."
• Gail Russell Chaddock, "Bush administration blurs media boundary. Controversy over a 'journalist' adds to the buzz about message control in capital," Christian Science Monitor, February 17, 2005: "First came video 'news releases' produced by the Bush administration using a TV news format. Then came three conservative columnists who got big paychecks from federal agencies. Now, there's Jeff Gannon (not his real name), a journalist (maybe) who gained surprisingly easy access to the president, only to lob a sympathetically slanted question. ... No evidence has surfaced that Mr. Gannon was directed by the White House, but the circumstances ignited a debate over the inner workings of the White House press room."
• Hendrik Hertzberg, Comment: "Newshounds," The New Yorker, February 28, 2005 (Issue); posted February 21, 2005.
• Christopher Lee, "Prepackaged News Gets GAO Rebuke. Walker: PR Must Be Clearly Labeled," Washington Post, February 21, 2005.
• Jim Boyd, "Editorial Pages: Why Courage is Hard to Find," Nieman Reports, Spring 2006.

Guckert / Gannon

• "Talon News and the Republican food chain," Poli's Blog, January 28, 2005. Numerous links, including links to: "For example, search for daschle residency and follow the bread crumbs. GOP USA, 10/15, Talon News, 10/15, JeffGannon.com, 10/15 are all the same, of course. On the same day, it makes the rounds: Daschle v. Thune, 10/15, South Dakota Politics, 10/15, National Republican Senatorial Committee, 10/15, Inside South Dakota GOP, MensNewsDaily.com, 10/15, Club for Growth, 10/15, etc. The Thune campaign naturally picked it up from its paid bloggers, and within a week, the story was in print."
• Susan G., "Plame Leaked by Fake News Source? Overview: Part IV," Daily Kos, January 30, 2005: "White House-credentialed fake news reporter 'Jeff Gannon' from fake news agency 'Talon News' was cited by the Washington Post as having the only access to an internal CIA memo that named Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA agent. Gannon, in a question posed to Wilson in an October 2003 interview, referred to the memo (to which no other news outlet had access, according to the Post). Gannon subsequently has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury looking into the Plame outing."
• Rush Limbaugh, Transcript, rushlimbaugh.com, February 4, 2005. Scan down to fourth paragraph where Rush talks about "Gannon."
• "White House reporter's credentials questioned. Man worked for Web site owned by Republican activist," CNN, February 9, 2005.
• Wolf Blitzer, Transcript: Interview with Jeff Gannon, CNN, February 10, 2005.
• Eric Boehlert, "Fake news, fake reporter," Salon, February 10, 2005: "Two weeks later, a swarming investigation inside the blogosphere into Gannon and Talon News had produced all sorts of damning revelations about how Talon is connected at the hip to a right-wing activist organization called GOPUSA, how its 'news' staff consists largely of volunteer Republican activists with no journalism experience, how Gannon often simply rewrote GOP press releases when filing his Talon dispatches. It also uncovered embarrassing information about Gannon's past as well as his fake identity. When Gannon himself this week confirmed to the Washington Post that his name was a pseudonym, it only added to the sense of a bizarre hoax waiting to be exposed."
• Dan Froomkin, "Scandal in the Press Corps," Washington Post, February 10, 2005.
• Tim Karr, "Gannon's White House Maneuver," MediaCitizen Blogspot, February 11, 2005: "A person close to the Standing Committee of Correspondents, the press body that oversees the distribution of credentials on Capitol Hill, forwarded me documents pertaining to Talon News and Jeff Gannon's application rejection [dated February 24,] 2004. According to the documents, James Guckert, 'who writes under the name Jeff Gannon, of Talon News,' applied for Capitol Hill credentials at the beginning of 2004."
• "Fake reporter's questioning of the president fits into the administration's widening pattern of manufactured journalism," Houston Chronicle, February 13, 2005.
• John Yewell, "A Potemkin reporter for Bush's Potemkin America," Salt Lake Tribune, February 14, 2005: "Grigori Potemkin was an 18th century Russian general who is said to have built sham villages to impress Catherine the Great with his administration's good work. In an America hypnotized by Faux - sorry, Fox - News, President Bush and his Svengali, Karl Rove, have proven how easy the trick is."
• Bob Fertik, "Did George W. Bush Have Sex with That Man?," Democrats.com Blog, February 15, 2005. Numerous news links.
• Terry Krepel, "Retracting the Talon. The ConWeb relies on the same news-gathering techniques as Jeff Gannon -- softball questions at White House press briefings and copying from press releases," ConWebWatch, February 15, 2005: "Les Kinsolving, a conservative Baltimore radio host who has a history of pitching loaded polemics-in-the-form-of-questions to White House press secretaries, is WorldNetDaily's designated softball hurler, as ConWebWatch documented last year."
• David Corn, "The Bizarre Gannon Affair," The Nation, February 15, 2005.
• jesselee, "Guckert Gets FOIA'd," The Stakeholder, February 15, 2005: "Congressman John Conyers, Jr., and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter sent ... [a] letter today to Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge,... under the Freedom of Information Act for release of Homeland Security records relating to James D. Guckert and his access to the President."
• "Gannon Emerges. Was This the Debut of "Jeff Gannon?", Intelligence Squad, February 16, 2005. *Michelangelo Signorile, "Calling Out James Guckert. You, in the back with the greased abs and sailor hat," New York Press, February 17, 2005.
• Joe Strupp, "Ari Fleischer Tells E&P He Spoke to Gannon/Guckert's Boss," Editor & Publisher, February 17, 2005.
• Sidney Blumenthal, "Midnight cowboy in the garden of Bush and evil. The phony journalist in the White House is the most bizarre example yet of the administration's efforts to thwart an independent press," Salon, February 17, 2005.
• Sidney Blumenthal, "A hireling, a fraud and a prostitute," Guardian UK, February 17, 2005.
• "Guckert's a Figurative and Literal Whore," Nero Fiddled Blogspot, February 17, 2005. Scroll down and read entries for February 16th and February 15th. Includes numerous links.
• Editorial: "Phony journalist/Pimping for the White House," Star Tribune, February 18, 2005: "Once it was fairly easy to distinguish real reporters from hacks and charlatans, objective news from partisan rant. That has become increasingly difficult, thanks in part to a Bush White House that finds the confusion useful, to its everlasting dishonor."
• John Aravosis, "Anderson Cooper is my God," AMERICABlog Blogspot, February 18, 2005.
• Eric Boehlert, "'Jeff Gannon's' Secret Life. A bogus reporter who worked as a gay escort has the White House squirming and Democrats demanding explanations," Memphis Flyer, February 18, 2005.
• Joe Strupp, "Scott McClellan Reveals That Gannon/Guckert Got GOPUSA Press Pass," Editor & Publisher, February 18, 2005.
• Donald P. Russo, "The strange story of White House reporter 'Jeff Gannon'," McCall.com, February 19, 2005: "Imagine, if you will, a liberal on-line news service sending a reporter with a phony name to apply for White House press credentials. I'm sure the Secret Service would unhesitatingly invite that person to leave the building. Meanwhile, Guckert was turned down for a congressional press pass because he could not show that he wrote for a valid news organization. Nonetheless, he was welcomed into the heart of the White House press room. ... 'Gannon' resigned from Talon News last week. Still, the White House owes us an explanation."
• Michael Getler, "From the Archives, but Still News," Washington Post, February 20, 2005: "Many more readers were exercised last week about the bizarre case of James Dale Guckert, aka 'Jeff Gannon,' the conservative 'reporter' who worked for such organizations as Talon News and GOPUSA, and who managed to get himself regularly cleared into White House news briefings, and who asked a question at a presidential news conference about Democrats who he said 'seem to have divorced themselves from reality.' ... Here's how one reader put it: 'I don't understand why The Post has turned the 'Jeff Gannon' story into yet another piece about bloggers. The story happened to be broken by bloggers, to their credit. But the story has two serious elements that The Post should report out on its own: 1) How is it that in an era when we have to take our shoes off to get on an airplane, a guy gains access to the White House with an alias on his ID badge? I don't believe that has yet been answered; 2) To what extent was granting 'Gannon' access another form of buying or manipulating the news? These are important questions.' I agree."
• John Byrne, "Editor of Virginia online publication describes pains at getting White House day pass," The Raw Story, February 20, 2005.
• Kirk Carraway, "How objective journalism can fail to reveal the truth," Nevada Appeal, February 20, 2005.
• Brenton Kenkel, "Press payoffs illustrate Bush's policy problems," The Kentucky Kernel.com, March 1, 2005: "Previous presidents have been unabashed about their disdain for the news media; they and their press offices would spin the facts and outright lie to try to deflect scrutiny. ... President Bush's approach has been a bit different, however, even though he's done his share of spinning and 'misleading' (i.e., lying). Rather than merely scorn the media, Bush has tried to subvert it, either by paying off journalists or simply by creating a parallel media universe composed of conservative lackeys."
• "Dept. of Education Releases Report on Payola Controversy", Editor & Publisher, September 06, 2005.
• Greg Toppo, "Report: Education Dept.'s PR funds need oversight", USA Today, September 9, 2005.

Related SourceWatch Resources

See manufactured journalism main page.