Libel Sources

Speaking of CNN-employed liars, Howie "the Putz" Kurtz will take honors for Lying Employee of the Year with this bit character assassination:

KURTZ: I'm going to let you expand on that when we turn to our next part of the discussion.

Another resignation driven by bloggers just this week. Jeff Gannon, an openly conservative reporter writing for two Web sites, TalonNews and the clearly partisan GOPUSA.com, drew fire after asking President Bush this inaccurate and somewhat loaded question. ....

KURTZ: Gannon quit after liberal bloggers revealed his real name and his registration of several sexually provocative online Web addresses that he never turned into Web sites. Gannon, who said he and his family were being harassed, defended his work on CNN's "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS."

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KURTZ: Bill Press, should the White House have given day passes to an online reporter for a site like GOPUSA so that he's in a position to ask the president of the United States questions like "Harry Reid is talking about soup lines." Well, Senator Reid never talked about soup lines. That was a characterization, Gannon later admitted to me, he picked up from Rush Limbaugh?

PRESS: First of all, let's make a big distinction, all right? I mean, Eason Jordan is a real journalist for 23 years. I think this guy is a phony. And let's call him by his real name, James Dale Guckert. And you know what he was? He was in there for two years, Howie, every day getting a daily pass under a pseudonym by the White House.

KURTZ: But there are lots of people that change their names. Woody Allen isn't his real name. What's the big deal about that?
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KURTZ: On the other hand, David Gergen, there are a lot of colorful characters in the White House briefing room. You've worked there. Lester Kinsolving comes to mind. And some people there are just out-and-out liberals. Liberal columnists and others. So why shouldn't Jeff Gannon or James Guckert be able to ask his question as well?
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KURTZ: But Jeff Jarvis, liberal bloggers like DailyKos and Atrios, among others, went after Gannon on some personal stuff. Some of them say he's anti-gay; he denies that. Did they go too far in using these kinds of online tactics against somebody whose politics they clearly didn't like?

JARVIS: Well, online or off-line tactics, yes, I believe so. The story here is did the White House stack the press deck and then pull out a friendly card, as Mr. Gergen puts it? That's the real story. The story of Gannon, he may be a little, well, hard to take, but to go beyond the main story here and go after his personal life does make you look like a bit of a lynch mob.

And as we in blogs who are opinionated -- Kos calls himself an advocate -- get press passes for things like conventions, we have to, you know, be concerned about saying that someone else shouldn't because they're not a legitimate journalist. Well, we're all legitimate journalists today, and that's a line that's very fuzzy now.

KURTZ: But how do you...
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PRESS: Yeah, if I may, just to make a point here. I think that Media Matters for America, which is a blog where I found out about this Jeff Gannon thing, they weren't going after his personal life. The point they were making is a point we were talking about earlier, how did this ringer get in the White House so often and called on so many times by Scott McClellan and President Bush, and I think that does get down to the credibility of the media. When you have somebody there who's not under his real, who's representing a site that links you to GOPUSA, it's really questionable...

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: That's a very legitimate question, Bill. But it was the personal stuff I think that drove Gannon or Guckert to resign.

First off, why do the media whores like Howie always get someone like Jarvis or Sully or Instacracker or some other right-wing twat to appear on these stories? That's not a rhetorical question. The answer is because Howie doesn't want anyone who's going to challenge his lies.

The Putz's lowest blow is accusing Atrios and Kos of going after Guckert on "personal stuff." What personal stuff is that? The guy's real name? The fact that he registered gay escort/porn domain names. Those are public records and business information, having nothing to do with Guckert's "personal" life. Of course, the Putz doesn't identify the "personal stuff," because he can't.

The Putz doesn't mention anything about Guckert's press-release plagiarism (perhaps Guckert's not dusky enough for Howie to care) or that he was a recipient of White House smears against Joseph Wilson.

Finally, why is Putzie so sure that it was "personal stuff" that drove Guckert to "resign." First of all, the personal stuff was out there before he resigned, so how could it cause him to resign? More significantly, the Putz seems to take Guckert's tales at face value, which is ridiculous, given that Guckert's entire career is premised on a bald-faced lie.

Howard Kurtz's accusation that Atrios and Kos attacked Guckert for "personal stuff" is a lie. CNN and the Washington Post should can the Putz immediately.

p.s. -- Don't forget to send Howie a Valentine tomorrow.