Democracy, Cheap!

This is one of the most important stories out there - that the Bush Administration has been paying journalists to shill government policy under the deceptive face of 'objective' journalism. You'd think that since the RNC basically owns FOXNews would be enough, but nooooooo.

Already, the journalists Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, and Michael McManus have been found selling out their integrity. Now we have a newer, and more twisted, tale.

Frank Rich (who has redeemed his idiotic op-ed career by becoming a real journalist in his weekly columns) reports on the case of "Jeff Gannon" (The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show').

Basically, a dude calling himself Jeff Gannon has attended many White House press conferences and was responsible for giving McClellan (the press sec) and Bush lowball partisan questions - for example (quoting from Rich):

In the last clip [on MSNBC], "Jeff" is quizzing the president himself, in his first post-inaugural press conference of Jan. 26. Referring to Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, "Jeff" asks, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

Gannon, it turns out, does not exist. His real name is James D. Guckert. His news credentials came from a website "Talon News" which is actually a partisan Republican PR machine.

McClellan says that he had no idea that Gannon was under a false name and credentials. Rich quotes "Bruce Bartlett, a White House veteran of the Reagan-Bush I era, wrote on the nonpartisan journalism Web site Romenesko, that "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." (Otherwise, it would be a rather amazing post-9/11 security breach.)"

How low will Bush go? How low will we let him??

{2009 Update, pic from here.}