2008 Woodie Awards
Questions Surround White House Reporter
Kevin Agnese
Issue date: 2/23/05 Section: News
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Bobby Eberle, a Texas GOP activist, runs both the Talon News Service and GOPUSA. Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York has asked the White House to explain why and how Guckert was able to obtain White House press credentials under an assumed name.
"It appears that 'Mr. Gannon's' presence in the White House press corps was merely as a tool of propaganda for your administration," Slaughter wrote in a letter to President Bush. The White House declined an immediate comment.
The House and Senate press galleries declined Guckert's request for credentials two years ago. Julie Davis, chairwoman of the Senate press gallery's executive committee, told CNN that Guckert could not demonstrate any separation between Talon News and GOPUSA, which is a Republican consulting group.
Slaughter, who represents the Buffalo-area, said she was writing at the request of senior editors of the Niagara Falls Reporter. The paper ran a recent editorial questioning "how a partisan political organization and an individual with no credentials as a reporter -- and apparently operating under an assumed name -- landed a coveted spot in the White House press corps."
Guckert became the focus of several media web sites after the president called on him during a press conference on Jan. 26. Guckert asked Bush how he could deal with Democratic congressional leaders "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." He told The Washington Post, in an article published Feb. 8, that his political leanings were "admittedly" conservative "and that point of view is not represented in the briefing room at all."
Slaughter said ideology had nothing to do with the dispute over Guckert's credentials.
"It doesn't matter whether he's a conservative reporter," Slaughter said. "The question is, is he a reporter?"
She told CNN that she believed the White House gave Guckert credentials so that a friendlier questioner would be in the room during White House briefings. During White House press secretary Scott McClellan's frequent briefings, Guckert was often called on, and he offered administration-friendly questions.