I recently received this as an e-mail. Is this correct and these bastards at Starbucks actually said this to our troops?

(The rumor has been deleted - it's false. A good resource to check on these things is www.snopes.com. In addition, please keep comments on topic and be careful about spreading false rumors intended to damage a company. Thanks. --ED)

bill, you are beginning to convince me that this may not be such a big deal after all. but i am flattered you elevated some of my last comment into your previous commentary on this brouhaha. your response made a lot of sense; there is no proof of the more serious allegations right now. as for the gay prostitution stuff, just based on the domain name registrations, that is pretty over the top.

why do you think gannon had to resign, though? why did this 'bring him down' so to speak? the resignation came out of nowhere. and i still don't understand why in the world he used a pseudonym. it's not like he's just a blog poster, he's in the white house, he has a radio talk show, etc. if o'reilly and rush survived their indiscretions, why can't the revered jeff gannon?

When I went back-to-school shopping with my daughter last Sept. I recoiled in mock-horror at the featured fashion accessory -- the poncho -- which wasn't any more flattering in the 00's than it was in the 70's. I can laugh at such trival stuff, but along with other re-cycling of 70's fashion comes the execrable tactic of the Left of that era -- "the personal is the political" Kos hates anyone and anything outside his dogma, so there is nothing he won't say or do to destroy someone, there is no tragedy so horrible that he'll belittle if it befalls his "enemies" (ie the infamous "screw 'em" screed).

It doesn't even matter if Jeff Gannon had never been engaged in anything that dKos/Atrios ilk accuse him of...it is enough for these 70's retreads to smear him with charges and say "Prove the negative!" They are proud of their stance because nothing is as important as "getting" the "enemy." Why try to debate the issues when you can just threaten your opponent with personal destruction, extending to even making the friends and family of your opponent fair game? (ie from Ted Rall's attacks on 9/11 families and Pat Tillman to Ward Churchill's 'little Eichmans' screed). Why not, too, revel in the personal tragedy of others, like Hesiod's "Steven DenBeste Suicide Watch" (Smash covers the issue here).

The Left is the poster child of indecency.

Were it only poncho's and polyester that was recycled.

millowent -

Your comment was a good one. It's easy to react to slap down the leftie bloggers because I dislike them, but I also remember Kos, et al sneered when Rathergate started, so I thought it best not to mirror their approach, and instead examine the more serious allegations with an open mind.

1. If he plagiarized White House material this is bad journalism and newsworthy.

2. Did he use political contacts to score a press pass? I'd bet; not a big deal. Is this the same as the White House installing him? Certainly not.

3. Attacking the guy for the gay angle is seedy and sets a bad blogger precedent.

Why did he resign? He probably either has something to hide or has serioulsy embarrassed his employers with the domain names. Or he's distraught about having speculation about his private life paraded all over the internet.

Many people would become uncomfortable with a legion of bloggers digging into their past.

As far as the pseudonym, ask yourself why bloggers and celebrities use names other than their own. Is "gannon" a better radio and print name than "Guckert?" Was he concerned with such airs? Possible. And his press pass was issued in his real name, Gannon was just his nom de plume. As to why ... well look what they've dug up thus far.

I'm not sure yet, but this could be a whole lot of nothing, or it could be something, but the way his attackers have gone about it is distasteful. And they don't have proof for most of their weightier accusations.

milowent

Maybe Gannon believes its just not worth trying to fight such immoral beings who have indicated they will stop at nothing to "get him". Should his family, too, pay a price?

What just kills me is that if the *government* had done this "investigation," they'd be screaming with indignation. When does it become moral for the mob to do what the government cannot? And if you accept that it is at all, then the flip question should be answered: when is it moral for the government to do what the mob cannot?

And thus you end up on the slippery slope of moral relativism. The Left _loves_ moral relativism.....doesn't it?

I'm still not clear at all on just what exactly this guy did to deserve all the hate being thrown his way. So he worked for a small conservative news service and occasionally asked questions that cast Democrats in a bad light. And? What else ya got? The Left is trying to link this to Armstrong Williams and Dan Rather somehow, and alleging that this guy was a White House plant. To accomplish what exactly? How was "Jeff Gannon" or whatever his name was, going to help the Bush Administration? What is the story here? This looks like a conviction in search of a crime.

CNN ran a story this morning about Jeff Gannon mentioning, among other things, lefty blogs while the screen showed KOS in large letters. But still nothing on Eason's Fables.

Talk about setting precedents on what is kosher in doing investigative work. I am quite sure that neither Kos or any of his lefty buddies are thinking this pendulum that seems to be swinging to their advantage can and will change directions. There is nothing now to see the same kind of digging happen to any of them. And I'll be betting they all have skeletons plenty in their closets. A little stash of money and a good PI would have them all screeching.

I hope when he takes Atrios & the other idiots to the bank, he donates a portion of his winnings to odious right-wing causes

I haven't paid too much attention to this Jeff Gannon story - probably cause I don't waste too much time on liberal blogs - but it did occur to me that what the Barking Moonbat Brigade is attempting to do is land their OWN Rathergate controversy.

Of course, it's falling flat. Typical....

Atrios, Kos, and their comrades feel that "whatever works" justifies doing something a lot of people find reprehensible, in order to destroy someone opposed to their political agenda, as Kos clearly said in his statement to Kurtz. They'd claim it isn't personal; just the reality of modern politics: crush your enemies.

Using that kind of twisted reasoning, some bona fide right-wing nutjob can easily convince himself that shooting them dead for doing this character assasination against Gannon is just as valid a tactic, and at face value, his reasoning would stand right with theirs.

at face value, his reasoning would stand right with theirs.

I don't think that your assessment that equates personal attacks with murder is accurate.

Bill, I understand the leather penguin's comments differently than you. It is my impression that his argument is that it is Kos' lack of values that creates not an equality but a lack of boundaries.

Well, sure. But I think there's a natural divide between the boundaries inherent in discourse and journalism and actually killing someone.

I just think it's a bit over the top, but his implication is valid. They don't really care.

Bill,

There is a lenghty interview with Gannon over at Editor and Publisher :

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000799182

I don't think this guy has done anything wrong, other than perhaps being a bit of an opportunist. But then again, people that just sit around and wait for things to happen won't get anywhere either.

Ironically, he was probably the most honest reporter at these briefings, since he never hid his political views. Sure he used an alias, but he didn't do it to be devious.

Having perused the 'Lefty blogs' on this issue I don't see the fixation with the more salacious aspects that I see here and on other 'Righty blogs', quite the opposite in fact.

To me it seems Gannon was used as a cut-out along with his immediate employer Talon in an elaborate WH disinformation/propaganda exercise. This is what the whole thing is about not some personal witchunt.

The only people using Gannon for propaganda is the left. Even if he was given a press pass for his conservative pro-Bush views, it still won't bother me since many MORE journalists who are openly anti-Bush were also given press passes. There has to be some balance.

If the Bushies ONLY gave press passes to conservatives, it would be a different story.

notindc, that's a brilliant insight. All it needs for absolute perfection are things like ... any evidence at all and any logic. Until then, you are just making up stuff.

Billy, I love you-in; an entirely hetoro kinda a way.

Now go stand in front of that wall over there, because I believe Dan Rather is God, and you besmirched him via your postings.

Assassination is assassintion, whether through bandwidth or buckshot. I really see no difference when you take in the shooter's expectation. He simply wants his target gone.

wait a minute, correct me if I am wrong but this Gannon affair is being "investigated" by the same liberal bloggers who admit to being paid hacks for the DNC? the same bloggers who didn't fess up this fact until they had no choice but to fess up? we could go on about the hypocrisies inherent here

well those "boys" better watch out, I'll bet their credit reports and asundry skeletons are real interesting too....

however the right side need only use one's own words to "damn" someone, not nose around in garbage cans...