Wolf Blitzer and CNN Join Propaganda-Gate, Shills for the White House
By Anthony Wade
The White House propaganda machine has been unraveling for over a month now. It started with revelations that Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 to shill for the same No Child Left Behind Act that he had previously spoke out against. It continued into Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus being paid tens of thousands of dollars to pimp the Bush Marriage Initiatives, with Gallagher potentially lying to Congress in the process. The latest cockroach to come to light was a fellow named Jeff Gannon, or at least that is what we thought his name was.
As discussed yesterday (
http://opednews.com/wade_021105_propaganda.htm) and last week (
http://opednews.com/wade_021005_newmedia.htm), Gannon had been uncovered as a liar. He lied on his resume when he stated he graduated from what turned out to be a two-day seminar. He lied when he said his name was Jeff Gannon. He lied when he said he worked for a legitimate news agency. Now that he has been outed, by the new media, we see some of the mainstream media rushing to shill for the shill, to pimp for the whore. Besides Sean Hannity, who you expect faux-journalism from, we saw Howard Kurtz actually trying to paint Jeff Gannon as the victim of the bloggers who did the investigative work that he only wishes he understood how to do. At one point, Wolf Blitzer asked Kurtz if there was any relationship between Gannon and the White House and Kurtz categorically denied any relationship, based on the word of, the White House. I guess Howard Kurtz will not be winning any awards for investigative journalism any time soon.
Wolf apparently was not satisfied with the coverage Kurtz tried to provide for Gannon. He managed to obtain an exclusive interview with the now retired Jeff Gannon. Was this going to be a hard nosed piece of journalism, or nothing more than another shill for the propaganda machine? Shill, pure and simple.
Wolf started by allowing Jeff to explain why he used a fake name. The only probative question offered by Wolf in this exchange was, why? Jeff Gannon explained that he used this fake name because, my real name is too hard to pronounce. His real name? Jim Guckert. Ya, thats a mouthful, isnt it? He actually said that he used the fake name of Jeff Gannon, because Jim Guckert is too difficult to pronounce. I am not making this up. Now, one would hope that a reporter with the standing of Wolf Blitzer would probe with the obvious follow-up question of are you kidding me? Nope, he let it walk on by and moved on.
When asking J-I-M (that is tough to pronounce!) about why he resigned if he had done nothing wrong, again, Wolf let him answer without a substantive follow-up. J-I-Ms answer was that he was being stalked, including on his way to church. Now, an investigative reporter may have been able to put together that there had been no Sundays passed, since this story became in the public eye. G-U-C-K-E-R-Ts real name was not revealed until this past Monday.
Continuing through the softball fluff piece, Wolf allowed the following lie to pass from J-I-Ms lips, Talon News is a legitimate, conservative, online news service. If Wolf was really doing his job he would have pointed out that Jim Guckert was actually denied a hard press pass specifically because his employer was not a credible news agency. The fact that Blitzer chose to not call Guckert on this is more evidence that his exclusive was nothing more than an opportunity to continue to portray J-I-M as the victim. This is not journalism. It is the packaging of the truth, the re-creation of the truth, to serve an agenda, period.
The last piece of evidence I will submit is when J-I-M said that Scott McClellan never knew what was coming when he called on Gannon. Are you kidding me? Crooksandliars.com is nice enough to link this following compilation of the questions asked by J-I-M over the past few years.
http://movies.ziaspace.com/Gannon_Questions_Countdown With Keith Olbermann.wmv
How can any responsible reporter allow this statement to go unchallenged? How can any reporter allow such a ridiculous excuse as J-I-M G-U-C-K-E-R-T, being too difficult to pronounce? How can anyone pretend to be a reporter, like Blitzer, and not ask the real questions? Why didnt Wolf ask J-I-M why Talon News has scrubbed their website of anything Gannon-related? Why not ask about the connection to the Valerie Plame incident and how this fake reporter ended up with a secret memo involving that case? Why not ask how J-I-M managed to get called on by the President at a rare news conference? Why not ask him how Scott McClellan knew his real name, and why he still called him by his fake name? Why not ask him any probative questions at all?
The answer is simple. Wolf Blitzer did not have this exclusive in your interest. He did not conduct this exclusive interview with any pure journalistic integrity at heart. He simply provided an outlet for G-U-C-K-E-R-T, to continue to play the victim and play damage control. In doing so Wolf Blitzer and CNN have proven where they line up when it comes to real journalism and protecting your interests. They are part of the problem, not the solution. You need to be very careful when choosing where your news comes from and whose interests are being served. Is the news being packaged for you? Is the truth being manipulated for you? Propaganda-Gate is just starting to unravel and with each passing day we see where your typical mainstream media is lining up. CNN has chosen to not be on your side. They have lined up with a man who thinks J-I-M is a difficult name to pronounce. They have line up with the prevaricators and the spinmeisters that make up the propaganda machine of this White House. If those words are too difficult for Wolf to pronounce, just substitute the word, L-I-A-R.
Anthony Wade is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple websites. A
Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies and excess.
Email Anthony: takebacktheus@yahoo.com
