Not exactly "making the case"

IN THE NEWS
Today, the blogs and mainstream news outlets are abuzz with the story of fake journalist "Jeff Gannon" (not even his real name), who has regularly asked softball questions of Bush Administration officials, including Bush himself, during press conferences. How he got into the White House reporter pool is an important question, when you consider, among other questionable questions, this one that he asked during a press conference just before the United States and its coalition partners invaded Iraq:

Q: Thanks. Why hasn't the administration made more of the U.N. inspectors' report that says Saddam Hussein was dismantling his missile and WMD [weapons of mass destruction] sites before and during the war? And doesn't that, combined with the now-proven al Qaeda link between Iraq -- between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist organization -- unequivocally make the case for going to war in Iraq?

Here's a link to a larger record of Gannon's questions during White House briefings. If the "journalist payola" scandal goes even deeper, to planting Gannon as a confederate for White House policy in the press pool, the consequences are literally matters of life and death.

UPDATE: The "gay porn for soldiers" part of Gannon's background is not insignificant, if Gannon was involved in either a personal or sponsored effort to "out" gays in the US military.
AGAIN, AN UPDATE: Here's a link to a video clip (hosted on Overspun) of Keith Olbermann's coverage of Gannon on the MSNBC show Countdown. Warning: The phrase, "Go ahead, Jeff," will be seared into your brain.
ONE MORE TIME, AN UPDATE: What's also disturbing about Gannon/Guckert, from a national security perspective, is that he was on the subpoena list from the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame affair. Gannon/Guckert is alleged to have had a copy of an internal CIA memo naming Plame as a CIA operative. Americablog has links to this and other news items about Gannon.

Comments

[Steven D]

I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of this on our new cable channel "Pentagon TV", right?

[Kingdaddy]

[Sound of teeth grinding...]

[Jim G]

Let's hope that all the real facts of this story
"get outed". Who did "Gannon" work with and for? What role does the admin play, if any? (How does a fake journalist get into the White House Press Conferences...regularly... without someone vetting him/her?) Does this have any connection to the stories about pundits being paid off by the admin to tout admin policies? Let us hope all dots are connected. America needs to understand. Democracy cannot thrive with this sort of thing to pollute it.

[Oscar]

"Gannon/Guckert is alleged to have had a copy of an internal CIA memo naming Plame as a CIA operative"

The important word here is alleged. Also, other people had the report earlier, if I remember correctly, and Gannon's name did not show up until he was supoenaed