Fake Reporter Quits

A correspondent for an obscure Web site owned by a Republican activist resigned last week and admitted that he had entered the White House under a false name. Liberal bloggers began investigating the man, who wrote for TalonNews.com as Jeff Gannon, after he mocked Democrats while asking President Bush a question in a news conference. The bloggers discovered that Gannon was really Jim Guckert, that he had no journalism background, and that he had once registered several dubious Web addresses, including Hotmilitarystud.com and Militaryescorts.com. Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat, said the Bush administration had used Guckert as a “tool of propaganda,” a charge the White House called “a wild conspiracy.”

The Week, February 25, 2005, Vol. 5, Iss. 196, pp. 7