Jeff Gannon, the name used by a White House reporter for Talon News and GOPUSA -- two Web sites owned by a Republican activist -- was a product of the new online culture. He described his conservative coverage as a counterweight to the liberal leanings of most White House correspondents. But when he asked President Bush an inaccurate question last month -- with a shot at Senate Democratic leaders "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality" -- liberal bloggers used an arsenal of online tools to unmask him.
They disclosed his real name, James Guckert, raising questions about how he gained access to the White House and whether he was a fake reporter with a partisan mission. They discovered that he had registered such Web addresses as hotmilitarystud.com for a previous business, though the sites were never launched, and circulated an online photo of Gannon posing in his underwear. Gannon resigned Wednesday, saying he was concerned about threats and hate mail as well as harassing calls to his mother and brother.
CNN's Eason Jordan resigned Friday after relentless online criticism.
(Cnn)
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A day earlier, in a case in which use of the Internet was itself the scandal, Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich fired his longtime aide Joseph Steffen for posting false rumors on the conservative site FreeRepublic.com and in e-mails. Steffen was accusing Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, who may challenge Ehrlich next year, of conducting an extramarital affair, which he and his wife denied at an emotional news conference. The mainstream media had provided a check on the excesses of the Internet, rather than the other way around.
Is the rise of crusading bloggers a healthy development, as many media analysts maintain, or the creation of a new Wild West with no rules or responsibilities? Hours after Jordan stepped down, Steve Lovelady of Columbia Journalism Review e-mailed his verdict to New York University professor and blogger Jay Rosen: "The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail."
Abovitz, the Davos participant whose blog (is there anyone left in America who doesn't have one?) is called Fix the World, says in an interview that Jordan meant what he said about soldiers targeting journalists and that his later backpedaling was "running, hiding and evading."
"He was going on a rant and he thought he was among friends," Abovitz says. "I thought, if this is true this is the most horrible thing I've heard about the United States military in a long time."
Abovitz says he had "no idea" his post would cost "a big news guy" like Jordan his job. "What I do regret is that the level of accountability should not just be on one person. Is he the only one who's made a mistake and should be held accountable? Is it just the right wing going after Eason Jordan? It quickly became an agenda, right versus left."
Hugh Hewitt, a conservative radio host based in California, says CNN, like CBS, should launch an internal review -- and makes clear his distaste for the Time Warner network.
"The network didn't have much 'news credibility' to lose, but rebuilding can't really begin until an accounting is had," Hewitt wrote on his blog. "And it isn't just CNN. The MSM [mainstream media] missed this story, and whether it is out of sympathy for one of their own, agreement with all or part of the implied charge, or simple laziness, the assessment of their incompetence should be thorough as well."
Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program.
