The Spectacular Rise of the Miraculous Mr. Gannon
Talon News registers its domain name March 29, 2003. The site goes live April 1, 2003, and on April 3, 2003, the pseudonomic "Jeff Gannon," with no journalism experience and with a $50, two-day seminar at a right-wing propaganda institute under his belt, is seated four rows away from where the most powerful - and most guarded - person on the planet makes his pronouncements.
Heady times indeed. Not to mention the fastest background check in the history of labyrinthine bureaucracy. Perhaps the speed of that background accounts for the fact that our hero doesn't have to use his real name and seems to have sprung up as a glorious, immaculately conceived creation of the right wing less than a year before.
Of course, it was Ari Fleischer answering questions that fateful first day and not President Bush, which surely must have been disappointing to such a rising star. We all must live with such disappointments, even the most gifted - and dare I say ... planted? - among us.
But hey! Who needs boring old Columbia Journalism School and years of experience when all it takes to sit a few feet away from the President of the United States during wartime and toss him worshipful leading questions is a fake news site, a fake name and a willingness to lift your peers' work whole and cut and paste White House "fact" sheets? You don't even need a pen!
Sad to say, Mr. Gannon's reputation did not precede him at the more august legislative body, the United States Senate, where the National Journal reported in November 2004 that "the non-partisan U.S. Senate Daily Press Gallery has rejected Gannon's repeated requests for congressional press credentials because of TalonNews' financial ties to GOPUSA."
But still ... the White House! What a gig! Dozens of enterprising Kossacks are researching how we too can land such a cushy position with absolutely no qualifications. Alas, we are discovering that one must have numerous connections to shady conservative institutions and people in order to qualify. Newcomers to the project are welcome to join in.
Overview
I'm sorry, I'm getting lazy. I am exercising the right to simply link. For newcomers to the project, welcome. If you want to get up to speed quickly, read Diary I to see how it all started (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/28/203014/655) and the overview in Diary IV (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/31/93126/4150) and then join us in any of the tasks listed under Current Assignments or Priorities below. It doesn't take intimate knowledge of all the research we've done thus far in order to help out with one of the projects. Data entry volunteers are needed ASAP.
Current List of Assignments (and Help Requests):
1. Tomatoobserver is researching Time of Grace Ministries
2. Mnemosyne is checking and running phone numbers
3. conntexdem is researching Bruce Eberle
4. baltimoretim is researching precisely what the process is for obtaining a White House press credential
5. fauxreal and ladydawg are researching morning gaggles here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/29/215946/913
6. sean mykael is looking into Free Speech Foundation. Myrkury has graciously stepped in to advise on legalities of non-profit status (thank God). We may need people in a couple different states to physically pull paperwork soon. (Diary here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/30/14024/9923)
7. mlk and Marisa are constructing a sort of visual database "family tree" of relations, groups and individuals. This is a big project and someone might want to volunteer on that diary: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/30/152558/079. Additionally, Marisa is asking for data entry help.
8. spiderleaf is creating a timeline about the CIA memo leak/Novak/who knew what when, references to it in press, and analysis (Diary here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/31/122222/689)
9. NYBri is preparing to start the FOIA request process and could use some volunteers (diary here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/31/153513/309)
10. Louise volunteers to match timeline of Gannon at press briefings with his written "scoops" (Diary here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/1/164949/7409#5
11. Radically Bitter is compiling very, very useful DNS data.
12. KansasNate is making sure important stuff is getting fed into dkospedia
13. Nonemptysubsets (gotta love that handle) is downloading web sites since they're disappearing so fast. Requests taken.
14. Sidinny will set up a diary called "Altered Realities" that will keep track of what's been changed on the visited sites, what's been scrubbed and what it all means. However, he's on kidwatch and can't do much more than set the diary up, so needs help with volunteers who will do the analysis. (Diary here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/1/151721/4334#2)
15. London Yank is looking into any connection with NORTHCOM/Psyops
16. Mnemosyne, in a brilliantly written diary, tells of his travails at trying to get info on getting White Press credentials. If anyone has any information for the poor dude, help him out here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/1/201353/9256
17. Wayward Wind is entering White House Press Corps contacts in the Dkospedia for future use (heh heh heh).
Completed Research
1. baltimoretim finished research on Leadership Institute, concluding there's no real connection with what we're looking into. It's an interesting diary nonetheless, since the famous Rathergate TANG memo debunker dropped in for chat and was nicely behaved and informative about LI even though he comes from the other side of the political aisle (Give Mike a shout out! Hi, Mike!): (diary here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/30/193243/265)
MOST IMPORTANT PRIORITY
Sorry to scream in caps, but Marisa desperately needs some data entry people to get to work ASAP on the visual database she's created. I know we all want to be Woodwards and Bernsteins and lurk in sleazy garages at 3 AM with mysterious powerful insiders, but someone's got to do the grudge work. It's not glamorous, it's not exciting, but it really needs to get done. The creation of this database is crucial. We have such a mass of information, I don't think we can move forward even one more day without getting it organized; we're already repeating a lot of known information and duplicating research. She's volunteered her expertise and time in designing the database and is ready to go. She needs magic keyboard hands! She needs eyes! And if you all don't give it to her, I'm going to go enter the data myself if need be and leave you all stranded with 2,000-comment diaries because I won't have time to update or answer any questions.
Other Priorities
1. Sidinny's "Altered Realities" diary (see above for link) is up and he needs some help from people willing to compare what's gone missing from websites and domain information and what's been altered since January 28 (the date of the first diary). Nonemptysubsets has downloads of sites to compare for interested volunteers and also is taking any requests from researchers who fear great new finds will vanish overnight. Contact him if you find something great and need it saved before the next round of scrubbing.
2. NYBri could use some help with the FOIA requests (see diary link above). It's a big job.
Kudos on Branding
Now before we go any further, will the Kossack who came up with the term, "PropaGannon," please step up and take a bow? You are brilliant, Sir or Madam, and I hope you don't mind the entire project co-opting your stroke of genius.
Also, check out London Yank's great diary on Bryan Suits (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/1/83454/08397) and think about if it has any tie-ins to what we're doing here.
Previous Plame Diaries:
Diary I: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/28/203014/655
Diary II: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/29/152730/137
Diary III: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/29/233122/523
Diary IV: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/31/93126/4150
Diary V: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/30/195059/065
Diary VI:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/31/93126/4150
Diary VII: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/31/214854/199
Diary VIII: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/1/10038/65769
Diary I has the initial Media Matters, Atrios and Talon News information that started this off. Diary IV has the best summarized update if you want to get up to speed on what's going on and join the party.