New York, NY, Mar. 24, 2005 --- Citizen journalists at DailyKos.com, one of the nation’s most popular political web sites, have uncovered evidence that James Guckert — former White House reporter “Jeff Gannon” who resigned as Washington Bureau Chief of Talon News Service on Feb. 9 amid revelations he advertised gay escort services on the Internet — has another serious credibility problem.

Susan Gardner, who writes as “SusanG” at DailyKos.com, posted a report Thursday morning that shows Guckert has no known military record. The report, Plame & Propagannon: NO Military Service for Gannon/Guckert, is available publicly at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/24/111751/735.

“We first conducted a search of military personnel records at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis,” Gardner said. The facility, a central repository which purports to hold all military records, can find no service record under the name and Social Security number of James D. Guckert.

“Our contact there advised us to check directly with the Marine Corps in Quantico,” Gardner said. An inquiry there produced the same results, she said.

“On Guckert’s gay escort web sites, he claims he is a Marine veteran,” Gardner said. “Yet the U.S. Marine Corps has no record of his service, nor does the U.S. military’s central records division. We are beginning to doubt he was ever in the military.”

Gardner said that Guckert — as “Jeff Gannon,” the name he used to gain entry into White House press briefings for more than two years — claimed military service on political web sites such as conservativeguy.com.

“To falsely claim military service as a way to ingratiate oneself with conservative political organizations or gay escort service clients seems not only fatuous but highly insulting to American servicemen and women who are fighting and dying right now in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Gardner.

Gardner is co-founder of ePluribus Media, a volunteer organization with more than 700 citizen journalists who are currently researching the Jeff Gannon story.

ePluribus Media is an independent community of citizen journalists dedicated to exposing government propaganda, encouraging the highest standards of ethics and journalism, and supporting initiatives that enhance the vitality and effectiveness of the free press in our democracy.

For further information, contact:
Denise Ford
ePluribus Media
DEFord@epluribusmedia.org