Thread: The show will go on: Gannon to remain on journalism panel

The show will go on: Gannon to remain on journalism panel
RAW STORY

“The Jeff Gannon show will go on as planned at the National Press Club on Friday,” Roll Call’s Mary Ann Akers is set to pen in Tuesday’s editions of Roll Call, RAW STORY has learned. “No joke,” Gannon, the faux White House reporter whose real name is James Guckert, is a key guest on a morning panel titled “Who is a Journalist?”



Advertisement
Akers says liberal bloggers are clamoring to have a place at the table.

RAW STORY has reported on myriad examples of alleged plagiarism by Gannon, one of the most stinging allegations that can be leveled against a journalist. The Press Club has held various panels on plagiarism, some focused on former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair. Blair was not invited to such panels.

Salem News (MA) Reporter Melissa Beecher, who says Gannon plagiarized her work, expressed disappointment last week that Gannon had been selected as a panelist.

“When I attend those conferences and I’ve been to many, you always think the person behind the desk that you’re learning from has qualifications that put them there,” Beecher said. “It’s just disturbing that a person who is accused of doing what he did is now teaching the next generation of young reporters. Or fostering a dialogue between professionals in this business.”

National Press Club officials, reports Akers, “insist they’re going to sharply question Gannon about how he wound up covering the Bush White House with no prior journalism experience.”

“I don’t think John Aravosis is the only person in the world who’s capable of criticizing Jeff Gannon,” Mike Madden, a reporter with Gannett News Service who will moderate Friday’s panel discussion told Akers.

The Press Club’s president said he planned to ask Gannon why he considered himself a journalist.

“He should answer that question. The alternative is to censor somebody. We believe in free speech and tough questions,” Dunham said.

“The Press Club is giving GannonGuckert the keys to the city while telling the blogger-journalists who exposed him to take a hike,” Aravosis wrote Akers in an email.

He added, “In order to speak at the Press Club, do you have to be a plagiarist AND a prostitute, or is one sufficient?”

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne...s_club_405.htm