I'd Resign, but I'm Not a Member

The National Press Club shames itself by giving "Jeff Gannon" a pulpit. Sheesh.

(Via Romenesko)

Comments

[blaze]

Yeah, geez! This guy who has been attacked on national television and 100s of different websites shouldn't be given a clear opportunity to tell his side of the story.

[Dan Gillmor]

He's told it again and again, including on national TV and his website.

[Gerard Van der Leun]

Well in that case, let's shut him up and END THE HYPOCRISY!

[Alice Marshall]

Thank you Dan for saying journalism is different from prostitution.

[Alice Marshall]

A group of bloggers are asking the National Press Club to include John Aravosis on the panel-
http://www.agonist.org/story/2005/3/30/64417/7569

[Mark Tapscott]

This blogger who is also a career newspaper guy and a long-time member of the National Press Club, has also suggested to NPC President Rick Dunham of Business Week a number of alternatives for the panel, some from the Right and some from the Left. The other blogger panelist is Wonkette, which suggests that my colleagues at the press club view bloggers as gossips and ho's. Double sheesh.

[Dan Gillmor]

I don't want to shut him up. Let him rant all he wants. I just think it's ridiculous to give him a podium at the National Press Club.

Mark, glad to hear you've offered your services to the NPC folks. They need to hear from clueful people.

[Jon Garfunkel]

I heard this on the Countdown earlier in the week. You could lobby MBA or ONA to take a stand.

I really do thing that the big media is dumping on bloggers in this way. Which is why I take the easy way out and don't identify very strongly with bloggers and blogging.

[Gerard Van der Leun]

What's really wrong with giving him a "podium at the National Press Club?"

Seems to me he's at the center of a valid National Press issue.

[Dan Gillmor]

Right, let's also give Jayson Blair and Steven Glass and Jack Kelley a forum there.

Come to think of it, let's put them on a program together.

[Anna]

Yes, for balance. We must have that side represented.
:-}

[Tom Bridge]

What's even better is that you need to be a "credentialed journalist" to attend.

[weldon berger]

The thing is evolving fairly rapidly. The original blurb for the event, which is still cached on Google, reads:Now that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can set up shop on the Web, the days when you could tell who was a reporter by looking for a press card stuck in a fedora are long gone. Both journalists and bloggers will debate whether there's a difference between them, on Fri., Apr. 8, at 9:30 a.m.The revised one reads:Now that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can set up shop on the Web, the days when you could tell who was a reporter by looking for a press card stuck in a fedora are long gone. A writer for a conservative Web site got credentials from the White House, even after a committee of journalists turned him down. For several years, bloggers have been blurring the lines daily between journalists and activists. And now professional media blogs blur even those lines. So how do you know who's a journalist these days? A panel of journalists, bloggers and others will discuss the rules for who is what on Friday, April 8.And GG's line has change from Jeff Gannon, whose question at a presidential press conference focused attention on the issue, to Jeff Gannon, formerly with conservative Web site Talon News, whose question at a presidential news conference focused attention on how he got into the White House press corps.

Press Club VP Jonathon Salant told me in an email that "Gannon is on the panel because of the notoriety he obtained by being able to score 400 or so White House day passes, which are supposed to be given only to legitimate journalists, and the fallout from that. I know that when I worked for the nation's third largest newspaper chain, I didn't have that access. Frankly, I would love to know how Gannon was able to do that, who arranged for his access, and why the White House considered him a legitimate journalist on a par with reporters for the Washington Post and NY Times Those are the kinds of questions I would expect would be asked at such a press club event."

So there is some movement, and given that the subject arose in Romenesko's mosh pit only two days ago, I think we can expect more movement during the next week. As John Aravosis says, it's difficult to see how the Press Club could hope to retain any credibility if they do other than roast GG, particularly now that Ron Brynaert's documentation of GG's plagiarism problem is getting more attention.

Ultimately, though, I don't see how the event can do anything but hurt the press club. It's unlikely that GG will say anything he hasn't already said no matter the ambience, his supporters won't be swayed and neither will his detractors, and the odds that anyone will walk out in the throes of an epiphany about "Who is a Journalist" are slender at best. They should reopen the event to the public, screen for vegetables and cream pies and hope for the best.

And in a final irony, my blog's White House writer, Eric Brewer, will be there to chronicle the festivities and further blur the lines.

[mythago]

Susie Bright makes an interesting case that "Gannon" got his press pass because he was a prostitute, not in spite of it:

http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2005/03/aggressive_verb.html

Warning: unlikely to be safe for work.