1. According to Editor & Publisher he began using a pseudonym in 2001:
He began using the [Jeff] Gannon name in 2001, while working in Pennsylvania to help a friend with a start-up business in auto repair, one of several jobs he said he'd had outside of journalism prior to coming to Washington.2. He actually began using the pseudonym "Jeff" in 1999.
Gannon/Guckert started using the name "Jeff" by September 1999 at the latest. Gannon told Paul Leddy, the man who built his escort Web site, that his name was "Jeff," and several of the photos on the escort site are named variations of "Jeff.jpg." Also, an escort customer left a review on one of Gannon's escort sites stating that he hired "Jeff" in the winter of 1999 (the review was posted in July of 2000 and refers to the prior winter).3. So why does Gannon appear to be hiding when he really started using the pseudonym?
4. Gannon told E&P in the same interview cited above:
GANNON: I use a pseudonym, because my real name is very difficult to pronounce, to remember and to spell. And many people who have been talking about me on television have yet to pronounce it correctly.But Guckert used the pseudonym "Jeff" with Paul Leddy, the Web developer, yet Leddy says Guckert never provided his last name. If Guckert only uses the pseudonym to make it easier for folks to pronounce, remember and spell his name, why was "Jeff" a better name than "James" to give the Web developer? Same question regarding Guckert using the name "Jeff" with his escort clients. Did he actually tell the escort clients his last name was Gannon, or did he stick with "Jeff," and if he stuck with Jeff, why did he use Jeff, as it's not any easier to remember, pronounce or spell, and that's the reason he said he used the name?
Not to mention, this doesn't answer the question of WHY he changed his first name at all. Anderson Cooper hit Gannon on this on CNN yesterday (Friday).
GANNON: I use a pseudonym, because my real name is very difficult to pronounce, to remember and to spell. And many people who have been talking about me on television have yet to pronounce it correctly.First, Gannon isn't that much easier than Guckert - does Gannon have one n or two, and is it on or en? But more importantly, Jeff is not any easier to pronounce, spell or remember than James. Sure, his answer MIGHT work for Guckert, but it doesn't explain why he didn't just become James Gannon. His answer simply doesn't work for why he changed his first name. So why DID he change his first name? There could have been lots of reasons, maybe he just hated the names James. But he didn't say that. He said it was to make it easier to spell, etc., which simply isn't right.
COOPER: But I mean, your real name is James and you used the pseudonym Jeff.
GANNON: Yes.
COOPER: How is James so much harder than Jeff?
GANNON: No, no, I meant my last name.
COOPER: Well, your real last name is Guckert, and the pseudonym you used is Gannon.
GANNON: Yes. It's easier to pronounce, to remember and to spell.
5. Since he used "Jeff" as his male escort pseudonym, why didn't he change it when he went to cover the White House? If you were really looking to leave your hooker past behind, and wanted to work covering the White House of all places, who would keep using their fake hooker name while working in the White House? You'd either adopt a new first-name pseudonym, or revert to your real name (James). He didn't do that. He kept his hooker name at the White House. Why?
Something funny is going on with his pseudonym.
