UPDATE: E&P now reports that GannonGuckert thinks he's on the panel as a blogger!
Gannon told E&P he "thinks it is a good opportunity for me to speak to issues related to bloggers." He also added that he was, "trying to stay out there where people can see me."
E&P has now confirmed it.
It's the National Press Club itself that is hosting Jeff Gannon and Wonkette as either mainstream journalists or serious political bloggers (as we had reported earlier today).
Gannon, of course, is neither, and the same goes for Wonkette. He's a male prostitute who parroted GOP press releases, and she writes a humor blog about sex in politics that focuses mainly on ass-fucking jokes. Neither of them is a serious political journalist (and I don't believe Wonkette, whose site I love, even claims to be), and most certainly neither of them is your first choice for a panel about how serious MSM journalism differs from serious BLOG journalism.
Oh, but it gets better.
Now the Press Club says the panel is REALLY about (in contrast to what they SAY it's about on their own Web site) looking at the Gannon issue and how it reflects on journalism:
"The panel came together because we wanted to discuss some issues that came about from the Gannon case," said Mike Madden, a Gannett News Service reporter and a member of the Press Club's Professional Affairs committee, which is organizing the free event. "So we thought, 'why not try to get him?'"Uh huh. So you invite Gannon, a woman who jokes about butt-fucking on her blog (and we do love her butt-fucking jokes, but again, how this has to do with a serious discussion on Gannon's credentials, color me confused), and someone from Congress Daily.
Not a single actual journalist-blogger is even on the panel that will be discussing blogging-journalism, and most certainly not anyone representing the "other" side of the GannonGuckert credential issue.
Look who's on the panel:
1. Gannon, who thinks he's an acceptable journalist.So, the august National Press Club is holding a panel on the issues surrounding the GannonGuckert story and the only person they invite who was actually involved in the story is GannonGuckert himself.
2. Wonkette, who thinks we should err on the side of accepting him as a real journalist, per her own quotes to Howard Kurtz in the Wash Post, and
3. Then there's Congress Daily, whose sister publication, the Hotline, wrote a scathing editorial against our role in the GannonGuckert story.
AND EVEN BETTER, the Press Club invites 3 sources - ALL OF WHOM have already said that GG is a-okay as a journalist. Has anyone at the National Press Club taken Journalism 101? Or don't mainstream journalists even bother to pretend anymore about seeming fair and accurate when discussing progressive political blogs and politics?
National Press Club = Big. Fat. Media. Whore.
Who do you have to sleep with at the Press Club to get a one-sided panel like that?
