Seriously. FOX's coverage rocked. And they did such a good job covering it that the wingnut at Accuracy in Media, the one who thinks prostitution is simply someone's "sex life," flipped out. I think, perhaps, we've developed the ultimate insult for the mainstream media over the entire l'affaire Gannon: FOX covered it better than you.
Brutal blog has the transcript.
JANE HALL: I just wonder whether a guy whose obviously phrasing left wing questions would've had a press credential for 2 years and was funded by a GOP related group ... It's hard for me to imagine that this could've happened if the bias were on the other foot. So, that is what's partly amusing about it to some people....
JIM PINKERTON: Right, although I think you were unfair calling him 'right-wing' in your intro.
ERIC BURNS: Really?!?
JIM PINKERTON: I do ...
NEIL GABLER: I think you were unfair calling him a 'journalist'.
[Eric Burns & Cal Thomas erupt in chuckles]
JANE HALL: Well, I think he was biased when he called him a 'journalist'....
NEIL GABLER: There are many many journalists - and we know alot of them - who ACT like partisan hacks. This guy WAS a partisan hack. And there's a difference.
CAL THOMAS: I'm not a partisan hack, but I play one on TV. Is that it, right?
NEIL GABLER: Yes. He worked for a GOP operative. He would not have been credentialed and was NOT credentialed by Congress for precisely that reason. Among other things, they have a rule that if you're a lobbiest for an organization, you can not be credentialed. So, this issue here is that this person should have NEVER been credentialed, was not credentialed by Congress, and we know the ... I know there's some Democrats that disingenously are trying to investigate how he got credentialed. We KNOW how he got credentialed -- the White House wanted him there. They wanted him to ask softball questions and ...
ERIC BURNS: What about the guy Jim mentioned asking hardball questions? They certainly didn't want that, did they, Neil?
NEIL GABLER: Well, then he shouldn't even be there. But the point of the fact is I don't know whether or not he got a daily credential every single day as Guckert did. Every day for ... for years ...
JIM PINKERTON: I agree that Guckert/Gannon getting a pass ... I worked in the White House for 6 years and I can tell you that there's somebody, you know, with a false name is ... but the Secret Service ...
NEIL GABLER: On a daily basis.
JIM PINKERTON: [nodding] On a daily basis takes an incredible ammount of intervention from somebody high up in the White House. That I would ...
ERIC BURNS: So it wasn't just that someone overlooked this. It was complicit.
JIM PINKERTON: It was conscious, yes, and some investigation should proceed and we should find that out....
ERIC BURNS: But the point is, Jane, we have a finite ammount of space here and there has to be some distinction ...
JANE HALL: There has to be and I talked to a White House press person who was arguing Jim's point - you don't want to restrict free speech - but there's actually a serious question of security for the President. If you have that kind of a lapse and somebody is intervening, that's a serious issue....
NEIL GABLER: Guckert, by the way, thanks among other people Karl Rove for his insistance, encouragement, and guidance. I think that is very, very interesting.
ERIC BURNS: [dryly] Well, he's a polite fellow ...
