Gannon appeared in White House briefing room before he joined conservative website

Raw Story | February 17 2005

The conservative reporter-prostitute writing under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon appeared in the White House briefing room before his known media outlet was even created, progressive bloggers have found.

Guckert told Editor and Publisher he first attended a presidential press conference in April 2003, he said, just weeks after starting with Talon News. He also said he attended another, for which he cannot recall the date, prior to the late-January conference that brought him to public attention, but his description–of asking President Bush a question–does not fit with his appearance in late February.

This from the White House press office transcript of Feb. 28, 2003. Gannon bragged of asking the question in comments he posted online Mar. 5, 2003.

This is a question I asked Ari Fleischer at a White House press briefing on Friday:

[Gannon}: There have been reports out of Maine that the children of deployed service personnel are being harassed as a result of their elementary school teacher’s

expression of anti-war views in the classroom. Could you comment on that?

MR. FLEISCHER: I’m not familiar with any specific report, but I can assure you that the President, in all instances, believes that it’s important for all to honor and respect the first amendment.

Not the answer I was looking for, but at least I was able to get the issue in front of the mainstream press.

Readers can watch the screen grab from the C-SPAN Web site’s White House Daily Briefing (RealVideo here; click briefing for Feb. 28, 2003). Gannon asks the question at 32:05 during the briefing video.