christian grantham
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
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February 14, 2005

In my opinion, the personal life of James Dale Guckert (a.k.a. Jeff Gannon) would be an irrelevant sidebar for tabloid blogs, but there is a problem leaving it there. Guckert's media credentials prior to Talon News appear to be limited to gay porn and other online sex services. If conservative news agencies dismiss the professional credentials of its reporters and commentators, and ask the American public to do the same, what's left of American media?

Presumably, conservative news agencies have standards and want the American people to trust that they are sending Washington correspondents to the White House with a credible journalistic background. Thankfully, Guckert quit his White House correspondent job, but the arguments made by some conservatives that Guckert should have the right to keep his media credentials private in the wake of his short career defy professionalism.

Either Guckert lied to Talon News about his qualifications, or Talon News has the kind of standards from which conservatives should publicly distance themselves. Conservatives ought to care which it is.

What are standards? After becoming familiar with Guckert's resume and services, it was difficult for some conservative colleagues, like commentator Sean Hannity, to believe Guckert was anything other than "a terrific Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for Talon News." Still some conservative bloggers found selective reasoning the best way to avoid Guckert's choice to publicize his sexual media credentials on the Internet (via Blogoland).

Glenn Reynolds, February 13, 2005:
"I also agree with Kurtz that it was the stuff about Gannon's personal life that led to his resignation, and that there's something rather sleazy about that. Backstage or not, targeting parts of people's lives that don't have to do with the story -- like, say, Eason Jordan's love life -- seems inappropriate to me, and likely to lend support to the bloggers-as-lynch-mob caricature."

Glenn Reynolds, February 16, 2004:
"THE KERRY INFIDELITY STORY seemed to die down over the weekend, but this report says that it may come back: "A woman who claims she had an affair with presidential hopeful John Kerry has taped a kiss-and-tell interview with a U.S. TV network, it was revealed last night. " (Via Timothy Perry)."