Jeff Gannon

James Dale Guckert (born May 22, 1957)^[1] is an American conservative columnist better known by the pseudonym Jeff Gannon. Between 2003 and 2005, he was given credentials as a White House reporter. He was eventually employed by the conservative website Talon News during the latter part of this period. Gannon first gained national attention during a presidential press conference on January 26, 2005, when he asked United States President George W. Bush a question that some in the press corps considered "so friendly it might have been planted"^[2][3] ("How are you going to work with [Senate Democratic leaders] who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?").

Gannon routinely obtained daily passes to White House briefings, attending four Bush press conferences and appearing regularly at White House press briefings. Although he did not qualify for a Congressional press pass, Gannon was given daily passes to White House press briefings "after supplying his real name, date of birth and Social Security number."^[4] Gannon came under public scrutiny for his lack of a journalistic background prior to his work with Talon^[5][6] and his involvement with various gay escort service websites using the professional name "Bulldog."

Gannon resigned from Talon News on February 8, 2005. Continuing to use the name Gannon, he has since created his own official homepage and worked for a time as a columnist for the Washington Blade newspaper, where he confirmed he was gay after he was outed.^[7] Most recently, Gannon operated JeffGannon.com, a blog where he criticized those who exposed him, the "Old Media" and the "Angry Gay Left", accusing them of promoting a double standard.^[8] The site has since been taken offline and the domain expired. He published a book titled The Great Media War in 2007.