“Gannon,” Thune and Thune’s paid bloggers
A friend points out the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert uproar may hit pretty close to home. Joe Conason has this at Salon and there’s also info here and here on “Gannon’s” connections with Thune and Thune’s paid bloggers. Maybe those bloggers were even more slimy than we thought.
February 18th, 2005 | Tags: blogs, John Thune, South Dakota politics | Category: Politics, SD Blogosphere
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February 18th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
Tim, hey. I just wanted to let you know that I emailed the Argus Leader about this. I wrote:
I’m just wondering when the Argus Leader is going to get around to investigating the ties between John Thune’s campaign and “Gannon’s” fake journalism. It’s seeming more & more like dirty tricks every day! Is there a money trail between Thune and GOPUSA or Guckert/Gannon? After all, there was definitely a lot of interaction between “Gannon” and the two paid-off bloggers. This is potentially a major scandal, is being covered by newspapers all over the country and around the world, and yet SILENCE from the Argus Leader! Can someone please explain this? Does it have anything to do with the intimidation by Gannon during the 2004 campaign? Certainly, the Argus Leader’s journalistic ethics are better than that!
And in response, I got an email from Patrick Lalley, Asst. managing editor, Argus Leader:
Mr. Kelley:
I suspect the people of South Dakota are getting their fill of Mr. Gannon’s predicament. We’ve researched and written on the role of bloggers in the Senate race. Let me assure you, I, nor any of our reporters, were intimidated by Gannon or any other blogger.
Thanks for reading.
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Anyway, obviously there’s a disconnect here. I’m curious about your thoughts. Thanks!
February 18th, 2005 at 7:13 pm
The “predicament” is not that of “Gannon”, but of the papers that used the Talon “news” in the middle of campaigns.
If people are getting their fill of
“Gannon”, it is not because of coverage in the ARGUS or any of the SD TV stations that I see. Maybe cable TV news is filled with it, but there are a lot of people in South Dakota who haven’t heard a word about this.