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MediaCitizen.org
NOTE: This was transcribed from today's broadcast interview and may contain minor typographical errors. For brevity I have paraphrased interviewer David Folkenflik's questions. You can listen to the complete interview at NPR's website. --TK
HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOUR JOB AS A JOURNALIST?
How I see my job is that I need to report stories that I think are important and recently my responsibility has been to report on those those things that don't usually make it to the mainstream press.
HOW DOES THAT WORK?
For example, I am unapoligetically a conservative and there is a huge audience out there of conservatives whose issues very rarely get mentioned and certainly not treated properly when they do get mentioned in the mainstream press.
EXAMPLES?
I think abortion is one of those issues. I find the debate over abortion is certainly skewed in a direction that is pro-abortion. And also judicial nominees, the issues very rarely comes up even though it is of great concern to conservatves across the country and was a factor in the last presidential elections in many of the Senate races. But the only time you're going to here about it from most of my colleagues is when were talking about a replacement for a Supreme Court Justice.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OUTLETS?
I have an online webcast program every week on righttalk.com. It's a freewheeling hour of interviews and commentary. I generally have someone who is a member of Congress on to talk about issues of importance and issues of the day.
HOW LONG?
It's an hour long show.
IT'S A WEBCAST?
It is a webcast and it's also an archived show so it's available at other times . . .
IS TALON YOUR PRIMARY OUTLET?
TalonNews.com is the primary outlet for my daily news articles. Now I do maintain a website, JeffGannon.com, where there's a lot of information about myself . . . I do news analysis and commentary. Lately it's been featuring the media. The news has been the news, or at least how its gathered has been the news for quite a while.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOUR ROLE AND WHAT A JOURNALIST IS?
I'm reporting news. I can't report all of the news and I have a great ability to pick and choose the stories I like to follow. I get some editorial direction and of course my beat is the White House. So it usually has something to do with what's going on at the White House.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE A JOURNALIST AS OPPOSED TO AN ACTIVIST?
A politician is campaigning to be elected. An activist is someone who takes a strong position and speaks in support of that issue or that piece of legislation. I do neither of those two things. Even though I do cover extensively stories that sometimes people are activists about.
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF ALL THE RECENT ATTENTION?
There are a lot of different things going on there. Perhaps the most disturbing thing has been the notion that there isn't room for one conservative voice in the White House press corps.
YOU SEEM TO SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT
And there's something wrong with that? When everyone else is out there taking shots at the president is it wrong to have a question that might favor the president. But none of those people spoke to those times that I have asked questons that were critical of the administration, particulary on abortions and judges their positions have caused concern among conservatives and that was an important part of my story.
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCES?
I have spent a lifetime of writing, none for pay unfortunately, and I have spent two years reporting at the White House and I have written a story every day five days a week for two years and I think my journalism credentials are fairly well established as a result of that.
WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU DONE?
I have done a great many things in my lifetime, I have worked for others, I have owned my own business, I have been a truck driver, I have had wholesale experience, retail experience. I have been out in the world and have a great background to have a critical outlook at the news.
WHY NOT WORK UNDER YOUR OWN NAME?
Well there's still uncomfirmed reports as to whether I use a pseudonym or not and probably I would have addressed this question differently a week ago until I have became a target of threats against myself and family. And I am reluctant to reveal any personal information. The hate mail I have gotten and some of the website postings I have brought to the attention of federal officials to look into and it's disturbing that the same people that are allegedly proponents of free speech have decided that I don't have the right to my free speech and furthermore that these people have the right to deny the President the opportunity to call on anyone he wants to. I mean, if it were a room full of me in the briefing room, then people would have a legitimate complaint. But its not, as a matter of fact. It's one voice that somehow the people who preach tolerance and diversity can't tolerate.
ABOUT GETTING WHITE HOUSE CREDENTIALS?
I submit personal information to the White House and they do a background check and then they let me in. I am fully in compliance I don't get any special treatment . . . that isn't available to others. As far as the credentialling process, those who are responsible for doing the credentialling ... the White House doesn't do that it rests with the Congressional Press Galleries and their criteria doesn't reflect the changes in the media and it's a discussion that's a little beyond me . . . I am in full compliance with their requirements for a reporter. They have questions about our news service that need to be dealt with and they will be in due course . . .
Their rules are outdated and I'm not going to bash those people over there and that's all done by committee and like anything else on Capitol Hill it takes a lot to change things. They're going to catch up and I will be treated fairly when they do catch up and in the meantime I will continue to do what I do. And obviously people like it, people are paying attention because in addition to the hate mail I have gotten quite a bit of support from people across the country who have written me to say "you know I have wondered the answer to that question myself thank you for asking it." So obviously there's a market for what I am doing.
REGARDING SIZE OF READERSHIP
For Talon News . . . I get both primary and secondary hits. My stories are posted there, and they're picked up by other websites and they zoom around the Internet . . . I know that it is distributed to over 700,000 people a day through direct subscriber lists.
We do have great reach and that's the beauty of the new media is that it's now wide open and people have the opportunity . . . now you can choose . . . you have so many other means to get information and that's wonderful and its disturbing that there are people out there who believe that that's a bad thing, and some of the things that have been done to keep me from doing what I do seems to be headed in that direction and that's unfortunate.
REGARDING HIS REAL NAME?
Would you stop for a moment . . I'm not going to answer the question no matter what name you throw at me and there have been like half a dozen names that have been put up there and I am not going to confirm or deny that whether this is for broadcasting or not . . . because . .
IS JAMES GUCKERT YOUR NAME?
I am going to decline to discuss that. If that information is coming from the Senate Press Gallery. . . In telling you those kind of details they have already broken a confidentially clause in the application process and I will deal with them accordingly . . . If they did tell you something like that, you know, they have no right to do that.
WHY USE A PSEUDONYM?
There are many people in this business who do that. Perhaps we were not all born with a name that's commercial . . . people in Hollywood do it. On air personalities do it. Radio people do it. A lot of print people use their own name. But there are reasons to do such a thing besides being part of a CIA conspiracy or having something to hide. It could be a very innocent . . .
WHAT'S YOUR REASON?
I'm not even going to acknowledge that it is a pseudonym. . .
These are reasons why people do it and it's nothing to hide anything. It probably is just a commercial consideration, frankly.
If you have a name that's difficult to pronounce, difficult to remember, difficult to spell, it doesn't have great commercial appeal and if you have the oportunity to make it more appealing and more memorable then one would want to do that and there is nothing wrong with that.. . . Like Batman's true identity really doesn't have anything to do with the story. I have been very forthcoming about the fact that I . . . what my ideological background is and the fact that I have never supported a campaign, that is given money to a campaign, worked for a campaign, worked for anybody who has been elected, worked for anybody who was running for election. I have never been a candidate for anything myself . . .
IT'S GOOD TO KNOW A JOURNALISTS NAME TO VERIFY WHAT THEY ARE SAYING IS TRUE
You can be sure. These are one of the things that you will have to take my word for. I am not affiliated. I don't have any political affiliations. those who want to attribute those kinds of things to me they're mistaken and of course it's all on the basis of some type of character assassination. Look, I confess, I am a conservative. I think that's certainly more than my colleagues will admit that they have ideological leanings that are reflected in their questions and their stories. The whole point of this is that I have been up front about how I pursue a story, the angle I take, and my colleagues haven't been as forthcoming and they have criticized me for it which doesn't reflect well on them.
YOUR ASKING YOUR READERS TO ACCEPT THAT YOUR MOTIVATIONS ARE PURE
At some point what's the relevance of it. Knowing that I skipped fifth grade in elementary school. Is that important. . .
I wouldn't give politicans a dime. Once they get elected they've got their hands in your pocket any way and beliebve me I don't want to encourage them . . .
REGARDING TALON NEWS
There exist two entities. One is GOPUSA which is an online discussion board they do opinion stuff, very conservative obviously with initials like GOPUSA I'd say many of the people over their discussing are Republicans.
Talon News is owned by the same person that owns and operates GOPUSA. Talon News is an independnet organization that really does news. Are we conservative? Absolutely. I have nothing to do with GOPUSA. I report for Talon News I don't write anything for GOPUSA.
My news content finds its way onto their website as it does Mens News Daily, as it does Hawaiian reporters . . . There's a degree of separation between myself and Talon News and GOP USA and I'm very comfortable with that and I defend that . .
There has been accusations that it is funded by the Republican Party that it's some kind of activist wing of the Republican Party.
Bobby Eberle is the key to that he owns both. He is the editor and he will write stories for Talon in his role as editor. I have no links to GOPUSA except through him and that common ownership. I am really comfortable with what I do. The linkage that al these others are trying to emphasize, well they're mistaken. And certainly, even the GOPUSA website isn't supported by the Republican Party or these big Republican donors that are standing somehow in the background. That just doesn't happen.
WERE YOU A JOURNALIST PRIOR TO COMING TO THE WHITE HOUSE?
I was doing independent writing. No I was not quote unquote a journalist quote unquote.
SO YOU LEARNED ON THE JOB?
Journalism isn't all that rigorous. I mean if you know how to write. If you have your basic story construction. Gee, I guess I shouldn't say these things about journalism since people spend thousands and thousands of dollars to go to jouurnalism school but the truth of the matter is that there's a basic story structure and certain standards that you set, and you go about presenting information to people and I think it's a pretty straight forward thing to do.
 RETURN TO MEDIACITIZEN Gannon Quits After Blogger Inquiry
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