Helen Thomas, "Working Girl"
John Sugg has the details, and surprise, surprise...the breadcrumbs once again lead straight back to our favorite press pass-toting call girl, Jeff Gannon, uh, Guckert, uh...oh, you know who I mean!
Gannon takes a whack at one of Thomas' sources, Ed Wasserman, a journalism professor at Washington & Lee. Wasserman is also much more (and Jeff, these are what you call credentials) -- he's the former executive business editor at The Miami Herald, and was editor and CEO of the Daily Business Review in Miami, which was a great investigative paper during his tenure (still is, too). He also has real academic credits -- degrees from Yale, the University of Paris and the London School of Economics. I seem to recall that Gannon's academic achievements included a few days at a bogus broadcasting school.(Disclosure: I [this is Sugg talking] was an associate editor for Wasserman at the Business Review. He was a son of a bitch to work for, and I loved it.)
Thomas, in her column, wrote that:
Wasserman "defines a journalist as someone who 'is professionally dedicated to truth seeking.' He (Wasserman) conceded that although the whole job description 'has gotten muddied,' Gannon shouldn't be considered a journalist."Gannon was a propagandist, a flack for the White House. Thus, he fails to meet the requirement -- as Wasserman wrote in the Miami Herald last September -- that "anybody who enters the (journalism) profession makes a core commitment to do his or her best to determine and tell the truth."
Gannon apparently wasn't amused. He wrote Wasserman:
From: "Jeff Gannon" To: Subject: Jeff Gannon, Propagandist Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 16:07:31 -0400 Mr. Wasserman: I read your comments about me in the latest column by my former colleague, Helen Thomas. Your criticism of me and your blather about the Bush administration reflects the fact that you are merely one of the liberal elites desperately trying to hold on to an exclusive franchise on journalism.
Wasserman is anything but afraid of combat. He forwarded to me his reply to Gannon/Guckert:Mr Gannon, You really are a piece of work, aren't you. Now you're proposing that your contemptible behavior was actually an expression of political principle. Here I thought you were just another opportunist who was making a career, literally and figuratively, from sucking up. How wrong I was. You really should work on your writing though. I would not be "one of the liberal elites." I think you mean to accuse me of being "a member of the liberal elite." The difference is correct usage. So Helen Thomas is "a former colleague" of yours? I didn't know she had been in the trade. Bye. EW
P.S. I was an intern with Helen Thomas at the White House for a short time when I was in college. A pro and a tough cookie, yet fair and kind to me. It was a thrill.
That's hot
alex the sea turtle at April 28, 2005 8:25 AM
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