by Katherine Brengle

The Boston Globe and Editor & Publisher have been tracking the Jeff Gannon story for a while. Unfortunately, in light of the State of the Union, the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales, and the ongoing battle for Social Security, this story has been set on the backburner of the political commentary stovetop. The controversy over Gannon is heating up due to the softball questions he consistently asks during White House press briefings and the fact that he has repeatedly been denied a White House “hard pass” press credential and has instead been granted repeated daily press passes directly from the White House Press Office. There are several reasons he has been denied a permanent pass, including the fact that the news site he writes for, TalonNews.com, could not provide evidence that they were an independent news organization, not tied to any political organization. In addition to that, The Standing Committee of Correspondents (the group of congressional reporters who oversee press credential distribution on Capitol Hill) also requires that in order to get a permanent pass, TalonNews.com would have to prove it carries paid advertising and paid circulation, as regular newspapers do. They could not do so....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Brengle0207.htm