For my own reference, I want to excerpt a couple of extremely trenchant comments found today at dKos, in a discussion taking off from the AmericaBlog report that "Jeff Gannon" frequently had advance, inside knowledge of major stories not consistent with his lack of journalism experience or the position of Talon News in the media ecosphere—including four-hour advance knowledge of Bush's speech at the launch of the "shock and awe" campaign in Iraq. ("Gannon" is also said to have had advance information about the Rathergate scandal, which if it's true gives some heft to my suspicion that Rove engineered it.)

Here's what grannyhelen has to say:

I'm thinking more and more this is tied to Ketchum and the PR "subcontractors", probably through one of Bruce Eberle's companies that subcontracted work to GOPUSA.com/Talon.

This is seriously starting to sound like something a PR company would come up with - some type of "new media" blog news company that looks and feels like the pajama brigades, because they won't have the taint of Corporate Media attached to them. ...

It is reasonable to assume with Bruce Eberle's connections both to the GOP, the Bush administration and to GOPUSA.com that he may have suggested to someone who suggested to Ketchum that GOPUSA.com fit the bill. That would explain why Talon News just sprang up overnight, as it would take a professional to see that you need that extra layer to persuade people that they are getting "objective news". I doubt Bobby Eberle had that type of media savvy when he started this whole thing.

And, in a reply, Magorn extends the point:

It reminds me a Lot of the viral marketing techniques used by some of the edgier ad agencies. Essentially you pay someone to join a crowd, gain its trust and then start being a mouthpiece for the product they want to sell. You see it a lot in demographics with a strong sense of group identity like teen-agers or young urban hipster crowds....

And come to think of it that answers the most nagging question of the whole affair. What did the WH have to gain from this that justifies such an extraordinary risk? They already had Fuax news if they wanted partisan shilling, and they already had folks like Les Kinsolving if they wanted a friendly face in the briefing room.

Gannon was a plant alright but one aimed not at the American people but other reporters. The simple fact is that reporters really do have a pack mentality, they live in constant fear that someone is chasing down a big story and they will get scooped. Play on that fear a little and you can manipulate the press into covering all sorts of things while overlooking others.

So, you plant Gannon in the WH press corps; give him a few BIG scoops to bolster his credibility with the other reporters, and Bam he's in a great position to whisper in ears around the Press Room Coffee Pot, and start media frenzy's (or cool them off)

To which I add: unravel the PR nexus, because that's where the big story is. The Rove White House has made PR-style disinformation tactics not just an adjunct to governing but a substitute for it—propaganda replacing policy. There've been hints and rumblings of this since we first heard about the Mayberry Machiavellis. Search out the details of Rove's PR operation, and you're bound to find illegality and corruption enough to bring this administration to its knees.

posted by michael  11:40:12 AM  
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