Well this broke in the "mainstream media" on last Wednesday as far as I can tell. I have been tailing it since Friday, and I finally got to it tonight. Apparently a Jeff Gannon from Talon News has been "outted".

White House-friendly reporter under scrutiny

"The Bush administration has provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website."

Ok so that sums it up rather well. There is alot more, read the article. But oh there is more, today ALOT more came out.

Apparently Jeff Gannon (the reporter in question) is an alias. Many bloggers have done some serious research on this guy (apparently they saw the blood in the water). They say that from this research they have deduced that his real name is Guckert. Well start here for the newest info on this story: MediaCitizen: Gannon Quits After Blogger Inquiry

See how some of this research started on the Daily Kos blog.

And here is some discussion on how some of the bloggers think this relates to the leak of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

Then checkout what MediaMatters has to say on the issue.

Well where to start? I have alot to say, but it is getting late again, so I guess I will have to deal with this tomorrow.

I know what my conservative friends will say; who cares? This is nothing. Well you know what, it isn't nothing. Its something. It just shows the state of the news media now. It shows how the White House doesn't give a damn about journalism, integrity, or the independence of the press corps.

Ok I really am too tired to talk about this coherently.