http://www.salon.com/news/feature/20...air/print.html

extract

Feb. 10, 2005 | When President Bush bypassed dozens of eager reporters
from nationally and internationally recognized news outlets and selected
Jeff Gannon to pose a question at his Jan. 26 news conference, Bush's
recognition bestowed instant credibility on the apparently novice
reporter, as well as the little-known conservative organization he
worked for at the time, called Talon News. That attention only
intensified when Gannon used his nationally televised press conference
time to ask Bush a loaded, partisan question -- featuring a manufactured
quote that mocked Democrats for being "divorced from reality."

Gannon's star turn quickly piqued the interest of many online
commentators, who wondered how an obvious Republican operative had been
granted access to daily White House press briefings normally reserved
for accredited journalists. Two weeks later, a swarming investigation
inside the blogosphere into Gannon and Talon News had produced all sorts
of damning revelations about how Talon is connected at the hip to a
right-wing activist organization called GOPUSA, how its "news" staff
consists largely of volunteer Republican activists with no journalism
experience, how Gannon often simply rewrote GOP press releases when
filing his Talon dispatches. It also uncovered embarrassing information
about Gannon's past as well as his fake identity. When Gannon himself
this week confirmed to the Washington Post that his name was a
pseudonym, it only added to the sense of a bizarre hoax waiting to be
exposed.