Fair-minded conservatives were aghast in President George W.
Bush's second term when the left-wing character assassination
machine went into high gear to destroy Jeff Gannon.
Gannon, also known as James Dale Guckert, asked questions that
annoyed liberals because they were based on a right-wing
political perspective.
Liberals were outraged. How dare the White House allow a
conservative in who didn't constantly bash President Bush. The
nerve!
Partisan, ideologically-driven people shouldn't be allowed into
White House press briefings, they howled in unison.
Gannon had
skeletons in his past, which sent the left into deepening
shades of delight. Even though the left prides itself on being
gay-friendly, the fact that Gannon's indiscretions were related
to his homosexuality only egged on the vicious hypocrites,
feeding their schadenfreude.
Now comes the revelation that at least one partisan
ideologically-driven leftist is being welcomed to White House
media events.
That person is Faiz Shakir of John Podesta's propaganda factory,
the allegedly nonpartisan Center for American Progress (CAP). To
be precise, Shakir is research director for The Progress Report
and ThinkProgress.org at CAP. (link to official CAP bio)
Look at an article prepared by the Center for American Progress
Action Fund, a nonprofit 501(c)(4) lobbying organization, that
appeared today at the
Huffington Post website. The bottom paragraph states that
Shakir participated in President Obama's prime-time conference
March 24:
EXPANDING THE MEDIA UNIVERSE: As with his first press
conference, Obama went out of his way to take questions from
news outlets beyond the major newspapers and television
networks. Though he began with the tradition of taking the
first question from the AP, followed by the three major
networks, Obama also took questions from outlets such as the
Spanish-language network Univision, the military's Stars and
Stripes newspaper, Agence France-Presse, and Ebony magazine. As
Politico's Michael Calderone noted, "Obama skipped over the
nation's top newspapers" as "there were no questions from the
NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or USA Today."
"The president covered a range of topics, including his
commitment to addressing the economic crisis, by calling on a
wide range of outlets -- including some that rarely, if ever,
are given the opportunity to pose a question at a presidential
news conference," White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh
Earnest told the AP. As with his first prime time presser,
Obama also opened up the conference to new media, admitting
more online reporters, including The Progress Report's
Faiz Shakir, who had polled his audience for suggestions of
questions [emphasis added]
It's worth noting that when Shakir appeared on MSNBC on March
18 he was introduced as a "Democratic
strategist." He did not object to the characterization.
So, a partisan, ideologically-driven individual from an
organization that is aggressively promoting the Obama agenda was
granted media credentials for the White House.
Will there be Gannon-era howls of outrage from the left over
this?
Don't count on it.
