Monday, April 04, 2005

still MORE Gannon scandals that will go unpunished/underreported

Blog: Guckert/Gannon non-profit/GOP link

Washington, DC, Mar. 31 (UPI) -- Former Talon News White House correspondent J.D. Guckert reportedly is implicated in falsely registering a political organization as a non-profit.

The Weblog dailyKos.com reported Thursday that Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, who quit his job for the online publisher Talon News after media reports tied him to gay online prostitution and Republican Party operatives, was registered as the executive director of an organization called the Free Speech Foundation.

The Free Speech Foundation was registered as a tax-exempt non-profit with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service under code 501(c)(3), which prohibits the organizations from participating in or funding political activities.

Despite this, dailyKos.com charged, the organization was used to fundraise for a pro-Bush Web site, ProBush.com, that was facing a $5 million libel suit for naming an Arab-American senator on its ongoing "Traitor List."

Under his pen name Gannon, Guckert subsequently wrote an article about the lawsuit for Talon News, without disclosing his organization -- FSF -- had created a PayPal online fundraising account for a legal defense fund for ProBush.com's publishers, dailyKos.com said.

Guckert, however, dismissed the allegations and said dailyKos.com had "an extreme left-wing" bent.

The Free Speech Foundation is "entirely legitimate," Guckert told UPI. "It complies with IRS rules and regulations.


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This never ends! If this was a sane world, this "Gannon" story would receive more media coverage than Terri Schiavo. But, that would only happen if the media wasn't overwhelmingly conservative and in bush's back pocket. Disgusting....