Art Pottery, Politics and Food

Friday, February 18, 2005

Shock ‘n Gannon!

On March 27, 2003, during the same month that Talon News was registered as a web domain name, Jeff Gannon, the male prostitute turned fake White House Correspondent, told “a news producer for a major network” “four hours before President Bush announced it to the nation” that the Top Secret Shock and Awe Campaign that launched the Iraq War would soon begin, according to a 9:57am post by John Aravosis on AmericaBlog.org.
According to Aravosis’ source:

Gannon specifically told them that in four hours the president was going to be making a speech to the nation announcing the "shock and awe" campaign had begun. The producer told me they were surprised that Gannon, working with such a small news outfit, could have access to such information, but "what did you know, he was right," the producer said today. The producer went on to say that Gannon often had correct scoops on major stories.

Aside from this announcement being major news, which it most certainly is, Aravosis’ exclusive brings to mind another sex scandal that consumed Washington and a young reporter with a string of curious exclusives.
It was 1998 and rumors swirled around the sudden resignation of up and coming young Congressman Bill Paxon and the shocking alleged suicide of congressional daily newspaper The Hill reporter and weekend C-SPAN Journal host Sandy Hume.

Congressman Paxon resigns

According to an undated online report by Charlie Finch on ArtNet.com that I can attest to being on the web for the last several years:

Hume, the son of Fox News chief and former ABC White House correspondent Brit Hume, broke the story of Paxon's revolt against Speaker Newt Gingrich last summer in The Hill, a daily congressional newspaper. As a result, Paxon stepped down as minority whip, but retained his seat, and Sandy Hume was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
According to our source at The [Baltimore] Sun, Paxon…notified House Republicans in January that he intended to challenge House majority leader Dick Armey for his post, the number 2 position in the House. Armey, who has a reputation as a master practitioner of dirty pool, then allegedly threatened to expose a purported homosexual relationship between Paxon and Sandy Hume, which had generated Hume's scoop.
Driven insane at the prospect of disclosure, Hume apparently go so drunk while speeding towards Washington from a Bethesda, Maryland NBA game, that he was hauled off to jail by cops, where Hume attempted to hang himself with his own shoelace. Inexplicably, Hume was sent home on his own, where it appears he put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
Two days later, Rep. Paxon, often mentioned as a future House Speaker, shocked Washington by resigning his seat, saying that he would "never run for office again" and that he had "no immediate prospects for a job."

According to a March 9, 1998 Intelligencer Briefing on New YorkMetro.com:

The late Hill reporter Sandy Hume had just finished his first feature for George magazine before his February 22 suicide. The topic? Bill Paxon. Hume, the 28-year-old son of Fox News’s Brit Hume, made news last year when he broke the story that the Buffalo congressman was part of a group trying to oust House leader Newt Gingrich. Hume’s recent work on former congresswoman Susan Molinari’s husband analyzes the congressman’s political origins and future.

Like the matter involving Craig T. Spence in 1989, Paxon and Hume quickly vanished from the minimal coverage afforded them on the media stage.

Modified and Unmodified Images: Google, jeffgannon.com, CNN
- posted by Sean @ 11:45 AM

Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home