White House questioned on access for Web reporter

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Scott McClellan today defended the access given a conservative correspondent who has resigned in the wake of a partisan question that he asked President Bush.

"In this day and age, when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide or try to pick and choose who is a journalist," McClellan said. "It gets into the issue of advocacy journalism."

"Where do you draw the line?" he asked, asserting there are a "number of people" with pointed viewpoints who attend White House briefings.

At issue is James Guckert, a Washington correspondent who goes by Jeff Gannon and writes for the conservative Web site Talon News, which is linked to another site, GOPUSA.

Both sites are backed by Bobby Eberle, a Republican activist in Texas.

Gannon — the name he says he prefers for "commercial" reasons — resigned this week, saying liberal Web bloggers have dug into his background and harassed his mother and other members of his family.

"They said just terrible, horrible things to them," he said in an interview today.

The Gannon flap is the latest media controversy involving the administration to emerge after it was disclosed a month ago that conservative commentator Armstrong Williams was being paid by the Education Department to promote the president's education initiatives.

Gannon said his troubles began after he had asked the president during a Jan. 26 White House news conference how he intended to work on overhauling Social Security with Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and other Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."

Gannon acknowledged that the question had a partisan bent, but that it was one his Web readers were interested in.

He also confirmed that he had developed several Web sites with sexually suggestive addresses for a private client, but that they have never been used. And he said a picture of him on the Internet in his underwear was just that.

Gannon said that he had been denied congressional press credentials because Talon News did not meet a media criteria. And, therefore, he said he did not apply for permanent White House credentials because a congressional pass is required first. Additionally, applicants must undergo Secret Service background investigations.

So, Gannon said, he entered the White House for briefings on daily temporary passes.

McClellan said Gannon was regularly admitted temporarily because White House staff had determined two years ago that he "represented a news organization that published regularly."

Each day that he wanted access, Gannon said, he would submit his real name — James Guckert — and other identifying information to be cleared in.

"I don't involve myself in that process," McClellan said.

"There are people in that room that represent traditional media," he said, referring to the White House briefing room. "They represent talk radio. ... They're columnists. And they represent online news organizations."

He said he had often called on Gannon during briefings, but he had not favored him.

"I go row-by-row in the briefing room and try to get to anybody who has their hand up," McClellan said.

Sometimes, Gannon said, the press secretary would call on him, and sometimes not.

During the president's last news conference, McClellan said, Bush took a question from Gannon near the end without knowing who he was. And Gannon said he was surprised to have been called on.

"I'm unequivocally not a plant," he said. "I write my own questions. Nobody feeds me anything."