Why is Garry Trudeau doing a "Doonesbury" sequence inspired by disgraced Republican-friendly reporter Jeff Gannon? Maybe because strips about Abu Ghraib have been done to death?
"I'm not sure it's commonly understood to what lengths this administration is willing to go to bypass the 'filter,' as Bush calls the media," the cartoonist replied in an e-mail interview.
Translation..."I'm relevant, DAMMIT!!"
"The president made it official Wednesday -- his Justice Department, fresh from signing off on torture, apparently thinks propaganda's OK too."
As opposed to the careful analysis provided by, say, a hack overrated cartoonist. But I digress...
When asked if he thought the press has underreported the Gannon episode, pundit payola, and other examples of media manipulation, Trudeau said:
"everybody knows the only ones allowed to defend fake news are troglodyte media like CBS and the NY Times!!"
Trudeau, who was referring to George W. Bush's remarks about government-created video news releases for TV stations, started the "Doonesbury" sequence this Monday and said he will continue it through next week. In it, Secretary of Toady Affairs Andrews finds a "stooge" to replace Gannon as a lobber of softball questions in the White House press corps. He's Roland Hedley, the
Gannon is the former GOPUSA/Talon News White House correspondent who made the news after asking Bush softball questions, getting into press conferences under an alias (his real name is James Guckert), and being involved with sexual Web sites. Trudeau said he hasn't received any direct reaction from Gannon to the sequence. But on his personal Web site, Gannon on Monday linked to the first "Doonesbury" strip in the sequence, and on Thursday wrote that Trudeau "showed his leanings 30 years ago" -- while linking to one of his old strips that offered a pro-John Kerry view. "Doonesbury" appears in 1,400 newspapers via Universal Press Syndicate. Universal also distributes another comic, "La Cucaracha," which featured a Gannon-inspired sequence that ran before the "Doonesbury" one. Lalo Alcaraz, who started the 10-day story line on March 2, showed "Barrio Bugle" cub reporter Eddie Lopez joining the White House press corps. In a reference to Gannon allegedly being gay, Lopez and a couple of other reporters were dressed like members of the Village People.
Such biting wit...
Alcaraz said one reason he did the sequence was because
Maybe they don't feel like working out their repressed homosexuality on newsprint?
Was some of the media protecting the Bush administration? Alcaraz said this was possible, but added that a number of press outlets might have held back because of