WASHINGTON—Accuracy in Media charged today that a liberal activist and associate of Ralph Nader has been obtaining access to White House press briefings while claiming to be a legitimate news reporter.
Russell Mokhiber, who sells a $795 a year newsletter that bashes corporations, attends the briefings to make obscure anti-Bush political points. Recently, for example, he asked spokesman Scott McClellan whether President Bush violated one of the Ten Commandments by invading Iraq. Mokhiber, who told AIM that he has never taken a journalism class in his life and was denied a permanent White House press pass, posts his ludicrous questions and answers on a far-left web site under the title “Scottie & Me.”
Other Mokhiber topics have included industrial hemp, Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty, possible war crimes charges against Bush, and Halliburton.
AIM editor Cliff Kincaid said Mokhiber’s attendance at the briefings makes it clear that the controversy over Jeff Gannon attending the same briefings was manufactured by left-wing bloggers and liberals in the media because they don’t want conservatives in the White House press corps. Gannon resigned from Talon News, a conservative on-line service, and announced that he was leaving journalism altogether because of a left-wing investigation of his personal life that followed objections to his anti-Democrat question at a presidential press conference. One of many charges made against Gannon was that he lacked proper journalistic credentials.
“The case against Gannon boiled down to being too pro-Republican,” said Kincaid, “writing stories with a conservative slant, and being linked to conduct, homosexuality, that is accepted and celebrated by those who were going after Gannon in the first place. The standard of the liberal thought police is evidently that someone’s private life should be protected―except when the accused is a conservative”
Accuracy In Media (AIM) is a non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog of the news media that critiques botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage.
To schedule an interview with AIM Editor Cliff Kincaid, contact Anne Tyrrell at (703)739-5920 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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