Letter to Poynter.org on Gannon/Guckert

From WELDON BERGER: Subject -- Kristinn Taylor [letter below]. Neither Jeff Gannon nor James Guckert have a First Amendment right to appear at the National Press Club. He does have a First Amendment right to refer to himself as a blogger and journalist, but the press club's Jonathon Salant said in an e-mail to me this morning that the press club does not consider him to be either, and that his participation in the panel arises from his having been cleared into the briefings almost daily over a period of two years despite White House guidelines mandating a hard pass, with the attendant FBI background check, for anyone who plans to attend regularly (something that was made quite clear to me with respect to Eric Brewer, the contributor to my blog who has been cleared to attend the briefings on an occasional basis). In addition to any other questions regarding Gannon/Guckert's role as a journalist, blogger Ron Brynaert has unearthed a few examples of Gannon/Guckert having apparently plagiarized from at least one AP story. So long as he's on the panel, someone probably ought to pursue that issue as well. Why the press club expects to learn anything Gannon/Guckert hasn't already said is something of a mystery. He says he doesn't know why he was accorded special treatment, and he says he is a journalist; there's no reason to think he'll elaborate on either issue or that he'll come up with anything that will clarify the 'who is a journalist' question. "