Jeff Gannon's 'past' would get me fired too

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36733-2005Feb18.html?sub=AR

In point of fact, it wouldn't have even taken the money part as recently as 2002 for my past to be criminal.

Gannon chastised his critics, breaking a silence that began last week when liberal bloggers disclosed his real name, James Dale Guckert, and a Web page, which he paid for, featuring X-rated photos of himself. "Why would they be looking into a person's sexual history? Is that what we're going to do to reporters now? Is there some kind of litmus test for reporters? Is it right to hold someone's sexuality against them?"

As for his critics, Gannon said: "People have said some of my writing expressed a hostile point of view" toward gays. "These people are willing to abandon their principles on the basis of trying to make me out to be a hypocrite. These are the same groups that cherish free speech and privacy."

You see sodomy was criminal in North Carolina until the Lawerence decision which was handed down in 2002. That means that it was possible for me to have a criminal record, and thus be incapable of passing my teaching backround check, for nothing more than having consential sex in the privacy of my own home. Gannon of course, didn't have consential sex in the privacy of his own home but brazenly broke the law for all the world to see. And he did so while a White House correspondent.

Gannon is vastly mistaken as to who the hypocrite is here. The President he served as a patsy is the one who said that anti sodomy laws "deliver an important societal message" And yes Mr. Gannon, it is still sodomy even if you are the top. It has been often said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scondral. It turns out that Christianity is the first refuge of those who are hypocritical and refuse to take responsibility for their actions.

It is one thing to be a privately gay person who happens to have conservative beliefs. It is quite another to flagrantly break the law while trashing gays and those who dare stand up for them. The simple fact is many less famous people have lost jobs, jobs they actually were good at, for a lot less than Gannon. Often those leading the charge to fire those people are the very same people who Gannon served in the White House. Let's just say Gannon won't be the first person I pray for in church tomorrow.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. If you want your sexual life to remain private

then don't post your cheesecake shots on the friggin' Internet.

As a matter of fact, you might want to even consider skipping the photo shoot, next time around.

[MSgt213]

2. does that article seem like a Gannon press released to you?

What was the point of it other then to repeat denials by Gannon?

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3. If I ever get in trouble

I hope I can get such a sympathetic hearing. My aunt is a reporter and I bet she wouldn't be as sympathetic.

[MSgt213]

4. I think the WP article is a text book example of what's wrong with the

media today. It almost gives the impression that everyone is picking on Gannon and he has done nothing wrong at all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. "Fired *too*"?

Guckert wasn't fired. He resigned. He claimed that "liberal bloggers" were threatening his family. He has no evidence for this at all. If he thought his past was acceptable, he should have chosen to stay in his 'job'.

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6. I am assuming he was helped to resign

Thanks to my drinking problem I have been down that road. You may be right that it was totally voluntary but I doubt it.