The media still reacts very weirdly to the whole Jeff Gannon story, and I think this latest ridiculous comparison offers a bit more understanding of why they do. In the latest, a Korean woman refused to clean up her dog's poop on the subway. Those who subsequenty transformed her into a notorious "internet celebrity" are compared to the "mob" who in the Gannon case "went further, reporting and speculating on aspects of Gannon's private life."
There'a a tremendous difference between Jeff Gannon and dog poop girl. Jeff Gannon appeared in daily White House televised press conferences and appeared at and even asked a question at a presidential press conference. Dog pop girl was... nobody. In other words, dog poop girl was truly a private person who suddenly found herself thrust rather unfortunately into the public sphere in a way which was disproportionate to her offense.
Jeff Gannon - public figure. Dog poop girl - private figure. Members of the media hate the idea that they themselves could be considered to be "public figures." They want the luxury and benefits of being on television every day without any loss of privacy. They don't want to be "fair game" for the press, and an informal agreement tends to make it so. They want to be immune to the kind of scrutiny they give to others.
It was and is a legitimate story about how a security-obsessed White House let a cock-headed manwhore who essentially came from nowhere got daily press passes for over a year. By attempting to hide his identity while putting himself into the public sphere Jeff Gannon raised legitimate questions about his background and that identity. The fact that the answers to those questions turned out to be that he lied about his past military service and had spend recent years being a $200/hr manwhore were not the fault of the questioners.
I try to respect the distinction between private and public figures as I think that distinction is important. I find it a shame when people suddenly find themselves being "internet celebrities" for whatever reason - sometimes the internet "mob" does inappropriately take someone out of the private sphere and put them in the public one. But Jeff Gannon, white house correspondent, was a public figure, not a private one.
