Mike Rogers of BlogActive and Raw Story made a scene at the Bloggers versus Journalists panel discussion at the National Press Club this morning in downtown Washington, D.C. - shouting questions at James Guckert/Jeff Gannon. Gannon, or whatever his real name is, just ignored the questions and left.

My favorite was: "Hey Jeff, did you sleep with Scott McClellan or anyone else in the White House?"

I'm not sure that's exactly the right question, since I don't think a lot of sleeping was involved.

The panel was mostly made up of what I would consider fairly light weights as journalists or bloggers go, but they were about on Gannon's level as far as speaking ability is concerned, if more qualified to be there. Gannon's only claim to fame at this juncture is that he was a gay bashing Republican male prostitute who got daily White House press passes for two years to ask softball questions of McClellan, the White House spokesman who allegedly liked to hang out in gay bars himself in his Austin days before moving to Washington to shill for President George W. Bush, a.k.a. the Texas Souffle.

I was standing in line to ask a couple of questions myself, but got cut off by the C-SPAN timeline.

Some old geezer who claimed to be a broadcast journalist waisted most of the question and answer time by making an incomprehensible speech, even though moderator Rick Dunham, president of the press club and Business Week White House correspondent, instructed questioners not to make speeches.

The same old geezer told Rogers his question was "a cheap shot." Rogers attacked back, saying something like, "You are part of the problem. You are being used. Gannon is a pathetic plant."

I think he meant a Bush administration plant, not a potted plant. But hey, I could be wrong.

The only member of the panel to really challenge Gannon was Ana Marie Cox, the editor of Wonkette who may soon replace Richard Leiby as the Washington Post gossip columnist. But she hardly nailed Gannon to the wall, and he just would not discuss in detail how he REALLY got access to the White House so often and for so long.

Here's the language in the Press Club announcement about the event:

"Now that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can set up shop on the Web, the days when you could tell who was a reporter by looking for a press card stuck in a fedora are long gone. A writer for a conservative Web site got credentials from the White House, even after a committee of journalists turned him down. For several years, bloggers have been blurring the lines daily between journalists and activists. And now professional media blogs blur even those lines.

"So how do you know who's a journalist these days? A panel of journalists, bloggers and others will discuss the rules for who is what on Friday, April 8."

Panelists included:

Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the Baltimore Sun, chairwoman of the Standing Committee on Correspondents for the House and Senate press galleries.

Garrett Graff, editor, Fishbowl DC, the first blogger to receive White House press credentials.

Jeff Gannon, formerly with conservative Web site Talon News, whose question at a presidential news conference focused attention on how he got into the White House press corps.

Ana Marie Cox, editor of Wonkette.com.

John Stanton with Congress Daily, who has written for National Journal about blogs and conservative news organizations.

Matthew Yglesias, staff writer at The American Prospect and editor of yglesias.typepad.com.

Mike Madden with Gannett News Service and co-chair of the NPC Professional Affairs Committee will moderate the program.

Editor and Publisher published an advance story about it:

The National Press Club Welcomes . . . Jeff Gannon?

America Blog the Web site that broke the story about Gannon's days as a male escort, posted a short notice today about it.

And Wonkette had a story today too.

I'm still digesting my notes and will have more to report over the weekend. But if I had made it to the microphone, I might have asked if I was the only journalist and blogger and scholar on journalism as a profession in the room.

I will soon be posting a paper I researched, wrote and presented at a journalism educators conference a few years back.

But for now this site is experiencing some technical difficulty, and besides, I need a beer break.

Site Note: The Locust Fork server has been undergoing a bit of mantenance lately, so sorry for any problems accessing the site. The gurus down in East Tennessee say all should be well by Saturday morning. Thanks for your patience. Check back soon and often.

GW