mad anthony is not a gay hooker, but so what if he was?

Mad Anthony had a rough day of work, and came home to notice the blogosphere exploding over the Jeff Gannon gay porn story. Summaries at Instapundit and Protein Wisdom. The post that started this all is here (warning: contains nudity and unfounded speculation).

It's important to separate the three big "revelations" about Jeff - he may have at one point been a gay prostitute, he may have been a White House plant, and he may have leaked Valarie Plume's name. All of these are very unsubstatiated - the Plume claims have little basis, the gay-hooker things are based on claims from an anonymous source (just like the Rather memos!) and the plant story is unlikely, but not exactly a huge revelation even if it was true (the White House trying to look good at a press conference - oh, the humanity).

But lets say the gay hooker thing is true- why does the left feel the need to push this? Should the White House be vetting every reporter to make sure they weren't at some point a gay hooker? Should all journalists be investigated like that - isn't it an invasion of privacy?

It also should make anyone who runs a blog a little nervous about what might happen if they piss off the wrong people - to have things that they don't want to be public come out on the internet. This seems to have no goal except punishing a blogger/reporter for being too Bush-favorable. Jeff's resigned, and the Plume thing will stand or fall (probably fall) on it's own. The "gay hooker" story, real or fake, serves only to destroy this guy. And actions like that should make anyone, be they on the right or left, nervous.

Ever do anything you regret? An embarassing pic from years ago of you engaging in underaged drinking? A speeding ticket? Smoke some weed? Got some porn on your PC? Make the mistake of having the wrong opinion and the wrong people finding out about it, and it could be all over the internet.

The left has complained about bloggers for attacking Rather and Eason, even though those blog "attacks" were not personal. The Jeff Gannon attacks are personal, and they serve no purpose but personal destruction. That is a chilling effect on citizen journalists of any stripe.