Sherry Sylvester, Spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Texas, Denied Knowing Jeff Gannon's Boss
By ADVOCATE STAFF
The Advocate was amazed when it found out, via a Houston Chronicle article, that the spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Texas, Sherry Sylvester, had denied any knowledge whatsoever of Bobby Eberle, owner of Talon News and ostensible employer of "reporter" Jeff Gannon.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Sylvester, when asked about Eberle, said, "I'm not going to comment because I don't know him, and nobody here does."
At the time, we at The Advocate considered that statement to be an impossibility, given Eberle's bio, which includes the following nuggets of interest:
***
Bobby's political experience began through his involvement with the Republican Party of Texas and the Young Republicans organization.
Bobby's activities within the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) include serving as a delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. Bobby also served as a delegate to the RPT State Convention in 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. Bobby served on the RPT Education and Training Committee from 1998-2000. In 1999, Bobby was recognized with a unanimously approved resolution of commendation by the Republican Party of Texas for service and dedication to the Republican cause.
Bobby served as President of the Houston Young Republicans, the Director of Club Development of the Texas Young Republican Federation, and as a three-term State Chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation.
***
Investigation by The Advocate may have finally put the squeeze on Ms. Sylvester's bizarre claim, as she and Bobby Eberle appear to have published, in 2003, news articles in the same issue of The Austin Review--Eberle on page 6, and Sylvester on page 13.
Moreover, Sylvester, it turns out, is the Director of Texas Media Watch--making her oddly aloof for a woman who's supposed to have her ear to the ground with regard to media in Texas, as GOPUSA.com is certainly not an unknown entity there. As it says in the mission statement of Ms. Sylvester's organization (of which, the Austin Chronicle has speculated, "she appears to be the only employee"),
Texas Media Watch will regularly report on news stories that demonstrate a bias in favor or against a policy, ideology or public figure. We will also identify a number of journalistic practices that routinely tilt the balance of news coverage. Our immediate objective at Texas Media Watch is to provide a set of standards for Texans to use in weighing the balance of a news report. Our larger goal is to enhance the credibility of Texas media and enliven the public debate.
But she doesn't know Bobby Eberle, owner of a Texas-based conservative news outlet, "Talon News"?
Really?
They're not, The Advocate understands, at all obscure. Eberle himself boasts hundreds of thousands of "subscribers" for GOPUSA.com and its attendant "news" outfit.
Perhaps that's why the Denton County [TX] Republicans list both Eberle's GOPUSA and Sylvester's Texas Media Watch among their website links.
Or consider this: the Williamson County [TX] Republicans list GOPUSA.com as their top "political link." The Chair of the Williamson County G.O.P. is Bill Fairbrother, one of the founders of GOPUSA.com; his listed e-mail address remains a GOPUSA.com e-mail address. Indeed, GOPUSA.com lists Fairbrother as its Texas Editor.
How in the world does the spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Texas not know that one of her Republican County Chairmen works with (or for) Bobby Eberle at GOPUSA.com?
[Recall, also, that Sylvester said nobody at the Republican Party of Texas headquarters knew Eberle].
Want more?
How about the fact that the top "Texas media resource" listed on GOPUSA.com's website is The Lone Star Report, the weekly publication of the Lone Star Foundation--which Foundation, according to the Austin Chronicle, is the sole source of funding for Sylvester's Texas Media Watch?
And according to the archives of the San Antonio Express-News--for which Sylvester was (to hear The Austin Chronicle tell it) "a politics reporter"--Sylvester was writing for the Express-News at least in January of 2003, and perhaps later. Bobby Eberle's GOPUSA.com has been in consistent operation since at least January of 2000, according to an internet archive search, and Talon News was "founded" on March 29th, 2003. [Her own website touts her as "Sherry Sylvester: Political Writer"].
What kind of Texas-based "politics reporter"/"political writer" would Sylvester be to not know Bobby Eberle, whose outfit has been carrying politics-related Express-News stories on its website for years? [Perhaps some of Sylvester's, too? GOPUSA.com was running political articles from the San Antonio Express-News at least as far back as June 23, 2003; a search of the Express-News archives shows Sylvester was definitely a "political reporter" with the paper between, at least, December 2002 and January 2004].
Incestuous enough for you? And we've only given this issue a cursory glance.
The Houston Chronicle needs to figure out if they were lied to; and if so, why.
Monday, February 21, 2005
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14 comments:
What's the skinny on Gannon's finances? Who paid him and why does Gannon/Guckert owe back taxes?
Thanks for all the hard work AND not letting the story die. I'm sure all the Republican brooms are in full swing right now.
Here is an interesting path to follow on Bobby Eberle. I located a particularly detailed bio of him from when he was Chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation.
http://web.archive.org/web/19990221082015/tyrf.org/bios/bobby.html
The bio designates that he was involved in lobbying for the space industry:
"He is the current Lockheed Martin Space Mission Systems and Services representative to Keep It Sold. This group of community leaders was formed by the Clear Lake Area Economic Development Foundation's Aerospace Advisory Council to promote the Space Station, Space Shuttle, and manned space flight to Congress, the general public, and the media."
Keep it Sold was transformed into Citizens for Space Exploration - http://www.nkis.org
The Clear Lake Area Economic Development Foundation became the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership - http://www.bayareahouston.com
As an editor, Eberle was actively promoting Bush's plans for manned missions to the Moon and Mars:
http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/bobby/2004/bobby_0119.shtml
He neglects to mention his history in lobbying for the space industry. It would be interesting to know if he was still actively lobbying while Bush was developing his ambitious space exploration plans.
Even more interesting is that his review on male4malescorts.com was written by a pseudonym "spaceman" - Eberle?
this is a fantastic break on the texas front of this...i just linked to you in comments at http://www.americablog.org/
Yeah, looks like the official Texas Republican Marching Broom Team is in full swing. Or maybe it's just another coincidence that Sherry Sylvester's "bio" is now unavailable on her web site.
She was in such a hurry to get that page out of public view that there just might be something useful buried there.
Anybody know how to access the cached version of that page?
I find it really odd how All Things Conservative
Republican (ATCR) look so much like the shady operations of a certain kind of used car dealer: the kind that names itself "Honest John's" and provides a guarantee of one half mile or one half hour, whichever comes first, on a 20-year old car that an old grandma "used only to travel to and from church on Sundays."
These people love secrecy, confusion, and small print
qualifiers. Who owns the web sites GOPUSA and Talon?
Depends on the day of the week. The ownership changes with the wind, all the better to make it hard for you ethics-bound fools to figure out the scam.
Is my name Jeff or Jim, Gannon or Guckert, did I or did I not do....Well, why are you poking around in my private life? And did I mention that I did or did not start writing on a date I can't rememebr for one or another organization that is now called something different and owned by someone new, but I can't remember who?
Is Bobby Eberle, the apparent owner of GOPUSA and Talon, related to Bruce Eberle, Republican fundraiser and e-mail address collector, and if so, how? Depends on who you ask and when, not to mention the circumstances and what the person asking does or does not already know.
Is Social Security in trouble/crisis/good shape, and will you lose/gain/change your benefits if you are over/under a specific age of some unspecified date in the near/far future? Depends on what the meaning of "meaning" is. And by the way, would you like a free wash n' wax with that
private account? It's free, for only an additional 50 cents.
Do you cherish "family values" or not? Depends on whether we define them the way that my second family defines them, or the way that my first family (since divorced) defined them, because the first family included my gay child, who helped me on my campaign for office in a largely anti-gay campaign, but my second family defines them to exclude gay children and Godless heathens of all stripes, unless of
course that stripe runs down the right side and has
inherited enough money to help me get reelected.
Welcome to Honest John's Used Cars and Political News n' Views, ma'am. Just as soon as I send my editor this little tidbit of news that I cribbed off the white house press release, I'll get the keys to that little red cream puff over there and we can enjoy a smooth test drive through our lovely red state.
Ho-Hum..(yawn) another GOP caught lying...what ever happened to the run-away bride..?
And Bobby Eberle personally saw how a American Airlines B757 flew into the Pentagon!
x
And Bobby Eberle saw personnaly how the American Airlines B757 crashed into the Pentagon!
DID GANNON FUCK KARL ROVE?
Gannon, Rove and Mclellan, a gay three way in the white house??!!!!Was George "lips" Bush allowed to play too??
And does any of this have anything to do with the black eye Bush allegedly sustained from a fracas with a pretzel?
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