Dan Froomkin (via Wonkette and many others) traces the interesting life of a softball question at a White House press conference:

One came from Jeff Gannon, who works for Talon News, an obscure news outfit tied to a group called GOP USA. […] Interestingly enough, it’s not hard to figure out where Gannon got the idea for his question.

Here’s conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh yesterday: “[S]omebody in the White House press corps listens to this program. It is Jeff Gannon from Talon News. Here is his question, which is a repeat, a rehash, of a precise point I made on this program yesterday and is highlighted on RushLimbaugh.com.

“REPORTER: Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy: Harry Reid, who’s talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock solid and there’s no crisis there. You’ve said you’re going to reach out to these people. How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?”

Limbaugh continues: “[W]hat makes me think that the reporter was listening to the program is that Harry Reid never actually said ’soup lines.’ That is my characterization of their portrayal of America. He never actually said it. He just describes circumstances reminiscent of soup lines.”

(By the way, here’s the question:

Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. [Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] was talking about soup lines. And [Senator] Hillary Clinton [D-NY] was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there’s no crisis there. How are you going to work – you’ve said you are going to reach out to these people – how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?

Thanks to TAPPED. And by the way, Gannon himself seems proud of this, linking to Rush’s account on his personal website.)

Media Matters is on the case; they also document him cribbing verbatim from RNC talking points. Gannon was also subpoena’d for Plamegate, having mentioned possessing a memo regarding Joseph Wilson’s CIA wife.

But there’s more. Gannon/Talon/GOP-USA was an integral part of the Thune campaign mini-echo chamber, in which bloggers Jon Lauck (Daschle v Thune) and Jason Van Beek (South Dakota Politics) were on Thune’s payroll. John Stanton covered this in National Journal ("Lobbying & Law - Bloggers Targeted Daschle and the Press", 11/20/04):

Lauck, Van Beek, and other conservative activists in the state also tout a series of stories written by Jeff Gannon, the Washington bureau chief for TalonNews.com, as their ultimate proof of bias at the Argus Leader. The series, penned in summer 2003, alleged that Kranz, who went to college with Daschle, was not just sympathetic to his friend but was an actual part of Daschle’s larger campaign machine.

However, TalonNews is not the independent news source it purports to be. It’s run by GOPUSA, a conservative political publishing and consulting firm. While the Bush administration has provided Gannon with press credentials, the nonpartisan U.S. Senate Daily Press Gallery has rejected Gannon’s repeated requests for congressional press credentials because of TalonNews’ financial ties to GOPUSA.

For example, search for daschle residency and follow the bread crumbs. GOP USA, 10/15, Talon News, 10/15, JeffGannon.com, 10/15 are all the same, of course. On the same day, it makes the rounds: Daschle v. Thune, 10/15, South Dakota Politics, 10/15, National Republican Senatorial Committee, 10/15, Inside South Dakota GOP, Men’s News Daily, 10/15, Club for Growth, 10/15, etc. The Thune campaign naturally picked it up from its paid bloggers, and within a week, the story was in print.

By 10/28, here’s Stanton in CongressDaily: “South Dakota voters interviewed this week by CongressDaily said they were alarmed at the negative turn in the campaign, but some of the charges against Daschle appear to be having an effect – notably the Thune campaign’s efforts to raise questions about Daschle’s residency in the state.”

It’s a fun game — try it at home!

All this by way of saying, we know pretty much where in the food chain Gannon lies.