"Bloggeurs de Gauche"
This article, "Les relations ambiguës de Bush avec les journalistes" , from Le Monde, came to my attention via John Aravosis of AMERICAblog.
The story is about the current administration's dislike for the press, and its attempts to manipulate the news. Naturally, it mentions the Jeff Gannon affair.
The fun part is at the end. First, they recount the story of a Washington Post reporter (charged with the "delicate" mission of reporting on the series of inaugural balls) who made a serious transgression by stepping outside the area designated for journalists, in order to phone in his first impressions. As a result, a woman threw herself at him and tried to tear away his cell phone:
… Un journaliste du Washington Post avait été chargé de la délicate mission de relater la série de bals organisés pour l'investiture du président, le 20 janvier. Au cœur de l'action, il téléphone au journal pour dicter ses premières impressions, quand une femme se jette sur lui pour lui arracher son portable.
Le malheureux avait commis une faute : il était sorti de l'espace réservé aux journalistes. Au-delà de cette limite, ceux-ci devaient être escortés, "du buffet à la salle de danse et même aux toilettes". Il raconte qu'une personne avec laquelle il parlait s'est figée quand elle a vu qu'il était "accompagné". On ne sait pas si Jeff Gannon, qui a fait de la publicité pour un site d'escort boys, était au bal "accompagné".
They end by pointing out that every reporter was to be accompanied everywhere outside the bounded area (even to the toilet), thus demonstrating that they had been, effectively, vetted for conversation by being "accompanied".
The joke in the last sentence says (their italics) that "one doesn't know whether Jeff Gannon, who became famous for a site of "escort boys", was himself "accompanied" to the ball.
To echo Aravosis' sentiments: you go Le Mond!
A little addendum. There was a useful bit for the right-wing bloggers, too. Earlier in the piece they wrote
La question n'a pas effrayé M. Bush, mais des bloggeurs de gauche ont disséqué le curriculum vitae de l'auteur, Jeff Gannon, qui a été contraint de démissionner du site Internet qui l'employait : TalonNews.com.
Although the word "gauche" means "left", as in "left hand" or, indeed, "left wing", "gauche" has taken on different meanings in English. Nevertheless, I would think that right-wing bloggers (or "bloggeurs de droit") would hoot at the idea of "bloggeurs de gauche".