Baskin Becomes 13th MSM Journalist to Spin Through Revolving Door for Obama
Roberta Baskin, a veteran of CBS News, ABC News, PBS and Washington,
DC's ABC affiliate, with a stint at the Center for Public Integrity
mixed in, "will join the Department of Health and Human Service's
office of inspector general as a senior communications adviser in
mid-August," Washington Post "Federal Eye" blogger Ed O'Keefe reported
late Monday. Specifically, O'Keefe related, her job will be "to help
drum up media attention for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and
Enforcement Action Team, an HHS-Justice Department task force aimed at
combating Medicare and Medicaid fraud."
My list of journalists who have jumped to the Obama administration
- plus one who traveled through the revolving door from helping the
Obama campaign into a news media slot - is now up to thirteen. Not
counting Baskin: Three each revolved through CNN and the Washington
Post; two through ABC News; and one each via the Chicago Tribune, Los
Angeles Times, Newsweek and Time magazine.
For the full list, check the July 29 BiasAlert item: "Revolving Door from Journalism to Team Obama Now Up to a Dozen."
She won't be lonely at HHS where the Assistant Secretary for Public
Affairs is ex-CBS News and ABC News Washington correspondent Linda
Douglass. O'Keefe observed that she's "the third
journalist-turned-public-servant that previously worked at both ABC and
CBS. The administration's health care spokeswoman-at-large Linda
Douglass and Justice Department spokeswoman Beverley Lumpkin also
worked for both networks."
The Politico's Michael Calderone provided a brief rundown of her career, going back to the early 1990s:
Baskin's previous gigs include executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, senior Washington correspondent for NOW with Bill Moyers, senior investigative producer for the ABC News magazine 20/20, chief investigative correspondent for 48 Hours, ABC7 investigative reporter and contributor for the CBS Evening News.
After a couple of years running the Center for Public Integrity
starting in 2005, she returned to WJLA-TV channel 7 in Washington, DC
for a brief tenure. The screen shot is from a report she provided to
Good Morning America, in May of 2008, when she was with WJLA-TV.
-- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
