MediaWatch: April 1994
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: April 1994
- A World Destroyed by Capitalism in Need of Higher Taxes, More Government
- NewsBites: Embarrassing Eleanor
- Revolving Door: Baer To the Rescue
- No Such Media Concern During Iran-Contra, Wedtech, Sununugate...
- America, Full of Hatemongers
- Good Money After Bad
- Times Says Post Suspended Reporter
- Janet Cooke Award: All Four Networks, Newsweek Distort Studies of Hunger in America
Revolving Door: Baer To the Rescue
U.S. News & World Report has made its second contribution to the White House staff. Nine-year veteran Donald Baer has taken the title of Director of Speechwriting and Research. Baer held the title of Associate Editor until becoming a Senior Editor in 1988. Since late 1991 he's been an Assistant Managing Editor in charge of the up-front "Outlook" section. Last May, U.S. News Editor-at- Large and former Editor David Gergen became counselor to the President. Also working in Baer's shop: Carolyn Curiel, a former Nightline producer and New York Times editor, and Alison Muscatine, a former sports and metro news reporter for The Washington Post.
NBC's Re-Run Ross
When President Carter took office, Thomas Ross abandoned his position as Washington Bureau Chief of the Chicago Sun-Times to become Assistant Secretary of Defense for public affairs. With the election 12 years later of another Democratic President, Ross is back in politics. He's signed on as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for public affairs at the National Security Council.
From 1986 to 1989 he served as Senior Vice President of NBC News in charge of planning. Since leaving NBC he's been at the Hill & Knowlton public affairs firm as Senior Vice President and global director of media relations. At the NSC he'll work with Tara Sonenshine, Deputy Director for Communications and a Nightline producer for most of the 1980s.
Pryor Experience
Joining ABC News in April as a New York-based editorial producer at large was Mark Robertson, a Senior Vice President in Hill & Knowlton's Washington office. Robertson once worked for Senator David Pryor, Common Cause magazine reported last year. Robertson told MediaWatch that he handled scheduling and wrote speeches for the Arkansas Democrat from 1980 to 1982. According to The Washington Post, Robertson will be "working primarily with Diane Sawyer," a former Nixon press assistant. Under her new $7 million contract, Sawyer will have a role with Day One and Turning Point, in addition to co-hosting Prime Time Live.
Moving Around
Margaret Carlson, Special Assistant to the Director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the Carter years, has started writing a regular Time column under the heading of "Public Eye." She's been a Time Washington reporter since 1988. Carlson's cover story last May 10 called Hillary Clinton an "icon of American womanhood"....
Following Les Aspin's departure, Miranda Spivack, a public affairs specialist at the Defense Department since last summer and previously a Washington reporter for The Hartford Courant, has revolved back into the media. She's now Editor of a Maryland chain of suburban newspapers owned by The Washington Post Company....
Speaking of Aspin, Fred Kaplan, a Legislative Assistant to then-Rep. Aspin in the late 1970s, is now The Boston Globe's Moscow Bureau Chief. He's been a Globe reporter since 1982... Betty Furness, who retired in 1992 after 16 years as Today's consumer reporter, passed away at age 78 on April 3. She served as Special Assistant to President Johnson for consumer affairs.
