MediaWatch: August 1991
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Allen and Alar
Allen and Alar. The Powell Adams & Rinehart public relations firm has a new Senior Associate: Paul J. Allen, a veteran of the media and politics. Allen joined National Public Radio (NPR) in 1979 as an Associate Producer for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In 1982 NPR promoted Allen to Foreign Editor, a post he held until jumping to politics in 1985 as Press Secretary to liberal Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. After a two year stint with Dodd, Allen moved to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) where he served as Director of Communications until this summer. At the NRDC he coordinated publicity for the left-wing environmental group's misleading campaign against the Alar pesticide.
Schmoozing for Schaefer. After a year as National Desk Manager for the Fox News Service, provider of video and news stories to Fox affiliates, Frank Traynor has signed on with Maryland Governor Donald Schaefer as the Democrat's Press Secretary. Traynor's a veteran of local news operations, serving as Executive Producer for CBS affiliate WBAL-TV in Baltimore when tapped by Fox. Previously, he was Producer of WTTG-TV's 10 O'Clock News in Washington D.C., a position he assumed in 1985 after leaving NBC affiliate KYW-TV in Philadelphia where he had been Executive News Producer. Earlier career stops included the ABC affiliates in Houston and San Antonio.
New Time Chief. Laurence Barrett, Time's Washington Bureau Chief, has returned to his former position, National Political Correspondent. Replacing Barrett is Senior Writer Margaret Carlson, Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission during the Carter Administration. Carlson joined Time's Washington bureau in 1988.
Carlson is not the only Time staffer who once worked for a Democratic politician. Senior Writer Walter Shapiro was Press Secretary to Carter Administration Labor Secretary Ray Marshall and later wrote speeches for President Carter. Kenneth Banta, now a London bureau reporter, left the magazine in 1984 to spend several months as an issues adviser for Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart.
