MediaWatch: December 1994

Revolving Door: Another Journal Entry

The huge Democratic losses at the ballot box failed to dissuade a second Wall Street Journal reporter from joining the Clinton foreign policy team. Daniel Benjamin, a reporter in the paper's Berlin bureau since 1992, became a foreign policy speechwriter under the direction of Bob Boorstin, a one-time New York Times reporter. Before jumping to the Journal, Benjamin reported for a couple of years from Germany for Time, a foreign post he filled after spending the late 1980s as a New York-based staff writer. This fall, fellow Wall Street Journal reporter Kenneth Bacon, a 25-year veteran of the Washington bureau, became Assistant Secretary of Defense for public affairs.

Meanwhile, Tara Sonenshine, Deputy Director for Communications for the National Security Council, has quit to spend more time at home with her child. A producer for 12 years in the ABC News Washington bureau, in early 1994 she jumped from Nightline to the White House.

Progressive Loss
Erwin Knoll, Editor of the Madison, Wisconsin-based Progressive since 1973, passed away November 2. A frequent panelist in recent years on the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, he spent a decade in the mainstream media before becoming Washington editor of the far-left magazine in 1968. His Washington Post obituary noted that he joined that paper in 1957 as a reporter and rose to Assistant World Editor. He covered the White House for the Newhouse News Service from 1963 to 1968.

Liberal Leave Leader
One of the Clinton Administration's first liberal achievements, passage of the family leave bill, will have a former ABC News and CNN reporter overseeing its implementation. The administration picked Susan King as the first Executive Director of the Commission on the Family Medical Leave Act. The Washington Post reported that it will "review how the law is being implemented and make recommenda- tions for changes." The law forces private businesses to hold a job open for employees who decide to take an extended period off.

The number two White House reporter under Sam Donaldson in 1981, King covered the first year of the Reagan Administration before becoming a general assignment reporter. In 1982 she moved to NBC-owned WRC-TV in Washington as a reporter and anchor, later jumping to ABC affiliate WJLA-TV where she remained until 1993. Over the past year she's Worked as a weekend reporter for CNN and frequent co-host of CNBC's Equal Time.

Left Wing Watchdog
"Don Hazen entered journalism as a political organizer, a veteran campaign manager for New York City Democrats whom Newsweek hired in 1978 to oversee its philanthropic activities and to give advertising space to public interest groups," began an October 8 National Journal profile. Since 1991 Hazen, Publisher of Mother Jones from 1985-91, has been Executive Director of the Institute for Alternative Journalism (IAJ), a group dedicated to getting left wing views into the media. "The right wing is masterful at creating an infrastructure of media groups and think tanks," Hazen said, "We want to make sure our journalists can compete." Working with the far-left Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, IAJ has created an on-line "expert" service.

Healthy Communication
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) tapped a local and network television news veteran in September to head its communications division in the office of the Assistant Secretary for public affairs. They hired Jackie Nedell, whom National Journal reported "was most recently a freelance television reporter based in Washington" for Fox and the NBC News Channel where her stories appeared on Nightside. At HHS she's working nearby former Los Angeles Times reporter Victor Zonana, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of HHS for public affairs.

Hometown Carterite
When the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette selected a new Executive Editor in June 1992, an October American Journalism Review story revealed it chose a former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter. Taking the helm in Little Rock just as Bill Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination, Griffin Smith Jr. who spent the previous five years running the paper's travel section.

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