MediaWatch: February 1992
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: ABC's Bush Campaign
ABC's Bush Campaign. Before leaving the Department of Housing and Urban Development in mid-1990, Sherrie Rollins held the title of Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs under Jack Kemp. Now, after a year and a half as Director of News Information for ABC News, she's re-joined the Bush Administration as Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs. In her new post, Rollins will be working with another ABC veteran, Dorrance Smith, the long-time This Week with David Brinkley Executive Producer who toils in the White House communications office.
Newsday News. Long Island's Times Mirror-owned Newsday and its companion New York Newsday have named Elaine Kamarck, an occasional contributor for four years, "special correspondent." Kamarck's a veteran Democratic operative. In 1988 she was Deputy Campaign Manager for Bruce Babbitt. In 1984 she handled delegate selection for Walter Mondale and in 1980 she directed special projects for Jimmy Carter. A Newsday press release says Kamarck "will spend the next year reporting and commenting on the presidential campaign." Kamarck remains a Senior Fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute which also employs former U.S. News & World Report Associate Editor Robert Shapiro, now an economic policy adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton.
Right Moves. Fox News Service has named Cissy Baker its Vice President and Managing Editor. In 1982 Baker made an unsuccessful run for Congress as a Republican. Baker spent most of the 1980s as a CNN Washington reporter and then Managing Editor at the network's Atlanta headquarters....Andy Plattner, an Associate Editor of U.S. News & World Report from 1985 to 1990 and Director of Communications for the Office of Educational Research at the Department of Education ever since, has jumped back to the private sector. He now handles press for the National Center on Education and the Economy wich evaluates student skills and the Public Education Fund Network, a group dedicated to getting business support for schools.
Moving to Moscow. After a decade of reporting for ABC News, former Democratic Senate aide Rick Inderfurth is leaving the network. A Moscow correspondent from early 1989 through mid-1991, Inderfurth has decided to move back to Moscow to "get involved in rebuilding the former Soviet Union." Inderfurth told The Washington Post he's looking at several options and "there's nothing firm yet."
During the first two years of the Carter Administration Inderfurth served as Special Assistant to the National Security Council Director, becoming Deputy Staff Director for political and security affairs for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1979. When the Republicans took control of the Senate in 1981, ABC News hired him to cover the Pentagon. As national security affairs reporter from 1984-89, Inderfurth became a familiar face on World News Tonight and Nightline.
