MediaWatch: June 1993
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: June 1993
- National Public Radio Anchor's Liberal Year at Weekend Today
- NewsBites: Tax Revolt?
- Revolving Door: Whiplash
- Clinton's "Serious" Deficit Cuts
- Hubbell's "Perception" Problem
- Myers on Euro-Pork
- Post's Ideological Double Standard
- Janet Cooke Award: Hard News Hillary's Pliant Press
Revolving Door: Whiplash
David Gergen, Editor-at-Large for U.S. News & World Report since 1988 and a former Nixon, Ford and Reagan aide, has spun back through the revolving door. On May 29, Bill Clinton named him Counselor to the President. Gergen will coordinate the White House communications apparatus. Chief Speechwriter for Richard Nixon in 1973-74, Gergen became Director of Communications for Gerald Ford, a title he later held under Reagan from 1981-83. In 1986-88 he was Editor of U.S. News.
For six years, Gergen's been the "conservative" MacNeil-Lehrer commentator. But he long ago showed that he's no conservative. In a 1990 U.S. News opinion piece, he argued that to kick the oil import habit, "there are several cures, but the fastest and surest is a 50-cent federal tax on every gallon of gas at the pump, phased in over five years."
During PBS coverage of last year's Democratic convention, he declared: "I must confess to a Tsongas bias," explaining that Tsongas and Senator Warren Rudman "want to go to the country with something like Common Cause and build a citizen's movement for change...pushing for shared sacrifice." A month later, he aligned himself with liberals, charging that "intolerant" Republicans were introducing "a sort of poison in our dialogue that it seems to me is inappropriate." And in his first press room appearance, he conceded he voted for Clinton.
McGovernite at NBC
In the wake of the Dateline NBC fiasco, NBC selected CBS Street Stories Executive Producer Andrew Lack as its new President. Among Lack's first decisions, naming a NBC Nightly News Executive Producer. His choice: Jeff Gralnick, Press Secretary during most of 1971 for former Senator George McGovern.
For 12 years before, Gralnick was a producer and Vietnam reporter for CBS News. Following his McGovern stint, Gralnick joined ABC News, rising to Executive Producer of World News Tonight by 1979. In 1985, Gralnick became Vice President and Executive Produer for special events. He's overseen all ABC election coverage since 1980.
Around the Cabinet
Journalists are taking up residence as Clinton Administration PR flacks in several agencies. Los Angeles Times reporter Victor Zonana, who FEC records show contributed $100 last year to Clinton, was named Deputy Assistant Secretary for public affairs at the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS). A founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, Zonana's been a New York City-based business reporter since he moved from the San Francisco bureau in 1990....
David French, CNN Washington reporter and weekend anchor since the early 1980s, has assumed the title of Deputy Director of Communications at the CIA....
At Education, the new Director of Communications is Kathryn Kahler, the Justice Dept. correspondent for Newhouse News Service. In Jan. 1991 she assumed the presidency of the National Press Club....
After four years as Press Secretary for the Democratic National Committee, Ginny Terzano has moved to the National Endowment for the Arts as Director of Public Affairs. In 1987 and early 1988 she worked for presidential hopefuls Gary Hart and Al Gore. When Gore quit, she jumped to the CBS News Election Unit as a researcher.
