MediaWatch: March 1991
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Surrender in the Desert
Surrender in the Desert. One member of MediaWatch's Revolving Door list got a closer look at the collapsing Iraqi army than she ever could have expected. As Elizabeth Colton, Editor of the weekly Loudoun Times-Mirror of Leesburg, Virginia, trailed Allied troops heading to Kuwait City, eleven Iraqi soldiers surrendered to her. The white-flag-waving Iraqis approached Colton, the Press Secretary to Jesse Jackson during his 1988 presidential campaign, by shouting in Arabic: "No water, no eat. We want peace. George Bush good. Saddam Hussein bad." Colton, who speaks Arabic, pointed them toward a POW collection camp. During the 1980s, Colton covered the Middle East for ABC News, Newsweek and National Public Radio.
Knight on the Right. In late January the conservative Heritage Foundation issued an analysis criticizing the National Endowment for the Arts for an institutional bias against religion and "traditional forms of arts and traditional values in general." The report's author: Robert Knight, a former "View" and "Calendar" features sections editor for the Orange County edition of the Los Angeles Times. First hired as a copy editor in 1982, Knight was responsible for design and layout when he left in 1989. After a year with California's conservative Hoover Institution, last fall Heritage named him its Senior Fellow for cultural policy studies.
Jersey Journalists. Richard Klein, a reporter with U.S. News & World Report during 1988 and 1989, has joined the staff of Senator Frank Lautenberg. He now holds the title of Special Assistant to the liberal New Jersey Democrat....On the House side, Robert Maitlin has become Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Public Works and Transportation Committee, Congressman Robert Roe. Maitlin held the same position at the Science, Space and Technology Committee which Roe had chaired the past four years. Until becoming Press Secretary to the Democratic Congressman in 1979, Maitlinserved as Washington Bureau Chief for the Newark Star-Ledger.
NBC's Cable Connector. NBC Cable, operator of the Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC), bought the bankrupt Financial News Network (FNN) from Infotechnology in early March. NBC plans to merge the two services into one headed by NBC Cable President Thomas Rogers, Senior Counsel from 1981-1986 to the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance chaired by then Congressman Tim Wirth, a liberal Democrat.
Bush Workers. Two media veterans have joined the White House team. Dorrance Smith, Executive Producer of ABC's Nightline since late 1989 and of This Week with David Brinkley for most of the 1980s, has come aboard as Assistant to the President for Public Affairs. Smith will coordinate relations with reporters outside Washington. During the Ford Administration, Smith worked in the White House advance office....Washington Times Editorial Page Editor Tony Snow was named chief speechwriter in late February. Before jumping to the Times in 1987, Snow served as Deputy Editorial Page Editor of The Detroit News.
