MediaWatch: March 1992
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Novel Reality
Novel Reality. A just-published novel, A Candidate's Wife, chronicles the tribulations of the wife of a presidential candidate after her husband's infidelity is revealed by a tabloid newspaper. The author: Patricia O'Brien, a Knight-Ridder Washington bureau reporter in the mid-1980s who put in a seven month stint in 1987 as Press Secretary for the Michael Dukakis presidential campaign.
Clinton Clan. The direct mail firm that holds the Bill Clinton presidential campaign account has enlisted a political reporter to open a Washington office. National Journal reported that Tom Oppel is one half of a new two person office for Ambrosino & Muir, a Democratic direct mail firm based in San Francisco. A Jackson Clarion-Ledger political reporter for six years until 1986, Oppel earlier reported from New Hampshire for United Press International.
Florida Democrat. Carter Administration veteran Eileen Shanahan has returned to the newspaper business after five years as Executive Editor of Governing, a Congressional Quarterly Inc. published magazine. She's now a Washington-based economics reporter for the St. Petersburg Times of Florida. Shanahan served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at HEW during the Carter years. A Transportation Department press aide for the Kennedy Administration, Shanahan was a New York Times Washington bureau reporter from 1962 to 1977 and Assistant Managing Editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the early 1980s.
Down the Hill. Charles Seigel, Press Secretary to U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and the Democratic Caucus Hoyer has been chairing for the past two years, has left Capitol Hill to help run an adult education program at the University of Phoenix. From 1980 to 1983 Seigel was a reporter for Denver's Rocky Mountain News....Across the aisle, Republican Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI) has lost Rob Rehg, his Director of Communication. A Hearst newspapers reporter since 1981, he spent 1988-89 reporting from Washington for the chain's newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Mondale Aide Passes Away. After a battle with cancer, Roger Colloff, Vice President and General Manager of New York's WCBS-TV since 1984, passed away in early February. A Legislative Assistant to then-Senator Walter Mondale for three years, in 1975 Colloff became Director of Governmental Affairs in Washington for CBS Inc. When Carter won the presidency he joined the transition team, subsequently holding various Carter Administration posts until jumping back to Black Rock in 1979 as Vice President and Assistant to the President of CBS News. In 1981 Colloff was named CBS News Vice President for public affairs broadcasts, a post which put in him charge of Face the Nation and 60 Minutes until he switched back to the corporate side of CBS in 1983.
