MediaWatch: March 1995
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Clinton's CBS Adviser
What do you do after running a network news division? If you're former NBC News President Michael Gartner you write a weekly USA Today column espousing liberal views. If you're David Burke, President of CBS News from 1988 to 1990 and Vice President of ABC News for the 11 years before that, you travel the country dispensing advice to liberal politicians.
Last October The Boston Globe reported that Burke was "traveling with" Senator Ted Kennedy "on the campaign trail and advising him on strategy." Now he's helping President Clinton. A February 28 Wall Street Journal piece explored how Clinton "is searching outside the White House for savvy advice on ways to counter Republicans on issues from the Contract with America to affirmative action." Reporter Michael Frisby noted that in a February trip to California, Clinton "brought along former CBS News chief David Burke to provide political and communications tips." Burke's returning to his Democratic roots: from 1965 to 1971 he served as Chief of Staff to Senator Kennedy.
ABC's of Job Creation
When former ABC News correspondent Kathleen deLaski went on maternity leave last September, the Department of Defense hired Kenneth Bacon, a Wall Street Journal reporter, to replace her. He filled her slot as Chief Public Affairs Officer until Secretary William Perry eliminated it and Bacon became Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. With her old position effectively taken, the February 17 Washington Times relayed a Defense Week story about how deLaski created a new one for herself as Deputy to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Liaison. She told the defense weekly that she worked "two to four hours a week" during maternity leave to set up the shop. At ABC deLaski held an on-air spot in the Washington bureau from 1988 through the Spring of 1993.
Back to Brinkley
The first Sunday in February marked the start of Dorrance Smith's second run as Executive Producer of This Week with David Brinkley. The Executive Producer of This Week when it was launched in 1981, Smith ran the show through 1989, when he took the same title at Nightline, where he remained until jumping to the White House. From early 1991 through the end of Bush's term, Smith served as Assistant to the President for Media Affairs.
Nets Hire Republicans
What a difference an election makes. Weeks after the November returns came in, ABC and NBC hired aides to retiring House Minority Leader Bob Michel to lobby for them in Washington. Capital Cities/ABC named William Pitts, Chief of Staff to Michel and a 25-year GOP Capitol Hill veteran, as Vice President for Government Affairs. Pitts replaced Mark MacCarthy, formerly a professional staff member in the 1980s for the Democratically-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee....
NBC tapped Bob Okun, floor assistant and Senate liaison for Michel, as Vice President for Government Relations. Roll Call recited Okun's Republican resume: Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Congressional Affairs for the Department of Education under Lamar Alexander; Executive Director of the House Republican Conference, the House Republican Policy Committee, and the House Republican Research Committee.
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.
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.
