MediaWatch: May 1988
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Richard Pollock
Richard Pollock, former Director of Critical Mass, Ralph Nader's anti-nuclear power group, has begun work as a Washington-based Segment Producer for ABC's Good Morning America.
Leaving Nader in the early 1980's, Pollock formed a public relations firm catering to liberal causes. In 1985 he coordinated the anti-Strategic Defense Initiative television ad campaign of the Peace Media Project.
Trying to bring a little balance to the network, CBS News asked Jack Kemp's Press Secretary, John Buckley to be a political campaign coverage consultant. Buckley put in his first on-air appearance during the CBS Pennsylvania primary special.
But Buckley is still outgunned. Two liberals also hold the title of consultant: Tom Donilon and Harrison Hickman. Donilon helped run Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign and Joe Biden's short-lived effort last year. Hickman heads a Democratic polling firm. Among his past clients: liberal Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, Gary Hart's first try in 1987 and then the Paul Simon campaign.
Meanwhile, CBS This Morning has decided to bring aboard Christopher Matthews, former top aide to House Speaker Tip O'Neill as a "political columnist." He's providing viewers with campaign insights "at least twice a month."
Ira Allen, who left United Press International (UPI) in January after 18 years, became Press Secretary for liberal Congressman Chester Atkins (D-Mass.) in April. For the past four years he helped cover the White House for the wire service.
John Hanrahan, a Washington reporter for UPI until early 1987, named Executive Director of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. In 1982 and 1983 he served as Senior Editor of Common Cause Magazine. Hanrahan was a Washington Post reporter from 1968 to 1976.
Former CBS News President Ed Joyce's new book, Prime Times, Bad Times, reveals an interesting bit of background information about the CBS News executive in charge of the 1982 documentary on General William Westmoreland
Roger Colloff, Vice President for public affairs broadcasts in 1981 and 1982 served as an aide to then Senator Walter Mondale before joining the Carter Administration as Special Assistant to Secretary of Energy James Schlesinger.
He's held a variety of high-level positions with CBS since 1979, including Vice President of the Broadcast Group, becoming General Manager of New York's WCBS-TV in 1984, a job he still holds.
