MediaWatch: May 1992
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: May 1992
- Favoring "Abortion Rights"
- NewsBites: No Homeless Hype
- Revolving Door: Brown Bombast
- Looting a Rational Response to a Decade of Greed
- Blackmail and Intimidation of Sources: OK with PBS
- Actually Backed Thomas
- ABC and PBS Act as Co-Conspirators
- A Half Million Here?
- Janet Cooke Award: PBS on the October Surprise: Oops
Revolving Door: Brown Bombast
Brown Bombast. Democratic presidential candidate Jerry Brown hired a second Press Secretary in March to help handle added media focus prompted by his Colorado and Connecticut victories. His choice: NBC News investigative reporter Mark Nykanen, a veteran of two of the many NBC attempts at a news magazine show. In 1982-83 he reported for Monitor, which turned into First Camera in the Fall of 1983. Scheduled opposite 60 Minutes, NBC canceled the show less than a year later so Nykanen's stories appeared on Nightly News until he left the network in 1987.
Today in Congress. Marjorie Margolies, a reporter for NBC-owned WRC-TV in Washington until 1990, won the April Democratic primary for Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district in suburban Philadelphia. Margolies, who won the endorsement of the National Organization for Women, hopes to fill the open seat caused by the retirement of Republican Larry Coughlin. Married to Edward Mezvinsky, a Democratic Congressman from Iowa in the early 1970s, she worked for Philadelphia's CBS-owned WCAU-TV until joining WRC in the mid-'70s. During the '80s, her stories appeared occasionally on Today, including a 1991 piece on rising child homelessness.
Going For Perot. Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot is not only getting petitions signed, he's signing up media veterans to help run his campaign. In late April former Chicago Tribune Editor James Squires moved to Dallas to coordinate media relations for the billionaire Texan. Editor of the Tribune from 1981 to 1989, Squires had been Washington Bureau chief from 1974 until taking the helm at The Orlando Sentinel in 1977 for four years....In March, former CNN producer Pat Clawson launched Virginians for Perot. Clawson, who now runs his own business news service for trade journals and radio stations, worked in CNN's Washington bureau from 1986-88.
Kennedy's Mann. Bob Mann, Press Seretary to Senator Ted Kennedy from 1984 to 1986, has landed at Virginia's Roanoke Times & World News as its city editor. In the 1970s Mann was a reporter and editor with the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram and now defunct Dallas Times Herald as well as Chairman of the journalism department at Southern Methodist University in Texas. During the Carter Administration he worked for the Council on Wage and Price Stability and ran the FCC's public affairs operation.
Shaw's Newspaper Exchange. Florida Congressman Clay Shaw's office and the Ft. Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel must exchange resumes. Shaw's Press Secretary, Nancy Roman, joined The Washington Times early this year as its Supreme Court reporter. Before joining the Republican's Capitol Hill office in 1988, Roman had been a News and Sun-Sentinel reporter. Replacing Roman in Shaw's office is Amy Stromberg, a Washington correspondent for the Tribune Company-owned News and Sun-Sentinel who spent three years in Florida before moving north last year. Stromberg had earlier reported for the Dallas Times Herald.
