MediaWatch: November 1990
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Speaking for the Speaker
Speaking for the Speaker. After four years as Los Angeles and San Francisco Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine, Michael Reese jumped into the middle of California's political battles. In August he became Director of Communications for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, a liberal Democrat who helped lead the unsuccessful battle against two term limitation referenda. Reese took over from Susan Jetton, a Charlotte Observer and San Diego Union reporter who left California last Spring to serve as Press Secretary for Harvey Gantt's losing Senate campaign. Before moving to Los Angeles in 1984, Reese spent several years in Newsweek's Chicago and Washington bureaus.
Morning Man. Is Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network planning to produce a national daily news program? The first sign: the July launch of the Fox Morning News, a two and a half hour news and interview show aired daily on Washington's WTTG-TV. Among the staff Fox has put together: Editorial Producer Charles (Chip) Reid, an off-air ABC News reporter in Washington in 1988 and 1989, who was General Counsel to the Joe Biden for President Committee in 1987. From 1982 to 1986, Reid served as Chief Investigator for the Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic Senators.
Back to the Tube. Former Florida television reporter David Snepp, who came to Washington, D.C. in 1989 as Press Secretary to Congressman Alex McMillan (R-NC), has decided to return to his former career. He's taken a reporter slot in the Cox Broadcasting Washington bureau. Snepp now files stories for Cox network affiliates in Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando and Pittsburgh as well as for San Francisco's Fox station. Roll Call reported Snepp covered McMillan's 1984 and 1986 campaigns for Charlotte's CBS affiliate before moving to Tampa's ABC affiliate.
Environmental Activism. At least three former members of the media are putting their experience to work for liberal environmental groups. David Goeller, media coordinator for Environmental Action since June, 1989, spent 20 years with the Associated Press, the last four covering the environment. In September, Environmental Action released its annual "dirty dozen" list. As usual, all but one were Republican, including Senators Alan Simpson (R-WY) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Senator Jesse Helms earned a "lifetime achievement award" for thwarting "efforts to protect our air and water"....
At the Environmental Defense Fund, a group promoting controversial global warming predictions, Allan Margolin handles media relations out of New York City. Until 1988 Margolin was an Associate Producer for ABC's Good Morning America....Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Vice President of the World Resources Institute (WRI), another group demanding more government action on global warming, wrote editorials for The Washington Post from 1979 to 1981. From 1977 to 1979 Mathews was Director of the Office of Global Issues for the National Security Council. Op-ed pieces by Mathews, which have castigated Bush's environmental policies and called for a higher gas tax, appear at least once a month in the Post.
