MediaWatch: October 1991
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Advocating Adams
Advocating Adams. As liberal Senator Brock Adams (D-WA) gears up for his 1992 election campaign, the former Carter Administration Secretary of Transportation has brought aboard a 26-year CBS News veteran to guide his press relations. In September Peter Herford, Director of the University of Chicago's William Benton Fellowships in Broadcast Journalism program since he left CBS in 1988, became Director of Communications for the Democrat.
Herford's career spanned the rise and fall of CBS News. He was a writer for the Evening News when CBS made Walter Cronkite the anchor in 1963. A year later he moved to Chicago as Bureau Chief, heading to the Paris bureau after a year and then to Vietnam for two years as Saigon Bureau Chief. After stops in Bonn and Rome, in 1969 he became a 60 Minutes producer. From 1972 to 1985 Herford served as Vice President for affiliate relations. He spent his last three years with the network as Producer of Sunday Morning.
Times Retirement. Barbara Gamarekian, a 25-year veteran of The New York Times Washington bureau, retired at the end of August. National Journal reported that during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations she worked in the White House press office. In 1966 she joined the Times as office manager, soon rising to reporter.
White House Whirl. Last February Nightline Executive Producer Dorrance Smith joined the Bush Administration as Assistant to the President for Media Affairs. One of his former colleagues has now followed him. Scott Sforza, a Nightline production coordinator for the past two years and an editorial assistant for two years before, has become Smith's deputy....Chase Untermeyer, White House Director of Personnel since the Bush Administration took office has jumped to the Voice of America as its Director. From 1972 to 1974 Untermeyer was a Houston Chronicle reporter.
Geraldo Girl. Prime Time Live reportorial producer Sheila Hershow has come aboard Geraldo Rivera's new half hour tabloid show, Now It Can Be Told. Hershow, an investigator for the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Government Activities and Transportation chaired by liberal U.S. Representative Cardiss Collins (D-IL) from 1987-89, will do investigative reporting out of Washington. Before jumping to Capitol Hill politics, Hershow put in three years with CNN's investigative unit.
Both Sides Now. The Sunbelt Institute, a bipartisan group of Members of Congress from 17 southern and southwestern states, has named Deborah Matthews its Deputy Director. Matthews worked as a CNN assignment editor in 1980, handling the same duties for Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV before becoming an Atlanta Constitution and Journal reporter in 1988. Press Secretary to U.S. Representative Mike Andrews (D-TX) in 1989 and to Senator Wyche Fowler (D-GA) in 1989-90, Matthews then handled communications for the Senate Special Committee on Aging headed by Pennsylvania Republican John Heinz until his death this past spring.
