MediaWatch: September 1993
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: September 1993
- Networks Promote Government-Directed Systems, Obscure Cost, Quality
- NewsBites: Execution Exaggerations
- Revolving Door: Democrat to Democrat to...
- Newsweek Says Black Families Have Only One Savior
- Post Finds "Extremists" on Right
- Glassman Breaks Myth
- Newsroom Ideology Stays Liberal
- Janet Cooke Award: CBS Sunday Morning's Jerry Bowen Portrays Church, Pope as Out of Touch
Revolving Door: Democrat to Democrat to...
When it came time for the National Public Radio (NPR) board to choose a new President, they stuck with tradition. They chose a Democratic operative: Delano Lewis, long time associate of former District of Columbia Mayor Mar-ion Barry. Lewis replaces Carter official Douglas Bennet, who has joined the Clinton Administration as an Assistant Secretary of State. Bennet had taken over in 1983 for Frank Mankiewicz, a veteran of George McGovern's presidential campaign.
Lewis, President of the C&P Telephone Co., had chaired Barry's 1978 transition committee and served as Co-Chairman of the finance committee for Barry's 1982 re-election. According to Washington Post stories, Lewis participated in strategy sessions after Barry's 1990 arrest for cocaine possession and contributed money to Barry's subsequent campaign for a City Council seat. In the early 1970s, Lewis was D.C. Delegate Walter Fauntroy's first Administrative Assistant, a position he assumed after serving as a Legislative Assistant to liberal GOP Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts.
Congressional Assignments
Three West Coast Democrats have tapped media veterans to fill Press Secretary slots in their Capitol Hill offices, Roll Call reported. Oregon's Peter DeFazio chose Susan Lindauer, a reporter for U.S. News & World Report in 1990-91....California's Robert Matsui decided upon Carri Ziegler, a former Los Angeles Times reporter. Ziegler told MediaWatch that she's been out of journalism for a few years, but was with UPI briefly in 1985 following a couple of years at the Times....Norman Mineta, also from California, signed-up Emil Guillermo, weekend co-host of National Public Radio's All Things Considered from 1989 to 1991. Guillermo spent six years in the '80s as a reporter for KRON-TV, San Francisco's NBC affiliate.
Clinton's Healthy USA Today
A year ago, USA Today "Money" section reporter and assistant editor Kevin Anderson left the paper to run external relations for the Alliance for Health Reform, a group chaired by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D- W. Va.). In August he jumped again, this time to the White House communications office. The ten-year veteran of USA Today will serve as spokesman for the Clintons' health care reform proposal.
Aspin's Army
Last month MediaWatch noted the Defense Department appointment of ABC News reporter Kathleen deLaski as its chief public affairs officer. As it turns out, she'll be surrounded by media veterans. Miranda Spivack will work under her as a public affairs specialist. Spivack will help spin stories on which she had reported just a few months ago. Part of the Hartford Courant Washington bureau since the early 1980s, as late as June she covered decisions on the Groton-built Seawolf submarine.... deLaski replaced Vernon Guidry, now a policy assistant to Secretary Les Aspin. Starting in 1980, Guidry covered defense for the Baltimore Sun. In 1987 Aspin hired him to handle press relations for the House Armed Services Committee where he rose to staff director ....Holding the title of Special Assistant to the Principal Deputy Undersecretary for policy, is Jonathan Spalter, a MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour reporter before becoming Maryland Press Secretary for the Clinton-Gore campaign.
