MediaWatch: September 1994
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Maureen's Minutes
Maureen's Minutes
National Journal reported that
some shuffling in the office of Senator Byron Dorgan has created
a new space for Maureen O'Leary, a former Associate Producer
for 60 Minutes. Now a staff assistant for communications in the office of the liberal North Dakota Democrat, O'Leary told MediaWatch
she worked for the news magazine out of the Washington bureau
for three years starting in mid-1990, after some time as a
production assistant in ABC's D.C. bureau.
Brief Chief
For the last few months of his term,
retiring Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum has a new Chief of
Staff: Nancy Coffey, his Press Secretary since 1986. Before
traveling to the Hill, Roll Call reported she was news manager
at WRC-TV, a NBC-owned station in Washington, D.C. Coffey spent
the late '70s and early '80s toiling for Group W, Westinghouse
Broadcasting. Her assignments included News Director at KDKA in
Pittsburgh, Executive Editor at all-news WINS in New York, and
Washington correspondent for all the Group W radio stations.
East Moves West
ABC has selected an East Coast-based
veteran of Democratic politics as its new West Coast public
relations chief. Mark Johnson, Press Secretary to Jim Wright
when he resigned from the House Speakership in 1989, took over
in early September as Vice President for Network Communications
for the ABC Television Network Group, which includes the
entertainment and children's programming divisions.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, he'll also assist the New York-based news division. Johnson will report to Sherrie Rollins, Senior VP for communications who ran the White House public liaison operation for President Bush. During the 1987-88 presidential campaign, Johnson directed press relations for current House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt's Democratic run. Earlier, he handled press for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its then-Chairman, Tony Coelho, who is currently serving as an "adviser" to the Democratic Party.
Bouncing Back in Beantown
After five years as Good Morning America's
consumer reporter, Paula Lyons has landed at WBZ-TV, the NBC
affiliate in Boston. In the 1970s she worked for Kevin White,
Boston's Democratic Mayor, as Press Secretary and Deputy
Director of the Office of Federal Relations.... Christopher
Lydon, an unsuccessful 1993 Democratic candidate for the Boston
mayoralty, began hosting a new talk show on September 5. A
Washington correspondent for The New York Times from 1968 to 1977, Lydon's show airs from 10 to noon daily on WBUR, Boston University's public radio station.
Two Veterans on The Hill
The forthcoming Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill
has hired another revolver, this time as a writer. Joining
former Walter Mondale Press Secretary and Knight-Ridder
Washington reporter Al Eisele will be Jamie Stiehm, an
assignment editor for CBS News in London in 1987-88. Later in
1988 she became a field organizer in the San Jose area for the Michael
Dukakis campaign, and in late 1992 she slid east to join the
staff of Senator Joseph Lieberman as a speechwriter for the
Connecticut Democrat.
