ABC Declares: Claire Shipman, Wife of New Obama Press Secretary, Will No Longer Cover the White House

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos and Jake Tapper on Friday addressed the fact that Barack Obama's New press secretary, Jay Carney, is the husband of ABC reporter Claire Shipman. Stephanopoulos, discussing the couple, declared, "He and Claire actually appeared many times on This Week when I was the anchor. And, of course, Claire will now not be covering the White House.

Stephanopoulos, it should be noted, underwent the reverse career course of Carney. The GMA co-anchor began as a Democratic operative and then became a journalist. (Carney wrote for Time magazine before going to work for Vice President Joe Biden.)

Although Stephanopoulos tried to minimize the conflict of interest [1], insisting Shipman will no longer be covering "the White House," he didn't explain if that included the 2012 presidential race, the opponent's of her husband's boss and other issues relating to the administration.

Tapper appeared impressed with Carney and his ability to improve the image of Vice President Biden: "Well, he's been an effective and forceful advocate for the Vice President for the last two years. And you've seen Vice President Biden's press improve quite a bit. Jay understands what we do, having been a journalist."

For examples of Carney's bias when he was an actual journalist, go here [2].

A transcript of the January 28 segment, which aired at 7:07am EST, follows:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's switch gears to domestic policy. We saw yesterday, the new White House chief of staff, put out an E-mail, basically announcing the rest of the White House staff changes. And, Jake, it seems like a lot of old players in new positions.

JAKE TAPPER: That's exactly right. You have the director of the health care task force in the White House, Nancy Ann DeParle. She'll be a deputy chief of staff. The director of scheduling, Alyssa Mastromonaco, she'll also be a deputy chief of staff. And then, of course, the face of the White House, the public face of the White House, is Vice President Biden's communications director, Jay Carney, who, George, you and I know as the former bureau chief for Time magazine. And, of course, he's married to our own Claire Shipman.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's right. He and Claire actually appeared many times on This Week when I was the anchor. And, of course, Claire will now not be covering the White House. But, Jay, when he was at Time, actually talked about the position of White House press secretary. Take a look.

JAY CARNEY: The best, best press secretaries were very deft at serving both their boss, the President, the White House, the administration, and the press. And, and not- it's a tricky job. I'm sure I wouldn't be any good at it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Sitting there next to Joe Lockhart, Bill Clinton's press secretary. He's said he couldn't do it then, but he's actually had a two-year apprenticeship now as Joe Biden's communication's press secretary. So, how has he changed?

TAPPER: Well, he's been an effective and forceful advocate for the Vice President for the last two years. And you've seen Vice President Biden's press improve quite a bit. Jay understands what we do, having been a journalist. He understands that not every story is going to be positive. There's going to be some negative 'graphs in there. So, he brings a savvy to the business. We'll see what he's like in front of the cameras. That's a different gig all together.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And that will be brand-new for him. And Vice President Biden actually pushed this appointment quite hard.

TAPPER: Very aggressively.