There’s A Debate?
NYT: Ex-Journalists New Jobs Fuel Debate on Favoritism:
An unusual number of journalists from prominent, mainstream organizations started new government jobs in January, providing new kindling to the debate over whether Mr. Obama is receiving unusually favorable treatment in the news media.
These are not opinionated talkers in the vein of Chris Matthews …
Rather, they are, for the most part, more traditional journalists from organizations that strive to approach the news with objectivity.
Jay Carney, the new communications director for Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was, until late last year, the Washington bureau chief at Time magazine, where he covered the campaign and, coincidentally, was a co-author of an article in September titled, “McCain’s Bias Claim: Truth or Tactic?”
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the leading candidate for surgeon general, is CNN’s chief medical correspondent …
Should he get the job, Dr. Gupta will be working for the Department of Health and Human Services, whose prospective assistant secretary for public affairs is Linda Douglass, a longtime network news correspondent who left journalism for Mr. Obama’s campaign last spring.
On Capitol Hill, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has hired Douglas Frantz as his chief investigator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Frantz is a former managing editor of The Los Angeles Times and before that was an investigative reporter there, at The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune.
Reasonable people might dicker over what those organizations “strive” for. But regarding the matter at hand, while Gupta clearly is interested in sparkling up the resume, Frantz ruefully notes that given happier times, he might still be running LAT. NYT takes only passing notice of that elephant, while granting the former golden boys/newly minted flacks this extended fantasy:
Some of those who are heading into government say they do not see their new jobs as particularly partisan.
As the chief investigator of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Frantz said he was acting much like an investigative reporter …
Mr. Frantz, who left The Los Angeles Times as it was changing owners in 2007, said he was ready for a career change. But he acknowledged, “If the newspaper industry were more robust, I would hope to still be managing editor of The Los Angeles Times.”
With a press aide for Mr. Kerry monitoring the interview — the sort of arrangement that annoys reporters — Mr. Frantz said he did not view his new job as promoting any partisan aim.
“Pursuing the truth is apolitical,” he said.
Sure it is. United States Congress, bastion of apolitical truth pursuit.
Mr. Carney, the former Time bureau chief who now works as Mr. Biden’s spokesman, said he did not view his job as particularly political either, given his boss’s promise of bipartisanship.
Great deniability! That guy learns quick.
“This is a Democratic administration; we’re obviously on that side of the aisle, but I don’t see this as a partisan job at all,” Mr. Carney said in an interview.
He may have a point. It’s probably going to be more about making his largely irrelevant, bumbling boss look good.
He acknowledged having “an affinity for Joe Biden and Barack Obama.” But he said it never influenced his coverage of the presidential campaign, as evidenced, he said, by the angry notes he often received from liberals last year concerning his coverage.
Mr. Carney had one of the more combative interview sessions with Mr. McCain, but he was also occasionally criticized by liberal groups like Media Matters, which once accused him of being too light on Mr. McCain.
Mr. Carney’s former boss, Time magazine’s managing editor, Richard Stengel, said of him, “I never had any evidence one way or another what his political leanings are.” Mr. Stengel left journalism to work on Bill Bradley’s 2000 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
This Jan. 21 Bloomberg article from last week is less about affinity and more about bottom line:
A slump in the newspaper industry makes positions in the new administration even more desirable. Tribune Co., the bankrupt owner of the Los Angeles Times, Cox Enterprises Inc. and other publishers have closed or reduced their Washington bureaus as they face declining advertising sales and circulation.
…
Tribune, which filed for bankruptcy Dec. 8, cut the number of Washington reporters for its newspapers by more than half, to about 30, from 70 a year ago, Gary Weitman, a company spokesman, said yesterday. The company also publishes the Chicago Tribune.
Cox, publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will close its 15-person Washington bureau in April, according to spokesman Bobby Amirshahi. Other titles, including A.H. Belo Corp.’s Dallas Morning News, have trimmed staff.
“You’re going to see a lot of reporters going to communications staff in the coming weeks,” said Oscarson. “Every new senator, congressman and department needs all new staff.”
Soccer Dad: NYT’s unintentional hilarity …
Huh, this is odd. I refreshed this TIME The Page post, “Biased Journalists,” several times and it kept coming up blank. Couldn’t think of any?
Previously:
Campaign Shocker: Study finds coverage of the McCain camp three times more negative than Obama press.
Embarrassment: And the lack thereof. Michael S. Malone at ABC beautifully, if tragically, with shame, reports on the ”get-a-room” performance of the national media in this presidential election year and his own awakening.
Joe’s Army: Fixes bayonets, climbs out of the trenches, surprises the MSM’s defensive line.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:21 am Comments (2) on Tuesday, February 3, 2009
2 Responses to “There’s A Debate?”
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February 4th, 2009 at 10:42 am
“Mr. Carney had one of the more combative interview sessions with Mr. McCain, but he was also occasionally criticized by liberal groups like Media Matters, which once accused him of being too light on Mr. McCain.”
Translation: Mr. Carney slammed McCain, but folks even more partisan and leftist didn’t think he hit him hard enough. Sounds like the epitome of fairness and balance, eh? Just keep moving and don’t ask why there was no mention at all about his treatment of the other candidate (i.e. the one who signs his paycheck now).
February 4th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I’m stealing your phrase Novice in Chief, It’s somehow more derisive and current than Con Artist in Chief, that was so campaign yesterday.