A Record 19 ‘Journalists’ And Media Executives Join Obama Administration

February 17, 2012 | Filed under Barack Obama,In The Tank For Obama,Media | Posted by

It’s not like this news is really news, but a record 19 “journalists” and media executives threw away their pads and pens for the glamorous life of an Obama lackey. Included in the 19 were 5 from the Washington Post, and 3 each from ABC and CNN. According to the Washington Examiner most of them ended up in the communications department or in speech writing, including the head wombat Jay Carney.

For some Washington reporters and media execs, cheering their team from the sidelines just isn’t good enough: Tugging on a red, white and blue Team Obama jersey is the answer.

That’s the case for a whopping 19 journalists and media executives, including five from the Washington Post and three each from ABC and CNN, who’ve gone into the administration or center-left groups supporting the president.

Those inside the administration hit 14 this month when the Post’s Stephen Barr joined the Labor Department. That’s a record, say some revolving door watchers, and could even be much higher: The Post reports that “dozens” of former journalists have joined the administration, although Washington Secrets couldn’t verify that tally.

Many are in communications and speech writing offices, most prominently Jay Carney, the president’s spokesman who ran Time’s Washington bureau, and husband to ABC’s Claire Shipman. Some joined as the news business collapsed, many to finally voice their politics, and others, notably former Transportation spokeswoman Jill Zuckman, because she liked her future boss, Secretary Ray LaHood, a rare Republican in the administration. That relationship rocked: LaHood broke through the lower-tier Cabinet P.R. ceiling to become one of the most well-known Transportation secretaries ever. She had worked for the Chicago Tribune.

Don’t look at this as some sort of confirmation that the media is in the tank for Obama. Look at it as the beginning of the end of the lame stream media. Eventually, if enough of them leave their “journalist” positions in favor of Obama lackey positions, they might eventually be replaced with actual journalists who will actually report the news instead of trying to shape it into something favorable for their guy.
Here’s hoping, anyway.
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Posted by on February 17, 2012.
Filed under Barack Obama, In The Tank For Obama, Media.
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I'm not an author, lawyer, or professor. These seem to be the most common careers of bloggers these days. I'm just an average, commonsense, conservative who lives in a red state that flipped blue. America is lacking in the commonsense department. We've got plenty of lawyers and professors.

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_W6UJJOM4PP4XLSBG6N4LROVSQE Retired Military

    Color me suprised.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    The idea the replacements would somehow be more objective journalists is just preposterous – because it is impossible.  As long as reporters come from “Schools of Journalism,” their numbers will be dominated by leftists who regard the mission NOT to report the facts, but rather to “change the world.”

    Remember the “Journ-O-List” scandal a while back?  Ezra Klein started a secret back-channel email list of working journalists to discuss behind the scenes how to manage news stories so the message the public received was a uniform one, and “unfiltered facts” didn’t slip through.  Virtually all the Politico staff at the time was on it, along with most of the working mainstream reporters and opinion writers under 40.  It was a pure propaganda machine.

    When word leaked out, Klein shut the list down – but even then, hinted it would reemerge in another form (probably with more stringent screening of members).

    How many of the members of that overt propaganda project lost their jobs?  NONE, with the possible exception of Dave Weigel, who was the one who let the secret slip.

    Nothing will change the media.  Plunging ratings and revenues have only made them double down. 

    • jim_m

       Yep.  The list reemerged once and now it has again with the Media Matters BS.  The left just can’t give up on the idea of stifling the truth and reporting only their bogus leftist propaganda.  We can count on more manufactured lies from Ezra Klein and his leftist friends in the future.

      • herddog505

        Pfft!  Remember: these are just “like-minded people” having a “conversation”.

        • Commander_Chico

          Yeah, it’s not illegal, what’s the complaint?   Key phrases in the story:  journalists and media execs . . .  who’ve gone into the administration or center-left groups supporting the president.

          “And” “or?”  That potentially takes in a lot of people, but it’s only 19?  Much ado about nothing. It could mean some columnist joins the Brookings Institution, big whoop.

          Anyone who knows how Washington works rolls their eyes a a story like this.  People rotate from media, to government, to think-tanks, and back.  Last year’s Assistant Secretary is this year’s journalist, “fellow” at a think-tank, or vice-president at a corporation.  For example, Pete Williams still has a “journalist” job at NBC after being in Cheney’s Pentagon.  Poor Pat Buchanan just lost his job at MSNBC after he questioned the coming war with Iran too many times.  He was Reagan’s Communications Director and in the Nixon White House, too.  Same thing with George Stephanopoulos and Clinton.

          It’s incestuous, a mutual back-scratching circle jerk, but it’s legal and the way things are. 

          Do you suggest there should be laws against this?  Otherwise, take a large grain of salt with your media and drive on.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G7YIUZMXOD5JGZZTCYMVA75KFU Shadow

    Can’t get their tingles any where else?

  • Walter_Cronanty

     ”A Record 19 ‘Journalists’ And Media Executives Join Obama Administration”  That’s about 10 times the number of experienced business people in his Administration.  Gosh, I wonder what he thinks is important?

    • herddog505

      HAH!

      But, realistically, having lots of media people around is important to any politician.  “How can I sculpt my message so that it will get the best play?  What media figures do I need to flatter to get them on my side, and how do I best go about doing that?”

      As much as President Herddog would like to make the White House press corps sit in the floor and take notes with crayons on large pieces of cheap drawing paper, this wouldn’t be the smartest way to get the sort of good coverage that helps mobilize public opinion to his side!

      That being said, it WOULD be nice if Barry bothered to hire people who had actually earned an honest living at some point in their lives.

      • Walter_Cronanty

         Hell, I’m glad he’s got to start paying for some of the favorable cover he’s always getting.

  • TomInCali

    And a large number or oil and finance industry execs joined the Bush (and Obama) administrations. Are you just now discovering that there’s a revolving door between government and industry?

    • herddog505

      Not at all.  But it rather does give a moment of pause when the Most Ethical and Transparent Administration EV-AH, headed by a man who promised to fix the economy, put science first, etc., hires a huge number of journalists, especially in light of admissions by various journalists that the media is in the tank for him.

      Imagine that a large manufacturing company is struggling with production issues, late shipments, poor quality, and is bleeding red ink as a result.  Wouldn’t it bother you if the president of said company hired NOT some first-rate engineers and systems analysts, but rather a PR whiz?  Wouldn’t that suggest that he’s hoping NOT to solve the problems, but rather try to sucker the customers (and shareholders) into thinking that he has or convince them that there are no problems in the first place?