Fair and Balanced

Prominent journalists join Obama team
By Jim Rutenberg
Published: February 3, 2009

WASHINGTON: Republicans have long accused mainstream journalists of being on the payroll of President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, a common refrain of favoritism, especially from those on the losing end of an election.
But this year the accusation has a new twist: In some notable cases it has become true, with several prominent journalists now on the payrolls of Obama and Democratic congressional leaders.
An unusual number of journalists from prominent, mainstream organizations started new government jobs in January, providing new kindling to the debate over whether Obama is receiving unusually favorable treatment in the news media.
These are not opinionated talkers in the vein of Chris Matthews, the television host who flirted last year with a run for the Democratic nomination for the Senate from Pennsylvania - and who more recently said he would do "everything I can to make this thing work" for Obama.
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 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. His resume as a practicing neurosurgeon - and one of People magazine's "sexiest men alive" in 2003 - is not that of a traditional journalist. But he reported on the health records of the presidential candidates last year, along with their health care proposals.
Should he get the job, Gupta will be working for the Department of Health and Human Services, whose prospective assistant secretary for public affairs is Linda Douglass, a longtime television network news correspondent who left journalism for 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. 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.
Administration officials report they have had discussions with other print journalists looking for work as their news organizations begin to shed jobs.
The changes also give fodder to conservatives who have long complained that mainstream journalists are sympathetic to the views of Democrats.
"It is, I think, indicative of a certain affinity," said Rich Lowry, the editor of the conservative magazine National Review. "You would not have seen so many people from mainstream outfits going to work for John McCain."
It is not a one-way street. The administration of George W. Bush had as a press secretary the late Tony Snow, who had been in and out of journalism for years, though he spent much of his career as an opinion writer. In 2007, the Bush administration hired Geoff Morrell, a former ABC News White House correspondent, as a Pentagon spokesman. Morrell has stayed on in the Obama administration, under Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
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, Frantz said he was acting much like an investigative reporter, but with two potential tools he could only dream about having previously: subpoena power and, should his application be accepted, security clearance to review classified data.
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."
Carney, the former Time bureau chief who now works as Biden's spokesman, said he did not view his job as particularly political either, given his boss's promise of bipartisanship.
"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," Carney said in an interview.
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.