Jay Carney: From MSM journalist to high places in Obama admin

He’s come a long way:

President Obama has chosen former journalist Jay Carney to replace press secretary Robert Gibbs, a longtime loyalist, when he leaves the post in mid-February — one of a number of staff changes announced today by White House chief of staff Bill Daley.

Daley also named two new deputy chiefs of staff: Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the Office of Health Reform, and Alyssa Mastromonaco, White House director of scheduling and advance. (For a full list of staff changes, scroll to the bottom of this post.)

“I believe these decisions will bring greater clarity to our structure and roles and will enhance coordination and collaboration among us,” Daley wrote in an email announcing the moves.

Carney, now the communications director for Vice President Biden, is the marquee move as he will assume perhaps the most high profile staff job in the White House.

He came to the Administration in 2008 after a long career in journalism that included serving as Washington bureau chief of Time magazine. Carney is married to ABC News’ correspondent Claire Shipman.

Scott Whitlock at Newsbusters wonders about a potential conflict of interest issue for Shipman:

Will this appointment prove to be a conflict of interest for Shipman? Will she continue to report on the Obama administration? Shipman whose title is senior national correspondent, often covers political stories and has a reputation as an activist liberal. In 2008, she hailed Barack Obama, the now-boss of her husband, as “brave” for a speech disassociating himself with radical preacher Jeremiah Wright. In 2007, she fawned over Obama’s “fluid poetry.”

In 2000, she lauded Al Gore as a “pretty conservative Democrat.” In 2004, discussing former Communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, she ltouted him as “generally regarded” for being “the man who broke down the β€˜Iron Curtain.'”

Whitlock’s got more examples of Shipman’s liberal bias at that same link.

I wrote back when it was first announced he was leaving Time magazine to go to work as Vice President Biden’s communications director that Carney was setting an example for other mainstream media liberals to follow: Go with your heart, and get out of the business of pretending to be an unbiased mainstream media journalist. From a post I wrote when MSDNC’s Chris Matthews was reportedly considering a run for the US Senate:

I applaud Matthews for taking into serious consideration the possibility he’d need to leave the network in order to run for Senate (of course, he should have left it much, much earlier – but then again he wouldn’t have been able to help his fellow mediots with getting Obama elected, would he?). In fact, I encourage every other journalist out there who has a strong bias for one party or the other – who thinks it’s their “job” to help that party – to please follow Matthews’ example, retire from your profession and start pursuing your dream of officially working to advance that party’s principles – whether it be as a politico, an advisor or aide, or working for an advocacy group, or starting your own. Make your biases known upfront instead of continuing to hide behind a phony banner of “objectivity.” You know the real you is desperate to “come out of the closet.” I encourage you to do so, and to do so immediately. And in your places, we’d like to see journalists that really are objective instead of putting on pretenses.

And, as Michelle Malkin notes here with examples and links, Carney was anything but objective. Robert Gibbs might be exiting the Obama administration (to work on Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign) but in his replacement we’ll see more of the same Fibbs-like obfuscation and word games – this time by a former MSM journalist who I suspect many of the reporters who will be questioning him were or are friendly and congenial.

IOW, same sh**, different day, etc.

Next?

Comments are closed.