Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Keeping It All In the Family: The Cozy Relations between Media and the Obama White House

Updated 5-JUN-2013

The traditional media coalition is often criticized for having a too-cozy relationship with the White House. This criticism becomes especially interesting when you consider the number of family connections in the media to current or former Obama Administration staff.  These are but a few.

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For example, current White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is married to Claire Shipman, a correspondent for ABC News and a contributor to ABC's Good Morning America.

Former Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is now a contributor to NBC News and MSNBC.  Similarly, former Obama Senior Advisor David Axelrod is now senior political analyst for MSNBC.

Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, Ben Rhodes, is the brother of CBS News President David Rhodes.  Ben Rhodes apparently coined the term "kinetic military action" for the U.S. involvement in toppling Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi.  According to media reports, Ben Rhodes advised President Obama to withdraw support for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as part of the Egyptian "Arab Spring".  Ben Rhodes also helped coordinate the Obama Administration's talking points for the Benghazi terrorist attack where U.S. Ambassador John Stevens and three other Americans were killed.  Ben Rhodes is also active in driving American policy in Syria.

Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is Special Assistant to President Obama.  Previously, she was an advisor to then Senator Joe Biden, the current Vice-President of the United States. Her brother is Ben Sherwood, President of ABC News.

President Obama's new National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, is married to Ian Cameron, former executive producer for ABC News' "This Week" Sunday news show.  Susan Rice was former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.  She also gained notoriety during the Benghazi incident for the dubious claim, supposedly written by the U.S. "intelligence" community, that the Benghazi attack was caused by a little-viewed YouTube video.

Former Obama White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orzag, is married to the lovely Bianna Golodryga, who is co-anchor on the weekend edition of Good Morning America (GMA).  GMA is part of ABC News, under Ben Sherwood.  Peter Orzag is now Vice Chairman of Global Banking at Citigroup. The Orzag/Golodryga relationship began with a DC sex scandal.


Former White House Deputy Press Secretary, Katie Hogan, is married to ABC News reporter, Matthew Jaffe. According to his official ABC News bio, Jaffe covered the 2012 Presidential election for ABC News and Univision.  Interestingly, his wife, Katie Hogan, stepped down as White House Deputy Press Secretary to join President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign as deputy press secretary. Katie Hogan now serves as spokeswoman for President Obama's Organizing for Action, a tax-free 501(c)(4) organization.

Tom Nides is former Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources under then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  Mr. Nides is married to Virginia Moseley, who is Vice-President and Deputy Bureau Chief for CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau.  Virginia Moseley was former senior Washington producer for ABC News' Good Morning America (GMA).  Apparently, Virginia Moseley and Ben Sherwood were also former college classmates.

Do these relationships matter? Consider the coverage of the Benghazi fiasco and the news media's role in covering the story.  For example, CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson actively bulldogged investigations into the Benghazi incident.  Yet, her stories did not appear on broadcast for five months.  Could this be because CBS News is run by the brother of a White House official actively involved in "crafting" the official Obama Administration's message on Benghazi?

5 comments:

  1. Can you list how many conservative politicians and pundits work for Fox and Con media? I doubt you could count them.

    Dick Cheney filled the OVP with his people from PNAC, also.

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    1. Peace for and development of human life require peace . Peace is not merely an absence of war , and it is not limited to maintaining a balance between adversaries . Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons free communication among men , respect for the dignity of persons and peoples , and the assiduous practice of fraternity . Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity . Peace is " the tranquility of order ' . Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity .
      Catechism of the Catholic Church no . 2304

      Delete
    2. The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.

      Mother Teresa
      And this because democrats are the party of death ( abortion , euthanasia , human cloning )
      Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mothertere158101.html#s7ejyqhWQuCMC0vo.99

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  2. Hope Forpeace, no doubt, there are former Bush Administration people working for Fox. However, as you probably know, Bush is no longer in office.

    All the people listed in the above blog post are either current or former employees of the Obama Administration, currently in power.

    If we want to extend it by party, we could also talk about President Clinton's former Press Secretary, George Stephanopoulos, who is also at ABC News, hosting This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

    ReplyDelete
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