Biden Staffer, Former Time Reporter Jay Carney to Be Obama Press Secretary

The Associated Press is reporting that former TIME magazine reporter and current Biden director of communications Jay Carney has been tapped to replace Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary. Carney is being credited for softening (and even destroying) the image of Vice President Biden as a gaffe machine -- as if the media haven't tried to help.

For our NewsBusters archive on Carney, whose Time byline was James Carney, click here.

UPDATE: The Washington Post explained the White House moves:

Carney, 45, who has served as communications director to Vice President Biden since 2009, spent his earlier career as a reporter, working his way up the hierarchy of Time magazine to become its Washington bureau chief. A Virginia native, he has earned a reputation in both journalism and politics for being smart and engaged - and, in his most recent capacity, for helping eliminate the image of Biden as simply a gaffe machine. While Carney has little experience with the press secretary's job of standing on the podium to face a barrage of reporter questions, he has been on television as a journalist ample times. The White House hopes he may be able to navigate the press corps more easily having come from its ranks.

With Carney's appointment comes a major structural shift: All of the operations of the press and communications shops will move under the control of communications director Dan Pfeiffer. Previously, the press shop had reported to the press secretary. Carney will technically report to Pfeiffer, something of a downgrading of that role, although they are expected to function as equals.