The revolving door between Democratic administrations, campaigns, and the news media swung once again on Tuesday as it was announced that a producer on MSNBC’s The Ed Show would be leaving the program at the end of the week to join the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign of self-described socialist Bernie Sanders.
According to TVNewser, Arianna Jones will “be deputy communications manager for the campaign” and will work out of the campaign’s Burlington, Vermont headquarters. The position for the University of Vermont graduate comes after having been an MSNBC producer since 2011 and serving as a page for NBC before that.
As part of a “behind the scenes” post on MSNBC.com from December 16, 2011, a picture of Sanders with Jones accompanied the post and video of Sanders railing against the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
The affection between Ed Show host Ed Schultz and Sanders was on display Monday evening when, after discussing the proposed trade deals and whether or not Hillary Clinton has articulated a firm opinion on them, Schultz offered this fawning question to Sanders about the crowds he’s seen at campaign events:
Senator, I want your personal reaction to the amount of people that are coming out to see you speak and meet you and hear from you in Iowa. We're eight months away from the caucuses, and these are crowds that we haven't seen in contemporary times. What's your reaction to 700, 800, 1,000 people, 1,100 people showing up to see Bernie Sanders?
As NewsBusters has consistently documented, members of the liberal media going to work in Democratic administrations and campaigns (and vice versa) is nothing new.
In the most recent example, former CNN guest and MSNBC commentator/host Karen Finney left her television roles to join Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as its Strategic Communications Advisor and Senior Spokesperson. On Sunday, Finney battled CNN’s Jake Tapper and Fox’s Chris Wallace over the level of access that the press have had to Clinton.
As for the revolving door going in the other direction, longtime aide to President Obama Dan Pfeiffer departed the White House to only be announced on January 1 as a CNN political contributor. Ironically, Pfeiffer’s successor was none other than veteran Washington Post reporter Shailagh Murray.
(h/t: TVNewser)
