Completing a full spin through the revolving door, Linda Douglass, a long-time CBS and ABC correspondent before jumping aboard the Obama campaign in 2008 – followed by HHS and White House positions promoting ObamaCare -- has re-joined The Atlantic as a Vice President who “will concentrate on company strategy and communications,” the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reported online Thursday morning.
Before joining the Obama campaign as senior strategist and senior campaign spokesperson on the road, Douglass toiled for National Journal, part of Atlantic Media which also owns The Hotline. Her first stint in the new administration was as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, followed by Communications Director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, a slot she left in April.
Atlantic Chairman David Bradley recognizes the conflict between her political agenda and being a journalist, but he told Kurtz “she's too big an editorial talent for us to keep her out of the editorial product.”
From Kurtz’s June 10 post:
While her political tenure “troubles me not at all” for the corporate part of the job, Bradley says, he sees a “blinking red light” when she gets involved with the journalistic side, especially as it involves the president or health care. But, adds Bradley, “she's too big an editorial talent for us to keep her out of the editorial product.”
Douglass, who left the ABC News Washington bureau in 2006 after spending much of the 1990s with CBS News, will advance the opinions of, amongst others, Andrew Sullivan, author of The Atlantic’s “The Daily Dish” blog. On last Friday’s Real time with Bill Maher, Sullivan applauded author Joe McGinniss for renting the house next to Sarah Palin’s, proclaiming he’s just trying “to find out who this farce and phony actually is.”
> From April: “Her ObamaCare Mission Achieved, ABC/CBS Veteran Linda Douglass Departs White House.”
> My complete list of Obama-news media revolvers, updated just a few days ago, which now stands at 15.
