revolving door

Governor Corzine’s new communications director, Deborah Howlett, took some time during her brief hiatus to answer our questions about her new role, the job offer and her transition from reporter to public servant. The Q&A conversation was on the record, but is not a verbatim transcript of the interview.

How do you go from aggressively covering the governor to aggressively defending the governor?

First of all, if his communications staff is defending him, there’s a problem. What he’s trying to do shouldn’t need defending.

And that’s not why he hired me.

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Last in a five-part series on the revolving door between journalism and government in New Jersey. Yesterday, Debbie Holtz wrote about the state of the New Jersey news industry.

To wrap up PolitickerNJ.com's five part series on the post employment questions that arise when former journalists transition to government and political positions, we surveyed newspapers covering the Garden State about their ethical practices and policies.

We asked questions about the transparency of their codes of conduct, post-employment provisions, and how they protect sources after their journalists leave for greener pastures.

Aside from a few polite “no thank you’s”, most of the fourteen news organizations we surveyed did not respond.

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Fourth in a five-part series on the revolving door between journalism and government in New Jersey. Yesterday, Debbie Holtz asked if reporters protect their former sources when they move from journalism to working for politicians.

Gov. Jon Corzine's new Communications Director is a Star-Ledger reporter who has covered him for the last three years These days, it seems like a week does not pass by without news of red ink running through daily newspapers. Is the troubled financial condition of the newspaper industry driving more and more reporters to PR jobs?

“Anyone who reads the business section of the newspaper knows the current climate,” explained Dr. Barbara Reed, a professor of Journalism at Rutgers University. “Everyone in journalism is aware of the current climate and we are all very worried.

“Whether it is the New York Times, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune or the Miami Herald – and these are among the best 10 papers in America - they are all experiencing hard times. It’s a very hard place to be in because the advertising is drying up.”

Back in and around New Jersey, the picture isn’t any rosier.

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Third in a five-part series on the revolving door between journalism and government in New Jersey. Yesterday, Debbie Holtz wrote about the century-old practice of reporters who move to government.

Gov. Jon Corzine's new Communications Director is a Star-Ledger reporter who has covered him for the last three yearsImagine sharing a confidence with a journalist during an "off the record" conversation that becomes part of a media story. Now think about how you'd feel when that reporter resigns and joins the staff of your political adversary.

The first question that pops into your head is: Will my promise of confidentiality still be honored by the reporter in his or her new position?

The jailing of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller and freelance blogger Josh Wolf raised questions about the need for a federal shield law in order to protect the confidentiality of journalist-source relationships from government-seeking subpoenas.

The debate was silent on the question of whether sources are protected from inquisitive government or political employers once a reporter leaves the news organization.

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Another New Jersey journalist to go through the revolving door and enter the world of state government this month: Mike Mathis, a veteran reporter for the Burlington County Times who is now directing internal communications for the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts.

One journalist of outstanding quality and considerable integrity contacted PolitickerNJ.com yesterday with an objection to the use of the revolving door moniker when describing the exodus of reporters to government jobs, saying that very few of his brethren return to the fourth estate after they leave. “From my perspective, for the door to revolve, you have to be able to go around and around,” the journalist wrote. “And when reporters leave, my sense is that 99 percent of the time the door swings only one way: out.”

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Second in a five-part series on the revolving door between journalism and government in New Jersey. Yesterday, Debbie Holtz wrote about post-employment ethics for the journalist-turned-spokeswoman.

Gov. Jon Corzine's new Communications Director is a Star-Ledger reporter who has covered him for the last three yearsIt’s described as a “century-old” practice. The list of reporters who moved from the Fourth Estate to government /political spokesperson positions is long and impressive.

It includes Pierre Salinger -- who went from reporter to White House press secretary and back again to chief European correspondent for ABC News. Add Bill Moyers to the list -- his tour of duty began at a local radio station in Texas, made a few stops at posts in the Johnson Administration, only later to return to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). And let’s not forget Jerald terHorst -- President Gerald Ford tapped the former Detroit News Washington Bureau Chief as his press secretary in an effort to return some integrity to the Office of the President after Richard Nixon’s resignation.

The list also includes some lesser known names, and the dividing line between actual and perceived conflicts of interests seems a bit more blurred.

The reality is people change jobs all the time, and for a variety of reasons. Reporters are no different than the rest of the working population. No one's going to get rich from a job in journalism, and particularly at newspapers. The leap from the news room to "the front office" can mean a mean a sizable bump in salary. The average salary for reporters is $42K according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, while communications positions in NJ government and politics are typically in the six figure range.

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KYW News Radio South Jersey Bureau Chief Ed Kasuba is leaving the Philadelphia CBS affiliate where he’s worked since 1979 to become the new Director of Corporate Communications for the Delaware River Port Authority. Kasuba has covered the DRPA, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer report, and is taking a job that has been vacant for four years.

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In the old days, political reporters were often recruited to work for the elected officials they covered. Joseph Katz covered campaigns for the Newark News before taking a job with Governor Richard Hughes; he later went on to open a lobbying firm that became a model for modern contract lobbyists. 1977 gubernatorial candidate Raymond Bateman started out as a journalist with Forbes magazine before becoming Executive Director of the Republican State Committee and launching a twenty-year career in the Legislature. Walter Edge served as Governor and as a U.S. Senator after a career as a newspaperman in Atlantic City.

The announcement last week that Deborah Howlett, a highly-regarded Star-Ledger statehouse reporter, would become Governor Jon Corzine’s new Communications Director has renewed interest in the revolving door between politicians hiring the reporters that cover them. Howlett joins a team of ex-reporters that covered Corzine before they worked for him: Mark Perkiss (Trenton Times), Ralph Siegel (Associated Press), and David Wald, who began the 2000 cycle as the Star-Ledger’s chief political correspondent and columnist and ended it on Corzine’s U.S. Senate campaign staff. Wald spent five years on Corzine’s Senate staff and is now the spokesman for the state Attorney General. more >

First in a five-part series on the revolving door between journalism and government in New Jersey

Gov. Jon Corzine's new Communications Director is a Star-Ledger reporter who has covered him for the last three yearsRecent job jumping by veteran Statehouse newspaper staff raises uncomfortable questions about ethics, full disclosure, and the fate of news sources who suddenly find themselves politically vulnerable in the reporter’s afterlife. Over the next week, we’ll pull back the curtain on a century-old conundrum by asking media industry experts where the line should be drawn.

Consider this scenario: A state senator interviews for a job at PSE&G. Between the interview and the offer, the legislator votes on a utility industry-related issue. How would the press treat the story when it’s later learned the senator was resigning to take a fulltime position with the energy company?

To be certain, reporters would scurry to check the legislative code of ethics for an actual or perceived conflict of interest.

But what's the reaction when a reporter goes from covering the Governor to covering for the Governor as his communications director? Since media organizations are not public entities, the do’s and don’ts of reporters’ post-employment codes of conflict are largely unknown.

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