WaPo Blasts “Foxification” of White House – Forgets Obama Hired 3x More Journalists

Dan Bongino:

According to the Washington Post, the “Trump White House” is now the “Fox News White House.” As former Fox News anchor Heather Nauert was selected by President Donald Trump to replace Nikki Haley as U.N. ambassador, Post columnist Philip Bump decried the “Foxification” of the White House. And Trump has indeed hired plenty of Fox News talent.

Among those former Fox News employees that work (or worked) for the Trump Administration include National Security Adviser John Bolton, Trump legal team member Joseph E. diGenova,  Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp, former Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the Treasury Tony Sayegh, Communications Advisor Bill Shine, and now Heather Nauert. The only other network Trump has hired a journalist from was CNBC’s Larry Kudlow.

Without any context for those seven FNC hires, the Washington Post’s criticism is meaningless. After all, how many journalists did Barack Obama hire? The answer is nearly three times as many, and ironically, it was another writer at the Washington Post, Paul Farhi, who called foul on Obama’s massive hiring of left-wing journalists back in 2013 following the hiring of TIME’s Richard Stengel.  While Farhi noted that it’s common for presidents to hire members of the press, he expressed concern at the time, because “Obama may be different in terms of the sheer number of ink-stained wretches and other news-media denizens that he has attracted.” More specifically: “The pattern of Obama hires has periodically aroused suspicions about the media’s allegedly cozy relationship with the president.”

Obama hired at least 23 journalists, and hilariously, hired nearly as many solely from the Washington Post as Trump has hired exclusively from Fox. The list includes:

• U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power (U.S. News, the Boston Globe, the New Republic).
• Speechwriter Desson Thomson (Washington Post movie critic and Clinton speechwriter).
• John Kerry staffer Glen Johnson (Boston Globe editor).
• Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Douglas Frantz (Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post).
• Press Secretary Jay Carney (TIME Magazine).
• State Department Undersecretary Richard Stengal (TIME Magazine managing editor).
• Senior Managing Director of the Office of Public Affairs Stephen Barr (Washington Post).
• VP Joe Biden’s Communications Director Shailagh Murray (Washington Post).
• Counselor Rosa Brooks (Los Angeles Times).
• Senior Communications Adviser for the HHS Roberta Baskin (Center for Public Inquiry).
• Department of Education Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communication David Hoff (Education Week).

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