The revolving door between journalism and politics has been spinning quickly lately, with Rep. Susan Molinari leaving the Gingrich team for a Saturday anchor job at CBS News and Sidney Blumenthal of The New Yorker joining the White House Communications Office in a capacity to be determined later. Both moves are being greeted with jeers. Molinari’s has been treated as a devastating loss for an X-chromosome-heavy Republican Party. Blumenthal, meanwhile, is taking much guff from fellow reporters for being a Clinton sycophant. In fact, these mid-career changes make sense for all involved.
Molinari, a lightweight with no ideological moorings was always out of place in the midst of the Republican revolution.
Now she can give full vent to her nauseating perkiness and advance her celebrity ambitions in a more appropriate setting (and on Saturday morning, while most adults are still sound asleep). Blumenthal, who has always been interested in assisting the Clinton administration can now do so without offending anyone’s notion of media independence. Molinari, who has no views, should always have been a TV reporter. Blumenthal, who has pronounced views, should have been in politics. Both professions will soon be better off.
