A Stimulus Plan for Unemployed Journalists

Sounds like a lateral move to me. Going from being mouthpieces for the Democrats to ... being mouthpieces for the Democrats.

Sweet gig if you can get it.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) suggested today that the team tasked with overseeing distribution of economic stimulus funds should consider hiring recently laid-off journalists to help craft the tone and message of the government's Recovery.gov Web site. The senator spoke as Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and Robert L. Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and told lawmakers that the government has doled out at least $51 billion in stimulus funding.

McCaskill's comments came as she expressed concern with written weekly updates on the new government Web site.

"They don’t feel like they’re being written so people can look at it and really understand what’s happening. I don’t think they’re useful to most people," she said, later suggesting Devaney consider hiring recently displaced journalists to help explain the complexities of the economic recovery efforts in easy-to-understand language.

I think we understand it all too well. What she wants is a clever way to bamboozle the public.

Nice try.

“They understand how to write a lead, they understand how to keep it concise, they understand how they make it interesting. And I would urge you to look for the qualified journalists."

"Senator, tomorrow morning I’m interviewing two journalists," for potential jobs with his team, Devaney said.

The former Interior Department inspector general also reiterated his warnings that some level of waste, fraud or mismanagement is inevitable with the distribution of such a large amount of money.

"With that kind of money, the bad guys are going to come," he said.

Maybe if they're fortunate they can also fine someone who can write a lede.

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