Obama's Media Bailout

If you're a member of the enchanted Obama media, don't worry about your newspaper going under or your network being mired in the ratings basement.

You can always count on Barack Obama for a job.

• Warren Bass: Former deputy editor of The Post's Sunday Outlook now serves as an adviser and speechwriter for U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice.

• Jay Carney: The former TIME Magazine Moscow bureau chief and campaign chronicler (and husband of ABC's Claire Shipman) now serves as communications director for Vice President Biden.

• Linda Douglass: Former Congressional correspondent for CBS and ABC and writer/editor at National Journal left journalism last year to serve as traveling press secretary for the Obama campaign. She'll help guide the administration's communications efforts during this summer's battle over health care reform, working out of the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House.

• Peter Gosselin: The former Los Angeles Times reporter now writes speeches for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

• David Hoff: The Education Week reporter and blogger started yesterday on the communications staff at the Education Department.

• Beverley Lumpkin: A former Justice Department reporter/producer for ABC and CBS, she left journalism, worked for the Project on Government Oversight and joined DOJ last month as press secretary, turning sources into colleagues.

• Geoff Morrell: A holdover from the Bush administration, the former ABC newsman became spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2007.

• Rick Weiss: Former Washington Post science reporter left for the Center for American Progress and now serves as communications director and senior policy strategist for the White House Office of Science and Technology.

• Jill Zuckman: The former Washington correspondent for the Chicago Tribune works with Ray LaHood as communications director at the Department of Transportation.

You know what happens when Obama is out of office, right? Well, they all go back to high-ranking media positions as (ahem) objective reporters covering a Republican administration.

I don't think MSNBC has to worry about losing any of their overpaid talent. They're already doing their job for Boss Obama.

Obama Saves a Job: Tribune Reporter Joins Administration

We've figured out how Obama will "save" jobs. He'll just add reporters from dying newspapers to his administration. Hey, when your job the past couple of years has been building this guy up to near mythical status, you may as well be officially on the payroll.

Jill Zuckman, a Chicago Tribune Washington correspondent and frequent guest on political talk shows such as MSNBC's "Hardball" and Fox Broadcasting's "Fox News Sunday," is leaving to join President Barack Obama's administration in the Department of Transportation.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Peoria Republican and former seven-term member of the U.S. House, has picked Zuckman to serve as assistant to the secretary and director of public affairs.

"I'm so excited about this. I think this is going to be really fun," Zuckman said by phone Sunday. "I'm excited about going to a department in the administration that's going to play a huge role in hopefully putting people back to work. There is so much money for transportation projects around the country, and I hope that that helps to stimulate the economy to get the country moving again."

Zuckman is the second Tribune Co. reporter in the nation's capital to accept a position with the new administration this month. Cissy Baker, vice president in charge of Tribune Co.'s recently unified Washington News Bureau, on Feb. 7 informed staff that Peter Gosselin, who previously had reported for the Los Angeles Times, accepted a job as chief speech writer for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

In case you couldn't tell, she's very excited.

Linked by Michelle Malkin. Thanks!