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New Biden Press Secretary Formerly Served as NBC News Communications Director

Biden Announces / YouTube
April 26, 2019

TJ Ducklo, who formerly served as the senior communications director for NBC News, has been tapped as the national press secretary for Joe Biden's presidential campaign.

Democrats have repeatedly been critical of media personalities transitioning from Fox News to the Trump administration and vice versa. Ducklo also formerly served as the communications director of Bloomberg Politics before joining the Biden campaign.

The New Yorker's Jane Mayer wrote a critical profile piece last month about how Fox News has become a pipeline for media personalities being tapped for White House positions.

"[Bill] Shine is only the most recent Fox News alumnus to join the Trump Administration. Among others, Trump appointed the former Fox contributor Ben Carson to be his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the former Fox commentator John Bolton to be his national-security adviser, and the former Fox commentator K. T. McFarland to be his deputy national-security adviser. (McFarland resigned after four months.)" Mayer wrote.

In addition to Ducklo, former CNN analyst Symone Sanders joined Biden's campaign as a senior adviser and former Newsweek journalist David Sirota has joined Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I., Vt.) presidential campaign as a speechwriter.

The Hill's media reporter Joe Concha wrote a piece last year highlighting how over 25 former journalists joined the Barack Obama administration in the first four years, some of which have returned back to the media, including MSNBC analyst Richard Stengel and Bloomberg's communications director Linda Douglass. Stengel served as the Under Secretary of State  and Douglass served as the director of communications for the White House Office of Health Reform after serving a long career as a journalist at ABC News and CBS News.

Jay Carney worked for TIME before moving to Biden's office and eventually getting tapped as Obama's second White House press secretary. Current CNN anchor Jim Sciutto served as Chief of Staff under Obama's Ambassador to China Gary Locke from 2011 to 2013. CBS This Morning host Gayle King is personal friends with the Obamas and has donated to and vacationed with the 44th president.