So I am glancing througth the latest
Washingtonian Magazine, purchased because it has the annual nlist of the 100 very best restaurants. This issue also lists "top house sales" including those by or to celebertireis, which in this town includes politicos and journalists. And what do I encounter?
Journalist Ron Brownstein and wife, Eileen McMenamin, Senator John McCain's communications director, bought ...
(emphasis added)
I never knew that Brownstein was married to someone actively involved in politics. So it got me thinking.
I remember that when Giuliani ran for mayor he was married to a tv reporter named Donna Hanover. That was publicly disclosed, and she did not cover his campaign. And of course Maria Shriver stepped aside from her tv news job when Arnold decided to run for Governor. Those are the highly visible ones that come to mind. Former Iowa Congressman Ed Mezvinsky married DC TV reporter Marjorie Margolies, then moved to Philadelphia with her when she lost her job here and got one there -- which is before she had her own one term in Congress. But she was not covering Copngressional politics in DC.
Then of course there is Howard Kurtz, the media beat reporter for the Washington Post, who if memory serfves has a wife who is a Republican political consultant.
I wonder how wide spread this is. What does it say that most of the examples that immediately come to mind involved Republicans? And what is the responsibility to avoid or at least disclose possible conflicts of interest? I see Brownstein regularly, and usually enjoy his work, and thus when I recently encountered him in a DC restaurant (with his wife) complimented him on his work. But he covers a national political beat, which means the beat he covers is the one his wife is trying to influence.
I am curious as to two things.
First -- what other examples can people cite? How wide-spread is this phenomenon?
Second -- am I wrong to be bothered by this? How do others perceive this issue?