CNN Fetes D.C.’s ‘New Guard’
Last night at the Spy Museum, CNN’s Jon Klein and D.C. Bureau Chief David Bohrman hosted a swanky cocktail reception for “Washington’s next generation of newsmakers,” billed as an opportunity for some of D.C.’s young and up-and-coming crowd to mingle with and meet the network’s assembled marquee stars.
The evening was part of Klein’s efforts to remind viewers of CNN’s strength: It, in his words, is the only news network looking for truth. In remarks to the crowd, Klein said that the reception was part of his vision of creating “a new kind of relationship between the press and politics,” whereby each side recognized the role the other plays in ensuring the free flow of information so vital to American democracy.
Klein joked that last year’s class of rising newsmakers fared well for themselves–including Congressman Tom Delay and then-CNN intern Wolf Blitzer, who have each gone on to some prominence in the last year.
More details and a longer guest list after the jump.
As flat screen TVs scattered through the second-floor reception ran some of CNN’s greatest moments from 25 years of reporting, guests snacked on elaborate multi-tiered vegetable and cheese spreads. Two catered fresh pasta stations and roving wait staff provided more substantive fare, and two bars kept the liquid flowing.
In addition to just about the entire CNN staff from D.C. and several from the Atlanta HQ–from producers right up to Wolf, Candy, and Judy–the “New Guard” guest list ranged from congressmen like Mike Pence (R-IN), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Bobby Jindall (R-LA), DCCC Chair Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL), and Russ Carnahan (D-MO), to White House and administration officials, including State Department spokesman-to-be Sean McCormack, new RNC TV guru Carolyn Weyforth, and Federal Housing Commissioner nominee Brian Montgomery and his wife, Katie, a spokesperson at Homeland Security. Sadly, Nicole Devenish’s nametag was still lying on the check-in table at the end of the night.
The “2005 New Guard” party also included D.C.’s reigning hostess Juleanna Glover-Weiss and Ana Marie Cox–who received a gentlemanly kiss-of-the-hand from CNN’s always suave John King before she ran off with Time’s John Dickerson–as well as a smattering of print reporters like Tribune rising star Jeff Zeleny, freelancer Nir Rosen, and LAT/CNN talking head Ron Brownstein, who was glowing alongside his fiancée Eileen McMenamin, a former CNN political producer now with McCain.
The rather small guest list–there was probably a 1-to-1 ratio of CNN staff to guests–provided ample opportunity for the CNN hosts to circulate and introduce themselves, chat amicably, and conduct the kind of slightly interrogative cocktail chatter that occupies many a D.C. reception on a nightly basis.
Perhaps fittingly for the intrigue-laced setting, rumors flew wildly through the course of the evening: What’s on tap for Philip Anschutz and the Examiner? Where’s MSNBC going next? What’s going on at the Washington Times? What’s the real story behind the Air America and XM deal? (Evidently XM gave Air America several million reasons to leave Sirius, if you know what we mean.) And just who exactly was THIS woman?
In a semi-bitter nod to Matt & Judy, the dapper Klein joked that the event was all part of the cycle where news organizations invite over movers and shakers, feed them alcohol and cheap hor d’oeuvres, and in exchange the movers and shakers pretend to like the reporters-at least until they jail the reporters for doing their jobs.
The evening, while all around a popular and top-notch event–the planned two-hour event was just beginning to lose steam well into its fourth hour–was not without its foibles. The nametag of Illinois’ freshman senator, who obviously fits the category of a rising newsmaker, picked up on his little known Irish heritage: Sen. Barack O’Bama.
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Nadine Cheung
Editor, The Job Post
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