This afternoon marked Jay Carney‘s first White House press briefing as President Barack Obama‘s new Press Secretary.

All three cable news channels carried at least part of it live, with the shootings of ICE agents in Mexico the top subject matter.

There was also some gentle ribbing from the press corps, with ABC’s Jake Tapper tweeting:

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ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper broke the news earlier this afternoon that former Time magazine journalist Jay Carney, who currently serves as Vice President Joe Biden‘s communications director, will be the next White House Press Secretary.

Carney’s wife is Claire Shipman, the senior national correspondent for ABC’s morning news program “Good Morning America.”

Gail Shister
TVNewser Columnist

Call 911. There’s a network correspondent who wants less face time.

“People think you’re insane in this business if you don’t want to be on TV all the time,” says ABC’s Claire Shipman. “The more you’re on, the more important you are. I should be panicked when I’m not on every day. Actually, I’m relieved.”

Shipman, 46, “Good Morning America’s” senior national correspondent, happily cut back to part-time status in the fall as part of her new contract. She appears once or twice a week — at a lower salary, of course.

“It’s been a very smooth adjustment,” she says. “I’m wired this way.” In this economy, so is ABC. “They’re happy to save some money and still have me on the air.”

Shipman is practicing what she preaches in her new book, “Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success,” coauthored by the BBC’s Katty Kay. Their message: Females have far more power in the workplace than they realize, and they can use it to get the life they want.

Network TV is not your typical workplace, Shipman concedes. For starters, there’s the unpredictable travel. With two young children — Hugo, 7, and Della, 4 – she became increasingly resistant to that part of the job.

“I kept having these discussions, ‘Why are you so difficult, Claire?’” she says. “I told them I wasn’t cut out like other reporters. I think they got it. The lesson for women is that it’s OK if everybody doesn’t like you. They need to like your work.”

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The news that Time’s Washington bureau chief Jay Carney is leaving the magazine to become Vice President-elect Joe Biden‘s communications director will also have an impact on Carney’s wife, ABC News national correspondent Claire Shipman.

ABC News SVP of communications Jeffrey Schneider tells TVNewser, “It’s something we’ve obviously given a lot of thought to. We will not assign Claire to anything that would create even the perception of a conflict of interest.”

Shipman has been Good Morning America’s senior national correspondent since 2001. Before ABC, Shipman was NBC’s White House correspondent. She joined NBC News in 1997. Prior to NBC, Shipman spent 10 years at CNN in both Washington and Moscow.

“There are a lot of power couples in Washington who very successfully navigate these issues,” Schneider says. “We expect Claire and Jay will be able to do that. Obviously, we can’t have any influence over the spouses of the people who work for us and the jobs they take, but we can be mindful of the assignments we give to the people who do work for us.”

Chuck Todd interviewed Politico’s Roger Simon and Time Magazine’s Jay Carney during the NoonET hour of MSNBC this afternoon. But Simon had some added distraction on his end — a fire alarm going off for the duration of the interview. “Looks like John Harris wants to make sure we all know when Politico’s ready to call a state,” joked Todd. “I’m very impressed with that mechanism.”

“I stay on TV until it burns around me,” joked Simon: