Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 8:58 AM by Gene

WHY JERNALISM STINKS:

For cub reporters eager to hit the big time in Washington, there has always been a secret fast track, few more legendary than the research assistant network run years ago by the late James Reston, the former New York Times bureau chief. Do well there, and the well-connected "Scotty" Reston did the rest. Just ask Steven Roberts, a former Times and U.S. News reporter and author of a new memoir, My Fathers' Houses. "Every day," he says, "Reston did something to help me. He shaped my whole life."

Now, 40 years later, Roberts is following Reston's lead with a much-expanded mentoring network based out of George Washington University, where he has taught politics and journalism since 1991. Pass his course, and Roberts might hook you up with jobs he learns about from former students now working at places like Fox, CNN, and several Washington newspaper bureaus. "Steve is that lucky break for so many people," says Heather Clapp, who produces CNN's shows at GWU. "He just asks that you help someone else someday." Roberts's students also fill a Who's Who list of spokespeople sprinkled throughout the White House, Capitol Hill, and K Street, many in top GOP jobs--ironic, they think, because of Roberts's liberal leanings. "That's where the jobs are," he shrugs. The Roberts network also extends beyond schools and jobs: He officiates at weddings as the "designated substitute" rabbi.

TRANSLATION: A new clique plays the same old practical jokes on the PUBLIC.

P. S. This is Cokie's husband, and judging from this blurb Steve intends to get as much out of us turnips for his family's ELEVEN HOUSES as he can.