James "Jay" Carney (born May 22, 1965) is the 29th White House Press Secretary.[2] He was the second person to serve in the position during the presidency of Barack Obama, having replaced Robert Gibbs. Prior to his appointment as Press Secretary he was director of communications for Vice President Joe Biden. Carney previously served as Washington Bureau Chief for Time magazine, a post he held from September 2005 until December 2008, and as a regular contributor in the "roundtable" segment of ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos. President Obama announced he had accepted Carney's resignation as press secretary on May 30, 2014.
Journalism career
After being hired as a reporter for The Miami Herald in 1987, Carney joined Time magazine as its Miami Bureau Chief in 1989. Carney worked as a correspondent in Time's Moscow Bureau for three years, covering the collapse of the U.S.S.R.. He came to Washington in 1993 to report on the Bill Clinton White House.[3]He has written and reported about the presidency of George W. Bush, and was one of a handful of reporters who were aboard Air Force One with President Bush on September 11, 2001.[3] Carney later won the 2003 Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. Carney was Time's Washington Bureau Deputy Chief from 2003 to
2005, and Chief from September 2005 until December 2008. He was assigned
to the magazine's Washington Bureau in that tenure while also being
able to write about politics and national affairs. Carney has also
worked for CNN (another TIME Warner division) as a special correspondent.
On December 15, 2008, Carney went from the private sector to public service as Director of Communications to Vice President Joe Biden.[4][5]On January 27, 2011, Carney was selected to become the Obama administration's second White House Press Secretary.[2] He was named the successor to previous White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs by White House Chief of Staff, William Daley.[6][7] Carney was one of fourteen White House appointees announced by Daley on that day.[7]As of June 21, 2013, Yahoo news reported Carney has responded in some
variation of "I don't know" over 1,900 times since his first briefing.[8] It was further reported Carney had somehow dodged a question approximately 9,486 times.[9]
On November 21, 2013, a majority of the news outlets covering the
White House submitted a joint letter to Carney complaining about the
lack of access provided to reporters.[10]
The letter specifically addressed several instances where the Press
Corps was told a certain event was private, yet the White House allowed
White House Photographer Pete Souza exclusive access to the event.[10] On December 12, 2013, Carney was confronted by most of the White House Press Corps for the unprecedented lack of access to the President during a routine news conference.[11] During the discussion, the reporters became increasingly frustrated and often talked over Carney.[12] The White House Press Corps noted that while President Obama promised a more transparent administration, CNN's Brianna Keilar notes, "anyone here can tell you there's less access than under the Bush administration.".[11]
Carney proceeded to cite the rise of internet journalism for making
photojournalists obsolete, but promised the White House would do
everything it could to rectify this problem. [13]On May 30, 2014, President Obama announced Carney would be succeeded by Josh Earnest.[14]
Personal life and education
Carney was raised in Northern Virginia, attended high school at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey,[15] and earned a B.A. cum laude in Russian and Eastern European Studies from Yale University, in 1987.[3] He and his wife, Claire Shipman (a senior correspondent for ABC News),[3] live in Washington, D.C..
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