From covering Whitman’s spinning to spinning Whitman coverage

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When Meg Whitman was named in a congressional probe into executives who profited from stock offerings from investment banks, the San Jose Mercury News dedicated 806 words to the story. Ten weeks later, when Whitman stepped down from the board of the Goldman Sachs Group, the same reporter, Mary Anne Ostrom, wrote a short, 468-word story on her resignation.

Now, Ostrom finds herself on the other side, serving as the director of media affairs for Whitman’s gubernatorial campaign. Eight years ago, Ostrom was writing about Whitman’s role in the stock-swap practice known as spinning. Now, Ostrom is dedicated to spinning of a different sort, helping to craft the campaign’s media message.

In this world of evaporating media jobs, Ostrom’s conversion from media hack to campaign flack is increasingly common. Ostrom’s stories from eight years ago appear relatively benign and balanced, but Whitman refused to comment for both stories.

Ostrom did note that Whitman’s resignation from the Goldman board was ‘announced on the same day Wall Street’s largest banks agreed to pay a record $1.44 billion in fines to settle several conflict of interest allegations.’

Maybe now, Ostrom can have a little more luck getting comment from Whitman.

-- Anthony York