Here’s a bailout idea from Senator Claire McCaskill:
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) suggested today that the team tasked with overseeing distribution of economic stimulus funds should consider hiring recently laid-off journalists to help craft the tone and message of the government’s Recovery.gov Web site. The senator spoke as Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and Robert L. Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and told lawmakers that the government has doled out at least $51 billion in stimulus funding.
McCaskill’s comments came as she expressed concern with written weekly updates on the new government Web site.
“They don’t feel like they’re being written so people can look at it and really understand what’s happening. I don’t think they’re useful to most people,” she said, later suggesting Devaney consider hiring recently displaced journalists to help explain the complexities of the economic recovery efforts in easy-to-understand language.
“They understand how to write a lead, they understand how to keep it concise, they understand how they make it interesting. And I would urge you to look for the qualified journalists.”
“Senator, tomorrow morning I’m interviewing two journalists,” for potential jobs with his team, Devaney said.