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Revision as of 05:18, 15 September 2010

Dana Perino
Perino in a daily press briefing, September 17, 2007
27th White House Press Secretary
In office
September 14, 2007 – January 20, 2009
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byTony Snow
Succeeded byRobert Gibbs
Personal details
Born (1972-05-09) May 9, 1972 (age 52)
Evanston, Wyoming, USA
Political partyRepublican
SpousePeter McMahon
Alma materColorado State University-Pueblo
University of Illinois at Springfield

Dana Maria Perino (born May 9, 1972) is an American political commentator for Fox News. She served as the White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush from September 14, 2007 to January 20, 2009. She was the second female White House Press Secretary. Dee Dee Myers, who served during the Clinton Administration, was the first.[1]

Early life and career

Perino was born in Evanston, Wyoming, grew up in Denver, Colorado,[2] and is Italian-American.[3] She attended Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.[2] Perino graduated from the University of Southern Colorado (now Colorado State University-Pueblo) in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in mass communications and minors in both political science and Spanish.[1] While attending the university, she was active on the forensics (public speaking) team and with KTSC-TV, the campus-based Rocky Mountain PBS affiliate[4] where she served as host of Capitol Journal, a weekly summary of Colorado politics, and producer of Standoff, a weekly public affairs program.[citation needed] Perino went on to obtain a masters degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS).[5] During her time at UIS, she also worked for WCIA, a CBS affiliate, as a daily reporter covering the Illinois Capitol.[5]

Perino next worked in Washington, D.C., for Representative Scott McInnis (R-CO) of Colorado as a staff assistant before serving nearly four years as the press secretary for Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO), who then chaired a House Commerce subcommittee on Energy and Power.[4]

In 1997, while on a flight to Denver, Perino met her future husband, Peter McMahon. McMahon, born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, is a businessman involved in the marketing and sales of medical products. The couple was married eleven months later.[6]

After Rep. Schaefer announced his retirement in 1998, Perino and McMahon moved to the United Kingdom.[2] After a year in the UK, Perino and McMahon moved back to the United States and resided in San Diego, California, for three years. During that time, Perino worked in the field of high-tech public affairs.

In November 2001, Perino returned to Washington, D.C. and secured a position as a spokesperson for the Department of Justice,[7] at which she served for two years.[8]

Perino then joined the White House staff as the associate director of communications for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), where she provided the council with strategic advice on message development, media relations and public outreach.[9][10] The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Democratic representative Edolphus Towns, asserted in its findings on climate change censorship, that the CEQ exerted undue control of media relations in governmental scientific agencies during her tenure.[11] The science writer Mark Bowen wrote that Perino directed other public affairs officers to kill press releases about the danger of hydrogen fuel cells after President George Bush announced his support for them.[12]

Press Secretary

Dana Perino, George W. Bush and Tony Snow

Perino served as Deputy Press Secretary from 2005 to 2007. She was hired by Scott McClellan. In the role, Perino communicated many times a day with President Bush's director of communications, his press secretary and his director of media affairs, filtering all environment-related media calls for the White House, as well as serving as the spokesperson for the White House on environmental issues. In addition, she served as the coordinator for all agencies on environment, energy and natural resource issues, as well as reviewing and approving the agencies' major announcements,

From March 27 to April 30, 2007 she was the Acting White House Press Secretary while Tony Snow underwent treatment for colon cancer.

On August 31, 2007, Bush announced that Snow would be resigning his post for health reasons and that Perino would become his replacement. Perino was accordingly promoted to the rank of Assistant to the President, and served as White House Press Secretary from September 14, 2007 until the end of the Bush Administration in January 2009.

On December 14, 2008, a TV journalist, Muntadar al-Zeidi, threw two shoes at Bush during a Baghdad press conference. Bush successfully dodged both, but Perino's eye was injured by a microphone stand during the commotion surrounding al-Zeidi's arrest. When pressed, Perino said, "Sure I would take a shoe for the President".[13][14][15][16]

Post-Bush administration career

Since leaving the White House, Perino became a political commentator on Fox News, where some of her statements have been criticized. In March 2010, the New York Times columnist Frank Rich criticized Perino for saying the previous November that "[w]e did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term", characterizing her statement as an "assault on reality".[17] According to the liberal Media Matters for America, she had released a follow-up statement in November via Twitter stating, "I obviously meant no terror attack on U.S. post-9/11 during Bush 2nd term."[18] A USA Today reporter quoted Perino about BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion as saying while she was "not trying to introduce a conspiracy theory", she went on to ask if the spill was done deliberately. The reporter said this was evidence that an earlier remark by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, that the timing of the explosion implied it was blown up intentionally, was "gaining traction".[19] Frank Rich called it as an example of the politicization of the news.[20]

In addition to her Fox assignment, Perino is a "chief issues counselor" at Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations firm.[21][22] In November 2009, she was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an agency overseeing government-sponsored international broadcasting,[22] and was confirmed by the Senate on June 30, 2010.[23] In 2009, functioning as Karl Rove's "family spokeswoman", she informed the press about Rove's divorce in 2009.[24] In 2010, she started teaching a class in political communications part-time at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management.[25]

Personal life

In 2007, Perino appeared on the radio quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! known for, in an amusing fashion, embarrassing the guests.[26] Perino told a self-deprecating, humorous anecdote about how she had to ask her husband about the Cuban Missile Crisis after it came up in a press briefing. News reports treated her comments as a moment of levity, noting that she was born ten years after the event.[27][28][29]

References

  1. ^ a b Keller, Susan Jo (November 26, 2007). "Dana Perino". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c Barge, Chris (March 31, 2007). "Coloradan steps right into the media spotlight". Rocky Mountain News . Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  3. ^ Ruffino, Elissa (2008). "WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY DANA PERINO TO ADDRESS PUBLIC POLICY LECTURE SERIES". National Italian American Foundation. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Zaletel, Cora (January 18, 2009). "White House Press Secretary to present Spring commencement address at CSU-Pueblo". Colorado State University - Pueblo. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  5. ^ a b "Dana Perino -- UIS grad makes good". University of Illinois Alumni Association. 2007. Retrieved March 24, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Baxter, Sarah (December 14, 2007). "Bush's cool blonde is a northern gran". London: The Times. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  7. ^ Roberts, Michael (19 Sep 2007). "New Forecast". Denver Westwood News. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Brass, Kevin (21 Sep 2007). "Media Watch: The Improbable Rise of Dana Perino". Retrieved 17 Dec 2008. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ Marshall, Christa (31 Aug 2007). "Coloradan takes over for Tony Snow". PoliticsWest, The Denver Post. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ "Dana Perino - Assistant to the President and Press Secretary". U.S. Government. Retrieved 17 Dec 2008. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ "Political Interference With Climate Change Science Under the Bush Administration" (PDF). United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 2007. Retrieved June 26, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. ^ Bowen, Mark (December 27, 2007). "Chapter 5: Gretchen, Do Not Email Me on This". Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming. Dutton Adult. pp. 116–117. ISBN 0525950141. Retrieved June 26,2010. Steitz remembers that he, Mahone, and Wood got direction from Perino on killing the press release about the potential danger of hydrogen fuel cells. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  13. ^ "Sole Survivor". Checkpoint Baghdad. 2008-12-14. Retrieved 2008-12-14.
  14. ^ "Bush ducks flying shoes during Iraq visit". CTV Television Network. 2008-12-14. Retrieved 2008-12-14.
  15. ^ "Iraqi Journalist Hurls Shoes at Bush". The New York Times. 2008-12-15. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  16. ^ "Dana M. Perino". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
  17. ^ Rich, Frank (March 13, 2010). "The New Rove-Cheney Assault on Reality". The New York Times. pp. WK8. Retrieved March 23, 2010.
  18. ^ "Perino: "I obviously meant no terror attack on U.S. post 9/11 during Bush 2nd term"". Media Matters for America. 25 Nov 2009. Retrieved 13 Jan 2010.
  19. ^ Koch, Wendy (May 3, 2010). "Rush Limbaugh suggests environmentalists planned oil spill". USA Today. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  20. ^ Rich, Frank (May 8, 2010). "They Don't Report. You Don't Have to Decide". The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
  21. ^ Wall Street Journal (2009)."Bush Aide Perino to Join Firm Led by Clinton Adviser". Retrieved April 14, 2009.
  22. ^ a b "Obama taps former Bush aide to key government post", AFP, Nov. 19, 2009. Footnote augmented 2010-03-14.
  23. ^ Kane, Paul (June 30, 2010). "Former Bush, Reid aides approved for broadcasting board". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
  24. ^ "Karl Rove granted divorce in Texas" by Mike Allen, politico.com, 12/29/09 11:27 AM EDT. Footnote augmented 2010-03-14.
  25. ^ "Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino to Teach at GW's Graduate School of Political Management". George Washington University. July 14, 2010. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
  26. ^ "White House Press Secretary Dana Perino plays a game called "You're Cast Away on the Island of Misfit Toys."".
  27. ^ Baker, Peter (December 10, 2007). "Perino's 'Missile Crisis' Confession". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ Nizza, Mike (December 10, 2007). "Nobody's Perfect: Press Secretary Edition". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ Silva, Mark (December 8, 2007). "WH Press Sec'y: 'I feel like I'm in school every day'". The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
Political offices
Preceded by White House Press Secretary
2007 – 2009 		Succeeded by
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