From Political Operative to TV Analyst

One year ago, when he was still a deputy White House chief of staff in the Bush administration, Karl Rove was more likely than not ducking news organizations. Now, he has joined them, as an analyst for Fox News and a contributor to Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. At times clearly partisan, at others apparently offering down-the-middle analysis, Rove in his new role as a media star marks another step in the evolution of mainstream journalism, where opinion, "straight news" reporting and unmistakable spin increasingly mingle, especially on television. says that he maintains regular contact with his progeny at the McCain campaign. "I'm not certain that I qualify as an adviser to McCain," he wrote this month in an online discussion with readers of The Washington Post's Web site, which unlike Fox News, Newsweek and The Journal identified him as "an informal adviser" to the McCain campaign. "I have friends at the campaign who occasionally ask me for reactions, and the Fox network is well aware of that, and similar contacts by some of their Democratic analysts." Rove is also regularly mentioned in Republican circles as a candidate to start a Republican 527 group, though no plans have been announced. Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek, said he was not worried that his readers would confuse Mr. Rove's leanings. "No one on the planet who is reading Newsweek is at all puzzled as to what Karl's politics are," Meacham said. Meacham said he hired Rove as a contributor last fall in part to "responsibly provoke." Indeed, he said, several hundred readers canceled their subscriptions in response.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/us/politics/12rove.html
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