If there were two things you would not have expected to go together in 2015, that would be Amazon and ex-White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
Carney is leaving his position as an analyst at CNN to become a senior vice president of Worldwide Corporate Affairs at Amazon, Politico reported on Thursday. Carney will manage all issues of public relations and public policy for Amazon, and he will move between the Seattle HQ and DC offices while managing his department. Vice President of Global Public Policy Paul Misener and PR Chief Craig Berman will be placed under Carney, and Carney will report directly to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Carney's hiring is an interesting choice when you consider the amount of flack he received from reporters during his term in Obama's office. Carney originally started working for the White House as Vice President Joe Biden's communication chief in 2008. He was then promoted to press secretary in 2011 as the replacement for Robert Gibbs. Carney would spend the next three years fielding questions from reporters who each wanted access to the White House and a unique angle to make their report as relevant as possible.
Carney was at the center of a fiasco in 2013 when a large number of news outlets submitted a joint letter to the White House complaining about the lack of access to the White House. According to the letter, the White House had been very selective about letting the press in during certain events. That's why, in December 2013, the press confronted Carney about the problem and he did his best to avoid the blame. He blamed the lack of access on the rise of internet journalism making photojournalism obsolete. However, Carney did promise to help alleviate this problem.
Carney held the office of press secretary until May 2014, when President Obama announced that Josh Earnest would succeed Carney in the role.
His departure wasn't unexpected because press secretaries tend to burn out within three years of getting the job. Within a month of his departure, Carney joined CNN as a political analyst.
This article previously said that Jay Carney would be replacing Paul Misener and Craig Berman, when in fact they are just being placed under his leadership.
