Cathy Lynn Grossman
USA Today
Faith & Reason
October 28, 2009
Steven Waldman, founder, editor and leading political blogger of Beliefnet.com, the nation’s top Internet spirituality site, is leaving for a post in the Obama administration.
He’s posted a farewell letter on his blog calling this “the most difficult (and surreal) post I’ve had to write” as he departs to become senior adviser to new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski.
Waldman, a former magazine religion reporter, and co-founder Robert Nylen launched the ambitious site in December 1999 to cover “the news in faith and faith in the news” and give people a home online for spiritual exploration…
…Now, Waldman, 47, is moving into a very different power zone. The FCC release, citing Waldman and Beliefnet’s numerous journalism awards, says he will
… lead an open, fact-finding process to craft recommendations to meet the traditional goals of serving the public interest and making sure that all Americans receive the information, educational content, and news they seek.
Genachowski called Waldman “an Internet pioneer… known for his even-handedness and has garnered respect from people of widely different ideologies and approaches.” Waldman describes his new post as working to ensure “a vibrant media landscape” in “challenging economic times” in which informatoinal media is undergoing “cosmic changes and systemic crisis.”…
The entire article is here.
