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Vice President Biden Names New Communications Director

The Vice President announced today that Shailagh Murray will serve as his Communications Director, starting in April. Murray succeeds Jay Carney, who was appointed by the President to be the White House Press Secretary. Murray comes to the Vice President’s office as a veteran journalist, most recently at the Washington Post.

“Shailagh’s years of experience covering a broad array of issues ranging from domestic policy to foreign affairs make her uniquely positioned to lead our communications team", Vice President Biden said. "She is as well-respected among her peers as she is versed in the serious issues facing our nation and the world. Her leadership and counsel will be invaluable to me, and to the entire administration.”

Shailagh Murray became a Capitol Hill correspondent for the Washington Post in 2005. She has written extensively about fiscal policy, health care reform, and national security issues, including the Iraq war debate, while also covering the 2006, 2008 and 2010 elections. At the Post, she was assigned to cover Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and has focused since the election on the president's legislative agenda, including health care reform.

From 1999 to 2005, she covered Congress and politics for the Wall Street Journal's Washington, DC, bureau. Previously, she was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Prague and Brussels from 1992 to 1999. A native of Buffalo, New York, Shailagh grew up in Richmond and Charllottesville, Virginia and is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia and Northwestern University.


The fiesty journalist made news when she defended her use of the term "ultra-conservative" for Rep. Barbara Cubin in a June 7 story on who would succeed the late Sen. Craig Thomas.  Said Murray: "I get irritated with people who assume knee-jerk bias in reporters, based on one story that they happen to read. I actually don't see such terms as inflammatory, but as descriptive, and I'll use them as a I see fit."

Murray joins the Vice President’s communications office, which includes Press Secretary Elizabeth Alexander, Deputy Press Secretary Amy Dudley and Assistant Press Secretary Liz Allen.

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