With the grand procession of Politico reporters and editors out the door since summer, Politico appears to be determined to hire journalists whose names are not yet famous for Washington. Consider this one more cog in the wheel of the suburban Virginia publication’s new regime with VandeHarris focused heavily on Brussels. On Tuesday morning they announced that they snagged Bryan Bender, the Boston Globe‘s national security correspondent, to run Pro Defense.
He’s been on the Pentagon beat for a few decades.
Another new hire is Eli Stokols, an anchor in Denver who has won local Emmys, who will join Politico‘s 2016 campaign coverage.
Here’s the internal memo from editor Susan Glasser.
(If you missed last week’s announcement of names you’ve never heard of, see here.)
From: Susan Glasser <SGlasser@politico.com>
Date: February 24, 2015 at 6:24:43 AM EST
To: TP-Staff <staff@politico.com>
Subject: the morning news
Dear Politicos, delighted to announce that Bryan Bender, the Boston Globe’s award-winning national security correspondent since 2001, will be joining us to lead our Pro Defense team. Bryan is a natural choice for this assignment and we are lucky to land him; after 20 years on the Pentagon beat, he’s got terrific ideas for our coverage — and a track record of excellence. A board member of the Military Reporters and Editors Association, Bryan was co-recipient of the 2013 Everett R. Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress and he is also author of “You Are Not Forgotten,” the true story of the search for a missing World War II pilot by an Iraq War veteran, published by Doubleday in 2013.
We also have a new recruit for our Politics team — and on Charlie’s second day in the editing seat! Eli Stokols, a highly regarded political reporter in Colorado, will soon join us to help with our 2016 campaign coverage. Eli, a five-night-a-week anchor on KDVR in Denver who hosts his own Sunday morning politics show and a politics blog, has written for Politico Mag and the Colorado magazine 5280. A winner of multiple local Emmys, Eli is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and a former college baseball player at Berkeley.
Please join us in welcoming them!
Susan Peter Marty