Leading on swaggering

Mark Thompson has chosen Virginia Moseley to be the editorial executive who will help 'get CNN's swagger back'. 

Some already wish he hadn't. A source told the New York Post: “You can be an excellent journalist without being an a–hole. There was an undercurrent of hope that Mark would find someone else". Others described her as a "tyrant", with "no people skills whatsoever". 

Virginia, 61, was born in Hamilton Massachusetts; dad was a thoroughbred owner and Republican representative. She went to Harvard, and then straight to CBS News, working in the political unit, as an off-air reporter on Capitol Hill, as an embed in the 1992 campaign, and finally as Washington Producer for the CBS Evening News. In 1994 she moved to ABC News, ending up as senior Washington producer at "Good Morning America," before moving to CNN in 2012. 

In 1992 she married Tom Nides, then working for the Democratic Speaker, Tom Foley. He went on to be a Hillary Clinton confidant, but also shuttled between Wall Street and government roles.  

They had three children, with a family home in Georgetown, Washington which sold for $3.6m in January 2017.  Until July this year, he was Biden's Ambassador to Israel.