What's Up Is Now The Brief: News and Insights from Capitol Communicator
Welcome to The Brief! Capitol Communicator's revamped weekly newsletter.
Inside Today's Brief:
- Journalist Karen Attiah will not return to Washington Post
- AAF DC's American Advertising Awards competition underway
- Zach Goodwin, cofounder of a DC creative agency, makes narrative directorial debut with 14-minute science-fiction thriller
- Glen Echo Group announces four hires
- Area agency named to The PR Net’s 2026 Most Influential List
- The Nvidia Crisis Raises a Bigger Question: Who Advises the CEO?
Journalist Karen Attiah will not return to Washington Post despite winning fight that she was unjustly fired
Karen Attiah will not return to her job as a Washington Post opinion columnist even after an arbitrator ruled she was unjustly fired for statements following the killing of Charlie Kirk. According to The Hill, Attiah, who worked at the Post for 11 years as an editor and opinion writer, announced she would not return "due to a lack of “guaranteed freedom and institutional support” within the Post newsroom.
AAF DC's American Advertising Awards competition underway.
Early-bird entrees are being accepted for AAF DC's American Advertising Awards. According to AAF DC, you should enter because your work goes up against agencies, freelancers and in-house teams in the DC market: people with the same kinds of clients, the same budgets and the same Tuesday-afternoon fire drills you have. Around here, that means associations, nonprofits and government. Win here and you move on to district, then national. Every step is earned against people who know exactly how hard it was.
Zach Goodwin, Cofounder of DC creative agency This January, Makes Narrative Directorial Debut With THE REPLICA
Washingtonian, writer and creative director Zach Goodwin makes his debut as a narrative director with THE REPLICA, a 14-minute science-fiction thriller that, states a release, is about an unemployed man in near-future New York City who becomes convinced his girlfriend has been replaced by a double.
Written and directed by Goodwin, the short combines psychological suspense with dark comedy, exploring technology’s increasingly intimate place in our lives—and the companies selling us a future we may not actually want.
Glen Echo Group Expands Public Affairs Team
Glen Echo Group announced four hires: Alanna Murrell as a director, Joslyn Blass as an associate, and Sarah Banholzer and Lulia Pan as junior associates. The additions, states a release, "come at a time of rapid growth at Glen Echo and across Orchestra, with expanding teams, capabilities and work across industries."
Spotted MP agency named to The PR Net’s 2026 Most Influential List
Spotted MP, an Alexandria-based boutique marketing and public relations agency, has been named to The PR Net's 2026 Marcomms’ Most Influential list for the second consecutive year, joining 65 other marketing and communications leaders from across industries. According to Maurisa Potts, founder and CEO of the agency, The PR Net is "a global industry platform and professional network connecting leaders across public relations, marketing, communications and media.
The Nvidia Crisis Raises a Bigger Question: Who Advises the CEO?
When one of the world’s most influential CEOs faces scrutiny, who is responsible for telling that leader what they need to hear, not simply what they want to hear? According to a CommPRO post on Capitol Communicator, that question "has taken on new urgency amid public attention surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The evolving situation raises a broader question for every organization: What role should trusted advisors play when the judgment, credibility or conduct of a powerful leader comes under scrutiny?"
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