Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Tony Snow will leave this month to devote time to writing, speaking and playing a more active public role in combating cancer, a disease he has confronted for three roller-coaster years.
Dana Perino, the principal deputy press secretary, will take Snow’s place Sept. 14, the first time President Bush has chosen a woman as voice of the White House.
Snow, battling a recurrence of colon cancer he had hoped was in remission when he became the president’s chief spokesman in April 2006, said it is not the disease but the financial burden his work has placed on his family that is forcing him to leave.
While paid $168,000 a year as press secretary, that salary is far less than Snow, a father of three who has fought cancer since 2005, made as a host for the Fox News Channel and Fox News Radio.