Stephanopoulos Apology Tour Rolls On While Former Colleague Says She Doesn’t Believe He Is A Real Journalist
[guest post by Dana]
As of today, George Stephanopoulos has apologized three times for his failure to disclose that he made personal contributions to the Clinton Foundation. Contrary to the original report with its manipulative title, Stephanopoulos acknowledged the donation only after he was found out. And now he has apologized three times and what, wants a gold medal for honesty? I am so over apology tours. Fully admit you screwed up and got caught, apologize for it and then do the honorable thing. Without having to be told. It’s that last bit that causes people so much trouble.
Anyway, as Eric Wemple notes, in spite of the three apologies made by Stephanopoulos, there is still the problem of ABC:
Unresolved by Stephanopoulos’s repeated meae culpae is the conduct of ABC News’s PR operation, which stands accused of “running” to Politico with the story of Stephanopoulos’s donations after having received an inquiry from the Washington Free Beacon. Staffers from the Washington Free Beacon attest that they received official statements after ABC News provided them to Politico.
Wemple has still not received a reply from ABC regarding his inquiry into the matter as discussed here.
With that, former ABC News colleague Carole Simpson doesn’t believe Stephanopoulos is a journalist:
There is a coziness that George cannot escape,” said Simpson, who toiled for two decades at ABC News, notably as the weekend anchor of World News Tonight from 1988 to 2003. “While he did try to separate himself* from his political background to become a journalist, he really isn’t a journalist.”
Further:
…Simpson said she was “dumbfounded” by Thursday’s revelation that Stephanopoulos failed to disclose $75,000 in recent donations to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation—this, as he conducted a confrontational April 26 interview with Clinton Foundation critic Peter Schweizer.
“I wanted to just take him by the neck and say, ‘George, what were you thinking?’ Clearly, he was not thinking. I thought it was outrageous,” Simpson said. “And I am sorry that again the public trust in the media is being challenged and frayed because of the actions of some of the top people in the business.”
And Simpson suggests ABC is not exactly happy with their esteemed anchor, either:
ABC has made him the face of ABC News, the chief anchor, and I think they’re really caught in a quandary here. While ABC says this was ‘an honest mistake,’ they don’t feel that way. Secretly, they are hopping mad, I am sure.”
The network chief anchors are dropping like flies. You have to wonder if there’s a bit of squirming going on at CBS right about now.
*I’m not sure what Stephanopoulos did that evidenced an attempt to separate himself from politics (Clinton), but clearly, whatever it was didn’t work.
–Dana
Hello.
If Stephanopoulos stepped down because he recognized that he broke the trust with viewers in his non-disclosure as well as not recusing himself from the interview with Peter Schweizer (and his other involvements/biases), I could respect that.
Dana (86e864) — 5/18/2015 @ 5:43 pmOnce a hack, always a hack. He’s never stopped being a Clinton apologist and defender.
in_awe (e7a545) — 5/18/2015 @ 5:53 pmI found this comment from Stephanopoulos during the Brian Williams’ scandal:
Dana (86e864) — 5/18/2015 @ 6:00 pmI am not without some compassion for both Stephanopolous and Williams. We are all our own worst enemies.
Link.
Dana (86e864) — 5/18/2015 @ 6:01 pmThe ABC PR hack is a former Clinton staffer too.
JD (3b5483) — 5/18/2015 @ 6:11 pmThe error would be assuming new people will be any less biased.
It has been this way at least since Cronkite. Was it this way ever since the first TV newscast? The first radio newscast? Uninformed vs. misinformed alpha and omega?
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 5/18/2015 @ 6:44 pmI could have some compassion for Brian Williams. What he did seemed the act of someone who’s emotionally disturbed.
I would be too, if I had to watch my daughter degrade herself on Lena Dunham’s “Girls.”
What Stephanopolous did was calculated, dishonest, and corrupt.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/14/flashback-stephanopoulos-said-clinton-foundation-donors-thought-it-was-going-to-lead-to-something-video/
There’s a word for giving money to a government official thinking it will lead to something in return. The word is bribe.
There’s your smoking gun.
Steve57 (fb1453) — 5/18/2015 @ 6:44 pmChelsea is apparently poison wherever she goes–especially CGI
http://pagesix.com/2015/05/18/chelsea-sends-clinton-foundation-staff-running/?_ga=1.15224822.1949759189.1423347254
elissa (025910) — 5/18/2015 @ 6:54 pm*I’m not sure what Stephanopoulos did that evidenced an attempt to separate himself from politics (Clinton), but clearly, whatever it was didn’t work
I seem to remember him making a pledge to be impartial in a cross my heart and hope to die sort of way on his first shiw at This Week, and a couple of mild criticisms of the Clintobs on the next couple of shows. Perhaps she meant that.
Does George Will still show up on This Week? It has. Brrn a couple of years since I last watched it.
kishnevi (9c4b9c) — 5/18/2015 @ 6:56 pmClintons.
It has been.
I blame US Airways for those typos.
kishnevi (adea75) — 5/18/2015 @ 6:58 pmI have zero compassion for either of those smug, leftist, elitist a-holes. Neither should be working any where around true journalism (if there is any today). The Greek should be arrested for bribery. And Williams for theft (of our time) by deception. Is there n democrat today who is an honest man? Is there none on the take? Not one who is not corrupt either in power or money? How on earth can a Great Republic support a political party which has become nothing more than a criminal organization? How can we continue to allow these vermin to teach our kids, report our news, run our courts, make our laws and regulate our economy?
Hoagie (f4eb27) — 5/18/2015 @ 7:03 pm@ Steve57,
Yes.
The more power one has and the more one works to stay in the realm of the powerful, the more one is destined to eventually crash and burn. Few can handle it gracefully and keep their moral compass in tact. Something about power tending to corrupt, and absolute power corrupting absolutely.
Dana (86e864) — 5/18/2015 @ 7:05 pmlittle hitler…
mg (31009b) — 5/18/2015 @ 7:16 pmhttp://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=randy+newman+short+people&qpvt=randy+newman+short+people&FORM=VDRE
Wemple writes “… repeated meae culpae is …”
Wonder if he writes about attorneys generals as well. Darn good thing the guy has editors and proofreaders and fact checkers and other support people. You’d hate for him to sound illiterate like a blogger or something.
john Pomeroy (932a31) — 5/18/2015 @ 7:21 pmHe has a Brian Williams problem.
Williams would likely be back in the anchor chair at NBC were it not for the overwhelming opposition of the newsroom, who feel betrayed and humiliated by his wanton lying.
At ABC, many career people were bypassed to give Stephanopoulos, a political operative with no journalism experience at all, a prime on-air slot. That creates a lasting resentment. Now he is getting away with the journalistic equivalent of murder with the smoking gun in your hand. That cannot sit well.
Like Williams, if he stays, expect wholesale resignations from others.
Estragon (ada867) — 5/18/2015 @ 11:26 pmi’m really sorry you guys i promise i’ll act like a for reals journalist starting…
ok…
now!
happyfeet (831175) — 5/18/2015 @ 11:29 pmHe was, is, and always will be a Clinton/Democrat political hack. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it still remains a pig.
Bill M (906260) — 5/19/2015 @ 1:36 amI’m curious to know if George was paid or compensated in any way for the various things he did for the Clinton Foundation.
Joe Miller (64cdc0) — 5/19/2015 @ 5:05 amI assume after all this crap with the lying pig Stefanaopouolous the media will still deny it’s liberal. Hell, they got away with the Journolist scandal, why not this leftist douche?
Hoagie (f4eb27) — 5/19/2015 @ 6:03 am“Mainstream media has died. RIP. All that’s left now is a bunch of progressive/liberal zombies out for ideological flesh. Most people know better than to listen to them anymore.”
– Glenn Reynolds
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/19/2015 @ 6:18 amGeorge will be crying all the way to the bank:
Dana (86e864) — 5/19/2015 @ 6:57 amHeh. … Should be “laughing” all the way to the bank. Don’t comment before fully waking up…
Dana (f1eb7d) — 5/19/2015 @ 7:55 amGreetings:
Carole Simpson should pick on someone her own size.
11B40 (0f96be) — 5/19/2015 @ 9:12 amI don’t understand the kerfuddle. ABC hired him right out of the Clinton White House. He was cute and well spoken and met the liberal media requirements like a glove. Only the low-information voter believed he was a real journalist. Am I now to believe that other ABC journalists are only now wondering about his journalistic creds? Do these same people also believe Chelsea was a journalist? In the last 20 (maybe 30) years, I have never once believed ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS (to name just a few), to be anything other than Liberal propaganda outlets. George and Chelsea were/are bits in the Liberal machine and they carried out their assigned roles. To have been a journalist in ABC all these years and to fain outrage now, please spare me the crocodile tears.
TheHat (58d08b) — 5/22/2015 @ 11:44 amThis is great.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/anti-george-stephanopoulos-street-art-797394
Steve57 (fb1453) — 5/22/2015 @ 12:17 pm100% what TheHat said!
Hoagie (f4eb27) — 5/22/2015 @ 12:35 pm