First Brian Williams, Now George Stephanopoulos Has Lost All Credibility in Latest Mainstream Media Scandal

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As we turn the pages on 2015, the American mainstream media continues to unintentionally commit suicide. We all remember the NBC News mess from earlier this year when: Brian Williams was Forced to Admit His Tale of Being on a Downed Helicopter in Iraq Was Pure Fantasy. Now we have another scandal, but this one has far greater implications to the nation at large.

When I first saw the headlines that former top Clinton operative, George Stephanopoulos, had been caught donating $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, I failed to immediately recognize its importance. That’s because I don’t pay close attention to mainstream media and the roles their various muppets play in these organizations. Once you recognize how central his “reporting,” if you can call it that, on the Clinton Foundation is to ABC News, you realize how dangerous and inappropriate his conflict of interest is.

Make no mistake about it, this is a huge scandal and Mr. Stephanopoulos should be immediately fired from ABC News. He has absolutely no credibility left whatsoever. In this post, I will explain why from several different angles.

For some background, let’s take a look at the excellent article by Erik Wemple at the Washington Post:

ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos contributed a total of $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation from 2012 through 2014, according to a report by Politico’s Dylan Byers. The donations came in tranches of $25,000, reported Politico, citing foundation records.*

How big a deal is this? Large: Stephanopoulos IS ABC News. Though he doesn’t anchor “ABC World News Tonight,” he is the network’s chief anchor, meaning that he fronts the network in breaking news situations — or just when it matters. More: He is anchor of “Good Morning America” and of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

Those statements are welcome acknowledgments that the donations are serious business. Yet were they really an “honest mistake”? Another way of looking at them is that they were an “honest expression of support” for the ruling family of American Democratic politics.

Conflict-of-interest matters are an obsession of this blog, which views the mixing of money and favors between TV personalities and special interests as one of contemporary journalism’s most toxic pollutants. The problem with Stephanopoulos’s donations to the Clinton Foundation is that it gives him a stake — even if it’s a small one — in the operations and success of the charity. Like any donor, Stephanopoulos wants his money put to good use and, all else being equal, wants the foundation to prosper as it invests his money in good works.

Good journalism simply cannot tolerate such a stake. Stephanopoulos already has a history with the Clintons, having served as Bill’s senior adviser for policy and strategy. Those ties already had media critics — many of them conservatives — wary of just how objective he could be in covering a Clinton-colored political landscape. Now he has confirmed their wariness, in perhaps the dumbest move by a major media figure in some time.

ABC News, however, isn’t budging. In a brief chat this morning, the Erik Wemple Blog quizzed ABC News spokeswoman Heather Riley on whether the network sees an ongoing conflict of interest. “We stand behind him,” responded Riley. Can he objectively cover Hillary Clinton? “We stand behind him,” responded Riley. We posed some other question, and Riley responded again, “We stand behind him.”

The fact that ABC News isn’t budging is clear proof that the network has absolutely zero interest in real reporting or its credibility, but I suppose we already knew that.

Now here’s where it gets really interesting, inexcusable and embarrassing…

The disclosures shed new light on a tough interview that Stephanopoulos conducted recently with Peter Schweizer, the author of “Clinton Cash,” a much-discussed book that pokes at the overlapping worlds of the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s purview as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Stephanopoulos grilled the guy, “How does your reporting show that Hillary Clinton may be unfit for the presidency?” he asked, in kicking off the session. Over nearly eight minutes, Stephanopoulos kept the heat on, citing “no evidence at all” that Hillary Clinton was involved in a key decision discussed in the Schweizer book and pursuing the author over whether he’d briefed any Democrats about his book, as he did for Republicans.

“As you know, the Democrats have said this is an indication of your partisan interest. They say you used to work for President Bush as a speechwriter, you’re funded by the Koch Brothers. How do you respond to that?” asked Stephanopoulos — all the while sitting on his own interest in the Clinton Foundation. Riley indicated that a note will be added to the interview online to disclose the anchor’s contributions.

The level of shamelessness required for a human being to ask those questions knowing full well that he donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation and never disclosed it, is hard to fathom.

Mr. Stephanopoulos’ flimsy defense has thus far revolved around his passion for certain projects being undertaken by the Clinton Foundation, but this nonsense was easily put to bed by Politico:

As we conduct the dumb, dumber and dumbest inventory of Stephanopoulos’ humiliation, we must ask why it was necessary for him to give anything to the Clinton Foundation? In his first statement to Byers, he said he gave to the foundation because he believes so deeply in the AIDS and deforestation programs administered by the Clintons. Surely, a politically neutered foundation that does equal or superior works in those areas would accept his philanthropy. Surely, when Stephanopoulos cross-examined Peter Schweizer, the author of the Clinton Foundation exposé “Clinton Cash,” on the April 26 edition of ABC’s “This Week,” the meta aspect of the segment must have occurred to him! But, no! Stephanopoulos bowls right through the interview without any acknowledgment of his cash endorsement of the Clinton Foundation!

Incredibly, it gets even worse. ABC News was planning on having this obvious Clinton cheerleader moderate the 2016 GOP debate! You can’t make this up:

Wounded by the revelation of his donation, will Stephanopoulos survive in his role as ABC News chief anchor and chief political correspondent? Already he has agreed to forfeit his role as moderator of the GOP primary debate in February, but the demands for additional concessions are a certainty.

While he has “agreed to forfeit that role,” he should quickly be forced to forfeit any role in journalism whatsoever, and revert back to overtly shining Hillary and Bill’s shoes for a living, a familiar role for which he is far better suited.

Finally, we learn the following from the Hill:

The author of Clinton Cash wants another interview on ABC, after anchor George Stephanopoulos acknowledged he had donated to the Clinton Foundation without disclosing it on air.

Peter Schweizer, who wrote the book scrutinizing donations to the Clinton Foundation, said Thursday night that he wants another opportunity to discuss “the contents” of his controversial book on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

“Going into that interview, I kind of assumed that the relationship with the Clintons was in the past, that he had made this transition into the media, and it was a different chapter in his life,” Schweizer said on Fox News.

“How you can expect to be objective is really highly questionable in that kind of environment,” Schweizer said.

Naturally, you can’t, but don’t worry Georgie boy has “apologized.”

Of course, the fact that mainstream media is nothing but corporate/government propaganda has been highlighted many times on this site. For instance:

“Non-Official Cover” – Respected German Journalist Blows Whistle on How the CIA Controls the Media

20-Year CBS News Veteran, Sharyl Attkisson, Details Massive Censorship and Propaganda in Mainstream Media

Video of the Day: “Don’t Worry Be Happy” – Conan O’Brien Mocks Mainstream Media Idiocy

Julian Assange Discusses Mainstream Media, the “Wikileaks Party” and our Global Awakening

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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6 thoughts on “First Brian Williams, Now George Stephanopoulos Has Lost All Credibility in Latest Mainstream Media Scandal”

  1. “Mr. Stephanopoulos should be immediately fired from ABC News.”

    Do you honestly believe that ABC News did not know what they were doing when they hired George? They knew exactly what they were getting: someone who would push the liberal/leftist agenda under the guise of a “journalist”. A trained attack dog for the left.

    I can only hope that the leftist elites get what they deserve when they get the changes they are advocating. When Stalin came to power he immediately eliminated those who paved his way. Hopefully the same will happen when the U.S. becomes a one party leftist dictatorship.

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  2. i’m sorry this fake controversy is retarded. stephanopoulous worked for the clinton campaign in 92 and 96. he is a clinton operative. him giving money now does not make a difference. he was never legitimate and anyone who ever thought he was a ‘jouranlist’ is a more or less not paying attention .

    this ‘fake controversy’ about this man beeing biassed, belies the far greater destruction of televised news to have become a combination of infotainment, state propoganda, and corporate red/blue team advertising. stephanopoulous is and was never anything but a political operative and this was openly known for many years he was a ‘journalist; .

    and …now? everyone is now in shock? pleas…..

    this was never interesting and it still isn’t.

    not a big fan of john stewart, but his basic acknowledgement that most people dont’ give a crap about corruption is important. democracy and voting are only of so much use. corruption cannot be fought by voting. you cannot vote to ‘uncorrupt’ things. so this whole notion that people ‘should be’ now shocked at the newest latest evidence of corruption is silly because systemic corruption has existed openly for some time now, and the g.s. case is a great example of it being open and notorious in the television ‘journalism’ field that has not been ‘journalism’ for decades.

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