The Compromising Of ABC News?
May 2nd, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
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We don’t usually link to Drudge Report because so many of his original news items have later proven to be inaccurate. But this Drudge item is backed up with info from elsewhere — and it could mean ABC News will be thrust into Democratic primary controversy once again.
Here’s his lead:
Just hours before the Indiana and North Carolina presidential primaries, ABC NEWS has offered to air a ‘town hall’ meeting with Hillary Clinton — to be hosted by former Clinton staffer George Stephanopoulos!
Embracing and racing through a brave new era of journalism, it is not clear if ABCNEWS will inform viewers of Stephanopoulos’s past employment.
Stephanopoulos helped run Mr. Clinton’s first presidential election campaign and acted as his press secretary and advisor on policy and strategy before joining ABC NEWS.
An executive at a rival network mocked, “We look forward to ABC holding the next town hall meeting with President Bush, hosted by Karl Rove!”
ABC will air the hour-long Hillary forum live from Indianapolis on Sunday.
There’s a lot more so go the link and read it all.
Drudge also notes that Clinton’s prime rival Senator Barack Obama will appear on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” where he will be grilled by Tim Russert.
Some websites have called this the dueling Sunday showdown between the two — but these two events and the issues raised by them are NOT the same.
1. Clinton has paid for televised Town Hall type events in the past. ABC is basically giving her a chunk of time to take questions from voters. Did ABC offer Obama the same thing? If not, the event is setting up the network — rightfully or wrongfully — to charges that it is doing the show to bolster Clinton. If these charges are made, they are most likely “wrongfully,” since despite what partisans on all sides think, most news directors don’t rub their hands with glee and try to figure out ways to undermine one candidate and promote another.
2. Stephanopoulos was bitterly criticized by many progressives and by some mainstream media staffers for co-moderating a Clinton-Obama Pennsylvania debate where the first half seemed to be focused largely on putting Obama on the spot about political and process questions and talk radio subjects. Stephanopoulos was accused of using a question proposed by conservative talker Sean Hannity. Progressives also pointed to his past employment with Clinton and suggested he was working with her to undermine Obama. Again, rightfully or wrongfully, this will further undermine perceptions of him, particularly if he doesn’t throw unquestionable hardball questions at Clinton as tough, persistent and assertive as the ones he threw at Obama.
3. ABC News as a network could come off OK if Stephanopoulos conducts an event that isn’t the equivalent of giving Clinton a free Town Hall meeting that she would have otherwise paid for. This will be a difficult task: a) Obama partisans will want to see Stephanopoulos giving Clinton the same treatment he gave Obama or they’ll say it was biased (and they will use a very tough standard — in some cases wanting blatant bias against Clinton), b) unless Obama was offered the same format to be televised before the closely-fought primaries, some progressives will say the omission proved ABC was favoring one candidate.
4. Meet The Press is not the same as a Town Hall. That show is a traditional TV talking heads Sunday morning interview program. The guest is in a studio — not interacting with members of the public. Russert has the reputation of taking politicians apart on his show and while many (including Clinton) have survived and thrived, and few except Vice President Dick Cheney have viewed Russert and his show as a p.r. or easy-spin vehicle.
The Bottom Line: After the debate, Stephanopoulos was highly controversial, suspect in Obama quarters and basically-damaged goods. ABC would have been better served if it had arranged for another ABC reporter to conduct its Town Hall.
By its choice of a controversial host who many believe is not above the Democratic primary fray, ABC’s Town Hall will be closely watched — but perhaps in ways ABC and Stephanopoulos did not originally have in mind.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 8:51 am and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, MSM, Democratic Party, Primaries, North Carolina, ABC News, Indiana, News, TV News, Media Criticism, 2008 Elections, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Media, Barack Obama, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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