On Sunday’s This Week, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos made a second on-air apology for failing to disclose that he donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation from 2012-2014.
The ABC News anchor acknowledged “I have made substantial donations to dozens of charities including the Clinton Global Foundation. Those donations were a matter of public record, but I should have made additional disclosures on air when we covered the foundation.”
Despite his admission that he should have disclosed the donations, Stephanopoulos maintained that they were purely for charitable purposes:
And I now believe that directing personal donations to that foundation was a mistake even though I made them strictly to support work done to stop the spread of AIDS, help children, and protect the environment in poor countries. I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict. I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.
Although the ABC anchor apologized for his actions, Stephanopoulos has a long history of abusing role as a journalist by promoting his former boss Bill Clinton and the work of his foundation:
Asserted that ‘there is hope’ donations to foundation will ‘lead to something’
Appeared on conference calls with Democratic strategists
Used his ABC News platform to run unofficial infomercials for Clinton Foundation
In his 1999 memoir, recounted his “love” for Hillary Clinton
Hillary’s campaign manager Robby Mook interned for Stephanopoulos; thanked in memoir
In addition, NewsBusters’ Geoff Dickens has compiled a list of ten times George Stephanopoulos sucked up to the Clintons on ABC’s airwaves.
See Stephanopoulos’ full apology below.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos
May 17, 2015
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Now I want to address some news you may have seen about me. Over the last several years, I have made substantial donations to dozens of charities including the Clinton Global Foundation. Those donations were a matter of public record, but I should have made additional disclosures on air when we covered the foundation. And I now believe that directing personal donations to that foundation was a mistake even though I made them strictly to support work done to stop the spread of AIDS, help children, and protect the environment in poor countries. I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict. I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.
