Mark Levin Calls for ABC to Fire Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos

As NewsBusters previously reported, ABC's Brian Ross, during a Good Morning America segment with co-host George Stephanopoulos, wrongly accused a Tea Party member of being Friday's Aurora, Colorado, mass murderer.

Later that day, conservative talk radio host Mark Levin said, "If ABC News corporate had an ounce of integrity it would fire both of them right now" (video follows courtesy Right Scoop with transcript and commentary):

MARK LEVIN: Most of us when something as tragic as what happened in Aurora this morning takes place, our hearts go out to the dead, to the families, to those who are injured. We want to know who they are, we want to know who did this, we want to know why it was done and so forth. Some of us say a prayer.

What most of us don’t do is search for political scapegoats. And the scapegoat seems to always be the same – us.

Somehow those of us who are law-abiding, who preach the value of the individual, who oppose things like abortion and defend the greatest healthcare system in the world because we embrace a culture of life, somehow we’re to blame. It doesn’t matter if the murderer is mentally ill as in the Tucson case, if he’s disgruntled about something including himself or whatever. They look for reasons to find out if he has any connections to us.

So the media go hunting for reasons to make disgusting allegations. It’s cold-blooded, there’s no compassion, they’re looking to make news, they’re looking to drive ratings. This is just bizarre, and it’s time to call them out on it.

A few minutes later, Levin did:

When you have rogue, politically-motivated reporters like Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos - and somehow Stephanopoulos is getting a pass – both of ABC News trying to turn this into yet another disgusting attack on the Tea Party, trying to draw connections between the killer and the Tea Party, it doesn’t get any lower than that. Boy these people hate us, don’t they? I mean, they really hate us.

Truth is, if ABC News corporate had an ounce of integrity it would fire both of them right now.

If ABC News had an ounce of integrity, Stephanopoulos, the former Bill Clinton White House adviser, would never have been hired.

Regardless, nicely said, Mark. Bravo.