Brian Stelter at TV Newser broke the story Friday that "Good Morning America Weekend executive producer John Green has been suspended for one month after his personal e-mails were leaked to the Drudge Report and Page Six, TVNewser has learned. Phyllis McGrady made the announcement at GMA's morning meeting today. A number of ABC News staffers are outraged that Green's personal messages have become a public embarrassment. Some have speculated that the messages were leaked by a disgruntled former employee."
Howard Kurtz picked up the story in Saturday's Washington Post:
ABC News suspended the executive producer of the weekend edition of "Good Morning America" yesterday over a pair of leaked e-mails in which he used inflammatory language to slam President Bush and Madeleine Albright.
John Green, whose unpaid suspension will last one month, apologized to the White House in a call to communications director Nicolle Wallace, while two ABC executives called the former secretary of state to apologize.
"No one is sorrier than John for the embarrassment that these albeit private e-mails caused to his colleagues and to the people who were the subjects of those comments," said ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider. "John would be the first to say this has been a real lesson to him. John is abjectly sorry for all the comments that have come to light, and that's appropriate."
And then there's the newer Albright angle:
The second leaked e-mail surfaced Thursday on the New York Post's gossipy Page Six. In that note, Green wrote that Albright should not be booked on the show because "Albright has Jew shame."
Albright, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, acknowledged her Jewish heritage in 1997 after it was discovered by Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs in the course of researching a book.
Green wrote in that note that "she hates us anyway because she says we promised her five minutes and only gave her two . . . I do not like her." An ABC insider said Green was reacting to a heated dispute between Albright and a network producer.
The Albright Group, a global strategy firm founded by the former Clinton cabinet member, took the diplomatic route. "Secretary Albright has always had an excellent relationship with 'GMA' and with ABC and she still does," her office said in a statement. "In fact, she looks forward to appearing on 'GMA' on May 2 in connection with the release of her book on U.S. foreign policy and the importance of religious tolerance."
Now this is what made Laura Ingraham's smackdown of Matt Lauer and Richard Engel so refreshing. Most pundits and politicians are so eager to maintain good terms and easy access to network TV that someone inside the networks can call them a shameful Jew or a blithering idiot and they respond with platitudes about their "excellent relationships" with the powerful people who will help them sell books or get them better lecture fees.
(Any bets that Albright's book on the "importance of religious tolerance" will slam the Muslims for their failure to recognize said importance? I wouldn't bet a month of Green's salary on it.)
The typical liberal network fair-and-balanced dodge ends the Kurtz story:
It is widely believed at ABC News that the e-mails were leaked by a former employee who has a vendetta against Green.
"Everyone who works at ABC News is unhappy with the situation because it reflects on all of us," Schneider said. But, he said, "I don't think the e-mails tell us anything about the show John Green was putting on the air every Saturday and Sunday, which is fair and balanced and down the middle."
