Mellody Hobson

The predictable MSM reaction to Standard & Poor's downgrading of the US government's credit rating? Kill the messenger, of course.  Yesterday, we noted how Jeff Glor at CBS' Early Show parroted the Obama line about the downgrade being "political."

Today it was ABC's turn.  Good Morning America had on Mellody Hobson, a regular ABC "financial contributor" and former host of her own ABC financial-advice show. Hobson hit S&P hard, expressing the view that "everything that they do is suspect."

There's just one little factoid ABC didn't share with viewers. While presented as a presumably objective financial expert, Chicagoan Hobson in fact is an Obama partisan.  Hobson served as a big-time fundraiser during Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and is involved with his 2012 campaign.

View video after the jump.

The New York Times broke the story online yesterday that ABC economics reporter Bianna Golodryga, a regular contributor to Good Morning America, will marry Obama budget chief Peter Orszag next fall.

They broke the happy news on the first half-hour of GMA Tuesday after Golodryga subbed in at the morning news desk and finished the newscast with Bristol Palin's custody suit with her ex-boyfriend and Playgirl model Levi Johnston. She quipped of Orszag: "There was no Playgirl shoot in his portfolio." Jackie Calmes reported the pairing yesterday:

He met Ms. Golodryga, a business and economics correspondent who, at 31, is a decade younger than him, last May at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, where Mr. Orszag was a guest at ABC’s table. They have dated since, drawing attention in gossip columns for their attendance at several high-profile gala events.

H/t texascajun

We can debate the propriety of mentioning the name of banks that might be in financial trouble.  But one thing appears clear to Chris Cuomo [file photo]: it would be wrong to mention the name of a Democrat who could be in hot water.  Wouldn't want to cause a run on the Dem's political capital, after all. Cuomo's discretion was on display during today's Good Morning America.  Anchoring in the absence of Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts, Cuomo was discussing the run on Indymac and the advisability of publicizing the names of other banks that might be in trouble with ABC financial consultant Mellody Hobson.

CHRIS CUOMO: People are so desperate in markets right now that negative information that allows them to short-sell or bet on banks not doing well is very popular.

MELLODY HOBSON: So I'm suspect about where the lists are coming from; the motives of some of the people putting the lists out here.

CUOMO: We saw the impact of panic not just on people but even in Congress, right?  A senator gets up and says "I've heard something about a certain bank."  It's in trouble the next day.

View video [courtesy RedLasso] here.

Hitting full panic mode on Tuesday night, ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased World News: “Markets are gyrating, inflation is rising, banks are closing. Consumer pessimism is at an all-time high.” Actually, only one bank. Gibson explained “we are going to devote a large part of our broadcast tonight to the economy because the news each day seems unrelentingly bad.”

It certainly is on television news where Gibson brought aboard a group of three experts “to help us separate fact from fear,” but they and Gibson spread fear as he put himself in the place of a viewer and wondered: “My house is falling apart, the real estate mortgage companies may be in trouble, and now I hear about possible bank failures. And the stock market is tanking. So how do I be thoughtful about what I do with my money?” An exasperated Gibson soon pleaded:

Tell me where people go now to make sure their money is safe. With stocks down, you think the safest place to do is in the bank, and now we're told that there could be a lot of bank failures. So where do you put your money that you know it's safe? Under the mattress?