George Stephanopoulos

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Piers Morgan Tonight, actress and comedienne Ali Wentworth brought up "reproduction rights" and Planned Parenthood as issues she is concerned about when host Piers Morgan turned the discussion to politics and what American women will be looking for in the presidential election. Wentworth began her answer by flippantly referring to her anatomy:

The New York Times on Thursday published a front page piece about a Mitt Romney supporting Super PAC that allegedly considered bringing a lot of attention to Barack Obama's America-hating Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Conservatives George Will and Laura Ingraham both slammed the Times for this shoddy report on ABC's This Week Sunday with the former saying the truth "didn't fit their narrative" and the latter claiming it "was a shot across the bow that if you are a wealthy person in the United States, you happen to be conservative, you're going to get involved in this election, then we are going to watch everything that you do" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham gave a much-needed education to ABC's George Stephanopoulos Sunday about the tremendous double standard involving campaign contributions.

After Ingraham pointed out that Barack Obama is never held responsible for things MoveOn.org does, ABC's This Week host foolishly said, "The president's been held accountable for Bill Maher" leading the conservative talker to smartly respond, "Did he give that money back to Bill Maher?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Is Eliot Spitzer - a man who had to resign as New York's governor due to a sex scandal involving hookers - someone that should be invited on a serious political talk show to discuss the sanctity of marriage?

As the answer is certainly "No," consider the delicious irony of Spitzer appearing on ABC's This Week Sunday avowing as it pertains to same-sex marriage, "The president is saying, as I said as governor, others have said around the nation, two people should be able to enter a civil relationship of love that goes on forever" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

George Stephanopoulos and the reporters at Good Morning America did not treat Dan Rather like a discredited journalist who disgraced CBS with faked documents. Instead, Rather was extolled as a "legendary newsman," and a "news legend." Those two terms were used four times on Monday.

Stephanopoulos interviewed the ex-CBS anchor who was let go after using discredited documents in a 2004 story about then-President George W. Bush. The GMA co-host sympathetically explained how Rather is "upset" by his abrupt exit: "...You felt that your team at CBS and its corporate ownership at Viacom, didn't back you up in that pursuit of the news and the truth." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

ABC News contributor Donna Brazile on Sunday - like so many Obama-loving media members have in recent months - said, "The president can't control gas prices."

This led George Will to marvelously ask of his This Week co-panelist, "If he can stop the seas from rising, why can't he bring down gas prices?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Disgraced former MSNBC and Current TV anchor Keith Olbermann suggested Sunday there's a conspiracy to drive up gas prices in order to harm President Obama.

Such was said on ABC's This Week in response to host George Stephanopoulos's question regarding the impact speculation has on what consumers pay at the pump (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan appearing on ABC's This Week Sunday gave Keith Olbermann a much-needed education on what living in a capitalist country is all about.

When the disgraced former Countdown host said, "It’s a very large view right now that business has never been viewed less favorably in this country," Noonan scolded, "There is a lot of people who think businessmen create businesses which create jobs" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Of the three major networks, only ABC's Good Morning America on Wednesday covered the "dog wars" counterattack by Mitt Romney's operatives. Co-anchor George Stephanopoulos highlighted that the campaign is "tweeting around a picture of the President and trying to focus on a revelation he made in his memoir, that he actually tried dog when he was a young boy in Indonesia." 

CBS This Morning and NBC's Today both skipped the story. The Romney team used the dog-eating revelation from Obama's book to hit back on Democratic complaints that the Republican once put his dog on the car roof during a vacation. On January 31, 2012, Today made sure to bring up that liberal talking point.

There was a truly delicious moment on ABC's This Week Sunday that should be mandatory viewing for all liberal media members.

After the perilously liberal editor of The Nation magazine, along with Obama's former domestic policy adviser, blamed all the nation's problems on Republican obstruction in Congress, the Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot struck back saying, "The first two years [Obama] had open field, Democratic, vast Democratic majorities. You got what you wanted. You got a huge expansion of federal government. How is that working out?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HBO's Bill Maher might finally have gone too far in his attacks on conservative women.

On ABC's This Week Sunday, host George Stephanopoulos asked his Roundtable panel, "You saw those comments he made on Friday night...He’s the biggest single contributor to the Super PAC aligned with the president...Do you think the president is now going to have to cut ties?" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

The Obama administration suffered another bad day in the Supreme Court, Wednesday, leading many to wonder if all of the President's health care law will be entirely scrapped. ABC's Good Morning America on Thursday responded to this with silence, totally ignoring the story.

GMA co-host George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday referred to the case as "historic," but apparently lost interest a day later. The other two morning shows, Today and CBS This Morning, each offered one report. In total, over eight hours of possible broadcast time, the three networks allowed a scant four minutes and 19 seconds. GMA, however, still managed to squeeze in a piece on important topics, such as an elderly Texas grandmother who is mad at Justin Bieber.        

Barack Obama's health care law ran into a legal buzz saw at the Supreme Court, Tuesday. So, how did the network morning shows on Wednesday cover the "historic" case? They mostly ignored it. Over two hours, ABC's Good Morning America allowed just two minutes.

Reporter Jon Karl hyped an Obamacare loss as win-win for the President. He insisted it would be a "rallying cry for liberals" and that "it would also take away an issue for Republicans." There's no down side to having one's biggest legislative accomplishment eviscerated? [MP3 audio here. See video below.]

Younger political junkies may not remember it, but watchers of the 1992 Clinton campaign can recall "The War Room," a documentary filmed inside the Clinton campaign. There's a new DVD of the film, out so National Public Radio just had to praise it.

On the program "Fresh Air" Wednesday,  film critic John Powers described George Stephanopoulos as "a sweet but overbearing altar boy" while James Carville is "a flat out movie-star" like...a wisecracking snake in a Pixar movie."

For the third day in a row, Wednesday, an absent George Stephanopoulos prompted ABC's Good Morning America to provide skimpy coverage of the GOP presidential race. While CBS This Morning devoted nine minutes, including an interview, on the Illinois primary, ABC allowed just two minutes and 21 seconds of coverage.

In GMA's only full report, Jake Tapper quoted Romney casting the race as law professor vs. conservative businessman (which typically leaves out describing Obama as liberal): "It's very clearly a very stark choice between Barack Obama, who [Romney is] casting as a law professor, versus a conservative businessman."

Wheee!!!

Break out the champagne! Put on your party hats! ABC News has announced that we now have the highest gasoline prices ever for March.

Huh? So why the celebrations? Because to watch joyful GMA host George Stephanopoulos in the video below the fold you would think we should all be happy because despite the gloomy news about the high gasoline prices, they MIGHT come down soon. First the harsh reality about current gasoline prices as reported by Zunaira Zaki in this ABC News business blog:

The average price of a gallon of regular is now $3.87, the highest recorded price in March. The average price is up nearly 4 cents from a week ago, and over 30 cents from a year ago, according to the Department of Energy, as more drivers face gas prices of $4 a gallon or more across the country.

Is there a clause in George Stephanopoulos's contract stating that politics must be ignored if he's not there? On Tuesday, for the second straight day, the former Democratic operative turned journalist was absent from Good Morning America. Despite March 20th featuring a critical primary in the Republican race for the White House, a Stephanopoulos-less GMA allowed just 19 seconds on the topic. (Dancing With the Stars, by contrast, received six minutes.)

The hosts who did show up for work on Monday and Tuesday's GMA also skipped a new ABC poll finding that "Two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. Supreme Court should throw out either the individual mandate  in the federal health care law or the law in its entirety."

On ABC's World News on Saturday, host David Muir played a clip of an ad from the far left group MoveOn.org attacking Republicans on the issues of abortion and contraception, and asked correspondent David Kerley for his take on the ad.

Without noting that President Obama raised the issue of contraception by requiring some religious institutions to pay for contraceptives for their employees, or that ABC's very own George Stephanopoulos had bizarrely raised the issue even earlier in a Republican presidential debate, persisting to get an answer from Mitt Romney, Kerley blamed Republicans for "talking about contraception" as he asserted that the GOP had handed Democrats a "gift."

After playing the ad, host Muir wondered:

Mitt Romney can’t close the deal with Republican primary voters because too many don’t trust that he’s a real conservative, but on Sunday’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos pressured Romney to move left to win in November. “How does Mitt Romney manage to continue to try to get conservatives over to his side,” Stephanopoulos wondered in acknowledging that shortcoming, “while reaching out to independents?” He soon fretted during the roundtable:

Does he have the freedom at this point to do what a lot of people are recommending, find a place to pick a fight, show some distance from the base of the party?

A “lot of people” in Stephanoploulos’ liberal Manhattan news media orbit. Mary Matalin fired back: “That’s a ridiculous kind of pundit strategy.”

When FNC's Bill O'Reilly brought up "ABC News's coverage of this Rush Limbaugh/Fluke situation" on Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor, guest George Stephanopoulos not only misled FNC viewers about ABC coverage by focusing only on how much time his weekday edition of Good Morning America devoted to the story while ignoring other ABC shows like World News and the weekend edition of GMA, but he even substantially understated the amount of time his own weekday GMA show spent on the controversy.

He also failed to mention that he repeatedly brought up the story as he hosted Sunday's This Week on ABC.

Who's the best person to give Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney advice? Why, longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, of course. Recapping the Super Tuesday primaries on Wednesday's Good Morning America, former Democratic operative turned Journalist George Stephanopoulos seriously wondered, "James Carville, you usually give advice to Democrats, but take that hat off for a second."

With no sense of humor or irony, the co-host continued, "Give some advice to Mitt Romney. How does he handle this right now?" Of course, Carville had no interest in giving Mitt Romney advice and proceeded to deride the Republican. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

In today's "Don't Bring a Knife to a Gunfight" segment, ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday once again failed miserably in a battle of wits with Newt Gingrich.

After the This Week host claimed past experience has shown long primary battles "[mean] that party loses in the general election," the former Speaker of the House marvelously responded, "George, I'll be glad to swap history credentials with you" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The three networks have, thus far, skipped Tuesday's revelation by Energy Secretary Steven Chu that the "overall goal" of the Obama administration isn't to get gas prices down. This is despite the fact that ABC, NBC and CBS have previously focused on the rising gasoline prices in general.

Politico reported, Tuesday, "The Energy Department isn't working to lower gasoline prices directly, Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker scolded him for his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as in Europe."

In the wake of new sexual revelations concerning John F. Kennedy and a nineteen-year-old White House intern, you would think media members would shy away from putting the former president on a pedestal concerning his religious beliefs.

Yet there was ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer Monday telling George Stephanopoulos of his previous day's interview with Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, "Couldn’t believe that he was going on the offensive on church and state and the separation of them against John Kennedy" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters has been reporting, America's media have recently taken it upon themselves to make sure the soaring price of gas does not reduce Barack Obama's chances of getting reelected in November.

Doing her part Sunday was Current TV's Jennifer Granholm who actually said on ABC's This Week, "I think blaming the president for high gas prices is like blaming Rudy Giuliani for 9/11" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

ABC on Thursday and Friday hyped the idea, pushed by Nancy Pelosi, that oil speculators on Wall Street are to blame for high gas prices, citing a "top government watchdog." Of course, the network neglected to inform viewers that Bart Chilton, who is a commissioner on the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, is an ex-Democratic staffer.

On Friday, Good Morning America's Josh Elliott described the options as blaming "tension in the Middle East or speculators on Wall Street for the skyrocketing prices." Not offered as a choice was Barack Obama. Now, when gas prices were high under Bush, there were more stories and the blame was directed at the Republican President.

According to Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos, an increase in unemployment from 7.8 percent to 8.3 percent is a recovery. The ABC co-host pressed Chris Christie to agree that, just as the Governor is proclaiming a New Jersey comeback, "...Can President Obama make the same claim about the United States?"

According to Stephanopoulos's talking points, "Across the country, unemployment has gone from about 10.2 percent to 8.3 percent...The United States is on a comeback?" Of course, the problem with this is that unemployment on January 20, 2009 was 7.8 percent. It's now 8.3. percent. An increase of .5 percent constitutes an American comeback? [See video below. MP3 audio here.]