Speaking with Megyn Kelly on Thursday’s Kelly File, Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz slammed ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos for committing an “unthinkable” blunder in making previously disclosed donations totaling $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation that’s “so severe that it really threatens to undo” his record over “his 18 years at ABC News.”
When asked by Kelly just “how bad is” this scandal, Kurtz began by reminding viewers that it’s “[s]uch a bombshell that George Stephanopoulos has now had to withdraw as ABC's moderator in the Republican presidential debate next year.”
Taken as a whole, Kurtz gave his assessment that, for Stephanopoulos, “this blunder by Stephanopoulos is so severe that it really threatens to undo what he's accomplished in his 18 years at ABC News.” After Kelly seemed exasperated at his answer, Kurtz further explained his line of thinking:
It’s that serious because the Clintons is his Achilles heel because of his background. I used to interview him and get spun by him as a campaign operative and a Clinton White House aide, but for him as a top ABC anchor to give this money to the Clinton Foundation while covering the story is in itself a grave error in judgment but then to not tell his bosses at ABC News, to not disclose it to the viewers, it's unthinkable.
Also appearing with Kurtz was Fox News contributor and former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen, who went after the This Week host for his questioning of Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer. Before he did that, however, Thiessen did what Stephanopoulos failed to do in publically disclosing his connection to one of the segments subjects in Schweizer [emphasis mine]:
Peter Schweizer is a friend of mine. We worked together in the Bush White House, we have a speechwriting firm together, and I'm a friend and admirer of Peter Schweizer. George Stephanopoulos actually questioned whether Peter had a partisan interest in the book because he had worked for four months in the Bush administration when he was the Communications Director for the Clinton White House and the communications director for the 1992 Clinton campaign. Is it fair to say that maybe he has a partisan interest in defending Hillary Clinton? Say, if you look at the interview and all the quotes you have there, it certainly seems like he did.
Later on in the nearly seven-minute-long segment, Kurtz went after Stephanopoulos and ABC News for their “awful” attempt thus far at “damage control”:
[In the] initial apology, Megyn, Stephanopoulos just talked about the failure to disclose. Now, he’s had to expand that and says, you know, I shouldn't have given the money in the first place. I mean, great he’s giving to charity, but find any other charity on earth to give to. If you're a guy become one of the famous television journalists on the planet and you started life as a partisan Democrat with a very big platform, the White House podium, you have a special burden to demonstrate your independence[.]
With that in mind, Kurtz declared that while he thought “George tried to be fair at ABC and hasn’t always succeeded and tried to be fair,” the reality that these donations were uncovered not by him but “by an another news organization” has shown that he’s “failed that test” of showing he can function as an independent anchor without any preconceived bias.
In wrapping up the segment, Thiessen closed with this zinger on Stephanopoulos and Hillary Clinton:
I mean, I think that he – if he wanted the show his objectivity as a journalist and prove his effectiveness, rather than bringing Peter Schweizer on the show to grill him about the book, maybe he could have the one who landed the Hillary Clinton interview and grill him.
The relevant portions of the transcript from FNC’s The Kelly File on May 14 can be found below.
FNC’s The Kelly File
May 14, 2015
9:01 p.m. Eastern
MEGYN KELLY: Joining us now, Howard Kurtz, host of Fox News MediaBuzz and Marc Thiessen, who’s a former speechwriter for George W. Bush and a Fox News Contributor. Welcome to you both and so, let me just start with you on this, Marc. The irony of Stephanopoulos pressing Schweizer on the fact that he worked for a time in the Bush White House and, therefore, may be too partisan to opine on the Clintons, given his own position and what we know now.
MARC THIESSEN: Megyn, that's amazing and I’m going to do what Stephanopoulos didn't do, disclose the fact Peter Schweizer is a friend of mine. We worked together in the Bush White House, we have a speechwriting firm together, and I'm a friend and admirer of Peter Schweizer. George Stephanopoulos actually questioned whether Peter had a partisan interest in the book because he had worked for four months in the Bush administration when he was the Communications Director for the Clinton White House and the communications director for the 1992 Clinton campaign. Is it fair to say that maybe he has a partisan interest in defending Hillary Clinton? Say, if you look at the interview and all the quotes you have there, it certainly seems like he did.
KELLY: So, that was a question some were raising even at the time. I mean, just sort of an irony of, you know, Stephanopoulos of all people raising that question with Schweizer and now, Howie, tonight it – I mean, it's a bombshell he was donating to the very foundation that he was cross-examining this author on without disclosing it. I mean, it's obviously big. Eric Wemple of The Washington Post out tonight with a piece calling it a “very serious transgression.” What is your take? How bad is it?
HOWARD KURTZ: Such a bombshell that George Stephanopoulos has now had to withdraw as ABC's moderator in the Republican presidential debate next year. Look, this blunder by Stephanopoulos is so severe that it really threatens to undo what he's accomplished in his 18 years at ABC News.
KELLY: Really?
KURTZ: Now, I used to interview him – yes. It’s that serious because the Clintons is his Achilles heel because of his background. I used to interview him and get spun by him as a campaign operative and a Clinton White House aide, but for him as a top ABC anchor to give this money to the Clinton Foundation while covering the story is in itself a grave error in judgment but then to not tell his bosses at ABC News, to not disclose it to the viewers, it's unthinkable.
(....)
KURTZ: The point is he's going to be covering, if ABC doesn't change the mind on this, wouldn't give him a rhetorical slap on the wrist. Covering the campaign of a woman he worked with as First Lady. Now, the Clinton Foundation does some good work around the world. News corps, which is the sister corporation of Fox News, has made a major donation, but it’s different for Stephanopoulos as a new anchor and I just watched a major interview he did just over two weeks ago on The Daily Show where Stephanopoulos said, talking about the Clinton Foundation, “everybody knows that when donors give that money, what you get is access and the influence that comes with access” and yet he didn't disclose it.
(....)
KURTZ: The damage control here is awful. Initial apology, Megyn, Stephanopoulos just talked about the failure to disclose. Now, he’s had to expand that and says, you know, I shouldn't have given the money in the first place. I mean, great he’s giving to charity, but find any other charity on earth to give to. If you're a guy become one of the famous television journalists on the planet and you started life as a partisan Democrat with a very big platform, the White House podium, you have a special burden to demonstrate your independence and I'm sorry to say it. I think George tried to be fair at ABC and hasn't always succeeded and tried to be fair, but I think that, given his history and the fact that he hid this and had to be disclosed by another news organization, I think he's failed that test.
(....)
THIESSEN: Yeah. It definitely does raise that question and look, I mean, I think that he -- if he wanted the show his objectivity as a journalist and prove his effectiveness, rather than bringing Peter Schweizer on the show to grill him about the book, maybe he could have the one who landed the Hillary Clinton interview and grill him.
