On Tuesday night, CBS and NBC teamed with Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision to hide from their viewers news that U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy has been using a private e-mail server to conduct government business and send sensitive material.
Surprisingly, ABC’s World News Tonight stepped up to the plate with a scant 50-second report on this new e-mail scandal by chief White House correspondent and a lead in by fill-in anchor and Clinton Foundation donor George Stephanopoulos.
Stephanopoulos informed viewers that “Caroline Kennedy [is] facing questions” as she’s being “criticized for using a private e-mail server for public business.” He then added that such conduct “echoes” that “of Hillary Clinton’s recent troubles” with her own systemic e-mail issues.
In a live shot with Stephanopoulos, Karl provided some details as to how this information came about and what Kennedy’s been found to have done:
[T]his comes in an Inspector General report looking at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. The report finds that senior Embassy staff, including Ambassador Kennedy, used personal e-mail accounts to send and receive messages containing official business, including some information labeled sensitive but unclassified.
Commenting that “sending or receiving sensitive government information with private e-mail would appear to be a clear violation of government policy,” Karl mentioned that “the State Department said it has seen no indication that Ambassador Kennedy violated the rules with respect to her e-mail.”
With Kennedy yet to comment on the issue, Stephanopoulos capped the short segment by wondering aloud if this report “quiets the questions.”
The transcript of the segment from ABC’s World News Tonight on August 25 is transcribed below.
ABC’s World News Tonight
August 25, 2015
6:36 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Kennedy Emails]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Another story developing right now, Caroline Kennedy facing questions. The U.S. Ambassador to Japan criticized for using a private e-mail server for public business, echoes of Hillary Clinton’s recent troubles and our White House correspondent Jon Karl here with all the details. Hey, Jon.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Email Controversy; Ambassador Caroline Kennedy Under Fire]
JONATHAN KARL: George, this comes in an Inspector General report looking at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. The report finds that senior Embassy staff, including Ambassador Kennedy, used personal e-mail accounts to send and receive messages containing official business, including some information labeled sensitive but unclassified. Now, sending or receiving sensitive government information with private e-mail would appear to be a clear violation of government policy, but today, the State Department said it has seen no indication that Ambassador Kennedy violated the rules with respect to her e-mail. As for Caroline Kennedy, George, there's been no response from her yet.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And we’ll see if that quiets the questions. Okay, Jon, thanks very much.
