July 11, 2024

WORSE THAN GAMBLING AT RICK’S CAFE — ABC NEWS MANAGEMENT DISCOVERS GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS IS BIASED! ABC’s brutal ultimatum to George Stephanopoulos after his damning verdict on Joe Biden – as network plunged into ‘fully fledged crisis.’

News division president Debra O’Connell called a panicked meeting with advisers and executives on Tuesday night, including public relations consultants, it was reported.

‘This was a fully fledged crisis and it exploded with far-reaching reverberations,’ an insider claimed to Radar Online.

She is then said to have hauled Stephanopoulos into a private meeting where she gave him an ultimatum: apologize or be yanked off air.

Stephanopoulos both hosts Good Morning America and is a moderator on current affairs panel show This Week.

ABC bosses were reportedly concerned the veteran broadcaster had expressed a private opinion that would fatally undermine his appearance of objectivity.

‘[O’Connell told him] in no uncertain terms that he is a newsman who is expected to be objective,’ the insider told Radar.

‘She was furious that someone of George’s experience and status would compromise the news division’s impartiality, and subject it to unnecessary and embarrassing headlines.

‘George backed Debra into a corner. If he did not apologize, how could he continue with his duties at ABC News without the network facing an avalanche of criticism.’

The insider, however, claimed that even though Stephanopoulos backed away from his comment and ‘minimized it as a quip’, ABC bosses knew the damage was done.

‘You can expect the Trump campaign and GOP to seize on this. You can also expect the White House to avoid ABC News moving forward. Biden will never sit down with Stephanopoulos ever again,’ they said.

According to Variety, Disney named O’Connell president of ABC News in February, after decades of toiling at various divisions within Disney and ABC. And I know it can be difficult for a new executive to get up to speed with the culture of the division he or she has been tasked to lead. But does O’Connell know that she works for a TV news division, which during the 2004 presidential race, back when the players were George W. Bush and John Kerry, issued a statement that it would not “reflexively and artificially hold both sides ‘equally’ accountable?”

An internal memo written by ABCNEWS Political Director Mark Halperin admonishes ABC staff: During coverage of Democrat Kerry and Republican Bush not to “reflexively and artificially hold both sides ‘equally’ accountable.”

The controversial internal memo obtained by DRUDGE, captures Halperin stating how “Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win.”

But Halperin claims that Bush is hoping to “win the election by destroying Senator Kerry at least partly through distortions.”

“The current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done,” Halperin writes.

Halperin’s claim that ABCNEWS will not “reflexively and artificially hold both sides ‘equally’ accountable” set off sparks in St. Louis where media players gathered to cover the second presidential debate.

Halperin states the responsibilities of the ABCNEWS staff have “become quite grave.”

In August, Halperin declared online: “This is now John Kerry’s contest to lose.”

Does O’Connell know George Stephanopoulos’ background, and that in 2015, he tossed at least 75K into Hillary Clinton’s slush fund?

As Jim Treacher wrote yesterday: George Stephanopoulos Accidentally Tells the Truth. That’s a big no-no:

It took TMZ to get the truth out of a lifelong liar like Stephanopoulos. Just like it took the National Enquirer to get to the truth about John Edwards and the secret daughter he had with his nutty campaign aide back in 2008. Sometimes you gotta dig around in the gutter to find a gem.

Now the libs are furious at this tiny little man for expressing his genuine opinion. How can the Democrats stop the Big Orange Liar, if one of their soldiers can ruin the whole thing in a regrettable moment of unintentional honesty?

And as Treacher paraphrases today:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll