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    TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Hamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 10:08am

    THANK YOU.

    I have been mystified by anyone who might be surprised or shocked that George Stephanopoulos might be biased toward the Clintons. He owes them for everything. George Stephanopoulos without the Clintons is the “weekend news anchor with the funny name” in Springfield, Mass. Not only is he biased, but he ought to be biased. What’s next, a scandal where it’s revealed that James Carville ate jambalaya with Obama without providing a receipt for expenses?

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      deuxmittensTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      5/18/15 10:10am

      Ate jambalaya... Cajun style.

      Also duh.


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      Basil Plant lost yet another burnerTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      5/18/15 10:13am

      Exactly. I had no idea he was regarded as unbiased until this “scandal.”

      I always thought he was a news analyst/show host - didn’t realize he anchored the evening news, if he does.

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    Emily_8361Hamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 10:07am

    And the same should go for former/failed politicians as journalists i.e. Joe Scarborough and Sarah Palin.

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      Hamilton NolanEmily_8361
      5/18/15 10:15am

      It’s fine to employ pitiful failed politicos as “political commentators” or “pundits” because everyone understands they have a point of view. To pretend that a political operative can magically become an impartial sober news anchor journalist is ridiculous.

      One might also say that pretending that news anchors are journalists is ridiculous, but ABC News wants to pretend that they are, so here we are.

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      Emily_8361Hamilton Nolan
      5/18/15 10:27am

      I definitely agree with your point. But, do you think it’s part of a larger issue of media becoming more politicized?

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    Shin-Soo-JewHamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 10:06am

    Let’s not forget NBC’s Pete Williams. Press secretary for Rep. Dick Cheney. Later pentagon spokesman. Ugh.

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      Chalupa_JackShin-Soo-Jew
      5/18/15 10:11am

      The sad truth is that every statement like this now requires a double-take to ensure you truly didn’t mean Brian.

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      RobNYCShin-Soo-Jew
      5/19/15 12:33pm

      Don’t forget Diane Sawyer. She worked for Nixon.

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    MattHamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 11:37am

    While I agree that hiring people who have close ties to politicians to cover those same politicians without overt bias is kinda stupid, at the same time, I really question whether we should just drop the whole idea that our journalists are without bias. I mean, we all have biases. I'm honestly trying to think of what an honest to god unbiased journalist would look or sound like, and for the life of my all I can come up with is one of those Neutral aliens from Futurama: 'I have no strong feelings on this one way or the other'.

    I suppose we should just try to have journalists that are more open about where their particular biases lie, rather than make an unrealistic claim that they're 'unbiased'. It might even spice up journalism a bit, by essentially having journalists out-pundit the pundits.

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      MattMatt
      5/18/15 11:51am

      Y'know, thinking about it, in a way that's what John Oliver kinda is. He's reporting on news, nothing he's saying is factually inaccurate, yet he's also pretty much letting you know exactly how fucked up or dumb something is, and in a humorous way. He's going 'Here's what happened, and here is how I feel about it and why'.

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      Ladybug2Matt
      5/18/15 12:07pm

      It really is a quaint, throwback ideal of journalistic objectivity. It's all BS. The media has always come down on one side or the other depending on who's writing/reporting/can grant favors/in charge. What we're seeing now has always been there in the shadows. It's almost as laughable as the folks who feel the 1950's were GREAT for everyone and wouldn't it be swell to have the values and stability of those times?

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    marmeladeHamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 10:51am

    Given that ABC’s “real” political journalist, Jonathan Karl (whose disgraceful Benghazi reporting alone probably should have gotten him fired, or at least suspended, a la Lara Logan), can legitimately be described as a trained conservative operative, I’m not sure why there’s such a fuss about Stephanopoulos, who seems pretty transparent by contrast.

    I mean, everybody knows that old George used to work for Bill Clinton, whereas most people don’t know that Jonathan Karl came to journalism through the Collegiate Network, a very political, very right-wing media training program (James O’Keefe, Michelle Malkin, Rich Lowry and Laura Ingraham are also ‘alums’).

    Based on his reportage, which tilts heavily to the right, Karl is arguably in the tank for right-wing politicians and policies by inclination as well as by training. If Stephanopoulos’ charitable giving is a disqualifier, then Karl’s pedigree as a trained conservative movement mouthpiece should be a career-ender.

    In short, if ABC is going to clean house, it should do the job thoroughly.

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      Shin-Soo-Jewmarmelade
      5/18/15 11:12am

      Karl is the most unapologetic righty hack on broadcast TV news. Terry Moran is equally shameless, but with him it’s more a matter of low IQ.

      Of course none of this matters, unless your target audience is a 65 year old white man in Flyover, WI.

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      leitskevShin-Soo-Jew
      5/18/15 4:34pm

      Karl is a former writer for the New Republic, the most famous liberal magazine. U crazy. Apparently anyone that dares to ask a hard question to the Obama admin is, besides being a racist, a conservative. Liberals need to step out of the little Matrix reality they live in.

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    bnceoHamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 10:05am

    Can the same be said about Al Sharpton on MSNBC? He's clearly not a newsman and he's way too chummy with the POTUS.

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      Basil Plant lost yet another burnerbnceo
      5/18/15 10:15am

      He’s not trying to be a newsman so I guess it’s a little different, though I thought George Stephanopolous wasn’t trying to be either. Sharpton first and foremost considers himself an activist with a tv show.

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      SteadysoulBasil Plant lost yet another burner
      5/18/15 10:23am

      He shouldn’t have a Show on a news network.

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    DennyCraneHamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 10:37am

    You probably know this, HamNo, but this post is just pissing into the wind. Political operatives will continue to be hired as journalists for the same reason the children of presidents get plum daytime TV jobs: because networks are willing to pay through the nose for access, or at least the illusion of it, and hiring someone who already knows people in the political world is a shortcut they are happy to take.

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      TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)DennyCrane
      5/18/15 10:44am

      Most HamNo posts are pissing into the wind. He’s a nigh-artist of windpissing.

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      RobNYCDennyCrane
      5/19/15 12:36pm

      Or the kids of dead journalists will continue to get jobs.

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    JimEmeryHamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 11:13am

    We might as well add a few more that come to mind (not an exhaustive list):

    - Chris Matthews: Now host of Hardball, he used to be a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, and a staffer for Tip O’Neill. Strangely, he was dumb enough to have voted for Dubya Bush in 2000, and even dumber, he admitted it in public.

    - Tim Russert : Hosted Meet the Press for many years, and had a weird sort of secular sainthood among Washington insiders when he died suddenly in 2008. He worked for Senator Moynihan and Gov. Mario Cuomo before jumping to TV punditry.

    - Pretty much all the Faux News pundits: Karl Rove and Newt Gingerich are the most obvious examples, but there’s been a revolving door of Republican right-wingers eager to tell the Republican base what they want to hear.

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      RobNYCJimEmery
      5/19/15 12:43pm

      Is Matthews considered a “news” guy though? I’m not sure I would classify Hardball as a news program. It’s more political analysis and opinion.

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    pingpongmanHamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 10:07am

    Steponallofus benefited from Clinton Privilige.

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      flamingolingopingpongman
      5/18/15 10:23am

      This is like watching a baby elephant try to tap dance.

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      weirwoodtreehugger3flamingolingo
      5/18/15 11:02am

      It’s so adorably stupid isn’t it? Not only does his post have a play on words so bad that it makes “Obummer” look clever, but he also pulls that classic troll move of using social justice lingo sarcastically in a way that instead of successfully mocking social justice movements, just proves he doesn't know what any of the terms mean.

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    lobstrHamilton Nolan
    5/18/15 10:24am

    ...Not that NBC deserves any bonus points, but ‘tis probably why they limited Jenna Bush to Today Show giggle pieces about her favorite White House pastries, and Chelsea Clinton to End-of-NBC-Nightly-News puff pieces about teachers making a difference...

    (Though, to be honest, hearing Jenna Bush wax about politics would actually be pretty hilarious and not too far off from “US Americans not having maps and The Iraq and Such As..”)

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      Barack Eganlobstr
      5/18/15 10:47am

      bush wax

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