Stop Hiring Political Operatives as "Journalists"
The big controversy in the political pseudo-journalist world this week: the stunning revelations that ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos made undisclosed contributions to the Clinton Foundation. Allow us to point out that George Stephanopoulos never should have been a news anchor YOU IDIOTS!!!!
Is this the most scoff-worthy “media ethics” scandal of our time? Gentle reader, I propose to you that the answer is: yes, this is the most scoff-worthy “media ethics” scandal of our time. Consider, if you will, the cognitive dissonance displayed in the actions of ABC News, purportedly a serious mainstream news organization that takes journalistic impartiality very, very seriously:
1. ABC News is shocked and upset to learn that a news anchor made undisclosed donations to a nonprofit foundation led by the Clinton family.
2. Starting in 2002, ABC News hired and then promoted up its political journalism ranks George Stephanopolous, a man who worked as communications director for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign and as an advisor to the Clinton White House.
Now, the fact that Stephanopoulos made recent undisclosed donations to the Clinton Foundation has allegedly created a “crisis” at ABC News. George Stephanopoulos has—due to these donations—allegedly “forfeited all trust as a newsman.”
Really? Did George Stephanopoulos, a professional political operative, ever possess trust as a newsman? No. George Stephanopoulos is a career political operative who was hired as a “newsman” due to his boyish photogenic face and pillowy hair. ABC News imagines that the fact that its news anchor was the communications director for a president has no impact on his imaginary journalistic credibility, but these undisclosed donations do. Wrong. The scandal is not that George Stephanopoulos made undisclosed donations to the Clinton Foundation. The scandal is that George Stephanopoulos was ever hired as a “journalist” in the first place.
THERE ARE MANY QUALIFIED JOURNALISTS AVAILABLE FOR HIRE WHO DID NOT WORK FOR THE PEOPLE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO IMPARTIALLY COVER.
ABC News boldly perpetrated the very definition of “conflict of interest,” and now is shocked, shocked to learn that it may lack some credibility.
Stop hiring political operatives as “journalists.” What a fucking joke.
[Photo: AP. Yes, this post would have been more timely last week, but you can’t have everything.]
