MRC Releases New Profile in Bias - George Stephanopoulos: ABC’s In-House Spin Doctor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2009

CONTACT: COLLEEN O’BOYLE or TIM SCHEIDERER AT 703.683.5004

MRC Releases New Profile in Bias
George Stephanopoulos: ABC’s In-House Spin Doctor

ALEXANDRIA, VA – George Stephanopoulos’ official role for ABC News is Chief Washington Correspondent and host of their Sunday morning news show This Week. Since joining the network’s news team in 1997, however, his unofficial role has been in-house spin doctor for the Democratic Party.

The MRC has been publicly demanding an explanation from Stephanopoulos and ABC News of a January 27^th Politico story in which it was reported that Mr. Stephanopoulos participates in daily strategy phone calls with now-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as well as with key Democratic strategists James Carville and Paul Begala. And has been doing so for seventeen years.

Thus far, all that has been forthcoming has been a continuous ABC smokescreen in which they insist that Stephanopoulos “established his journalistic bona fides more than a decade ago, even as the Clinton administration was still underway, when he showed his willingness to report aggressively on Democrats as well as Republicans.”

But the Media Research Center has chronicled countless examples of Stephanopoulos’ liberal bias over the last twelve years, and today is releasing a compilation of the forty-two worst in Profile in Bias: “George Stephanopoulos: ABC’s In-House Spin Doctor.” The comprehensive report, complete with audio and video, is available online at: http://www.mrc.org/Profiles/Stephanopoulos/welcome.asp

Key examples of Stephanopoulos practicing Democratic spin medicine

Touting Obama’s “Act of Honor” “By refusing to renounce Reverend Wright, that was in many ways an act of honor for Senator Obama.” — ABC’s George Stephanopoulos discussing Obama’s speech on race relations, March 18, 2008 World News.

Racists Vote Republican Anyway “Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m naive, but Sam [Donaldson], I guess I think that anyone who’s not going to vote for Barack Obama because he is black isn’t going to vote for a Democrat anyway.” — ABC’s This Week, May 13, 2007.

Katrina Response: Let’s Blame Bush’s Racism “Did government neglect turn a natural disaster into a human catastrophe? And was it rooted in racism?” – ABC’s This Week, September 11, 2005.

“Cowed” Media Too Soft on Bush “There have been many who have said that the entire media was cowed in the aftermath of 9/11 and didn’t go hard enough, for example, at the story of weapons of mass destruction and there was a story to be gotten in the media didn’t’ do their job.” – ABC’s This Week, June 5, 2005.

To schedule an interview with MRC President Brent Bozell or another MRC spokesperson, please contact Tim Scheiderer (x. 126) or Colleen O’Boyle (x. 122) at (703) 683-5004.