Too big to fall? Yeah, like $105 million too big.
The New York Post reports that ABC News renewed their contract with George Stephanopoulos for $105 million last year. And now it is simply too expensive to dump the face of ABC News for the huge ethical lapse of failing to disclose his $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation in addition to not revealing the time he spent hosting events for that organization while interviewing "Clinton Cash" author Peter Schweizer.
Did Joe Scarborough just suggest that the suits at his own network are craven cowards who put bucks over ethics?
On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough predicted that if Matt Lauer had pulled a Stephanopoulos, NBC would hesitate to punish him [just as ABC hasn't disciplined Steph], because Lauer's morning Today show "is where they make the money."
During an appearance on FBN's Varney & Co. on Monday, MRC President Brent Bozell blasted ABC's George Stephanopoulos for failing to inform both ABC News and his viewers that he had donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation. He also took ABC News to task for "giving the middle finger to America" by not considering the donations a big deal.
During a panel discussion Sunday’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, NPR's Cokie Roberts rushed to defend Hillary Clinton for continuing to not answer questions from the press in the month since she announced her presidential campaign.
During an appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday, Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer blasted ABC’s George Stephanopoulos for failing to disclose $75,000 worth of donations to the Clinton Foundation. Speaking to Brian Stelter, Schweizer maintained that after his interview with the ABC anchor that he "thought he was simply asking tough questions. Now I think the revelations that have come out put the interview at least in my mind in a totally different context.”
Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi dragged out a series of tiresome Stephanopoulos defenses on Monday. First, he weirdly claimed no new developments in the scandal (not true). Then he found liberal experts to say that this isn't a scandal because it doesn't change the ABC anchor's "persona," which is already identified with the Clintons. They even suggested Good Morning America isn't really a news show, so it's not as serious as the Brian Williams scandal.
On Sunday’s This Week, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos made a second on-air apology for failing to disclose that he donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation from 2012-2014.
On Fox News Sunday, the entire political panel blasted ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for his failure to disclose $75,000 worth of donations to the Clinton Foundation despite covering the Clintons and promoting the work of the foundation over the years. Brit Hume criticized the ABC anchor’s actions and argued “if there's anybody in the world that you want to seem independent from it’s the Clintons. That's the mistake…I think by and large he's done a good job being even-handed in his work. But this was a mistake and I'm not sure he'll recover from it any time soon.”
Would Hillary Clinton - or any other Democrat candidate - consent to be interviewed on Fox by Karl Rove?
Apparently ABC News standards have dropped since Geraldo Rivera used to work for them. Unlike George Stephanopolous -- who is currently still employed even after his $75,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation -- Rivera was axed when he made a mere $200 political contribution back in 1985.
George Stephanopoulos may be in trouble right now for donating cash to the Clintons but for years he’s been giving in-kind contributions, in the form of on-air praise and suck-up questions to them in his time as anchor of Good Morning America and host of This Week.
Speaking with Megyn Kelly on Thursday’s Kelly File, Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz slammed ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos for committing an “unthinkable” blunder in making previously disclosed donations totaling $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation that’s “so severe that it really threatens to undo” his record over “his 18 years at ABC News.” When asked by Kelly just “how bad is” this scandal, Kurtz began by reminding viewers that it’s “[s]uch a bombshell that George Stephanopoulos has now had to withdraw as ABC's moderator in the Republican presidential debate next year.”