On Sunday’s This Week, ABC’s Jim Avila gave Democrat Julian Castro, newly appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, nearly 5 minutes of promotional airtime to play up his political ambitions. The ABC reporter began the Castro advertisement by declaring “he's just 77 days into his new job, but ever since his swearing in, so many Democrats have skipped ahead trying to figure out what's next for the rising star? Could he be on a presidential ticket in 2016?”
This Week
By Jack Coleman | October 6, 2014 | 4:40 PM EDT
ABC News reporter Pierre Thomas unveiled a detailed investigative report on school shootings during yesterday's "This Week" program that surprisingly did not feature what such reports invariably include -- a plea for more restrictions on gun ownership.
While this one dispatch might well be an outlier, it did come as a welcome relief from one of the most predictable patterns in news.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 5, 2014 | 12:23 PM EDT
It appears as though former Obama official Van Jones has taken Rahm Emmanuel’s belief that you never “want a good crisis go to waste” to heart during a Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos. During a panel discussion on the upcoming midterm elections, Jones suggested that Democrats should point out that the “Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of government that we believe in.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 28, 2014 | 12:18 PM EDT
Attorney General Eric Holder resigned this week after six years working for the Obama Administration and on Sunday morning's This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos ABC’s Matthew Dowd eagerly scolded Republicans for being “way too vociferous in their things about Eric Holder.” The so-called Republican dismissed the notion that Holder was “the worst attorney general we’ve ever had” and proceeded to drag Edwin Meese, Attorney General for President Reagan, through the mud by insisting he was much worse than the scandal plagued Obama official.
By Brent Baker | September 21, 2014 | 3:10 PM EDT
If it’s Sunday, it’s time to advance liberal hopes. NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd and ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos both opened by plugging segments which forwarded the hope liberal Democratic dreams are becoming reality.
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 14, 2014 | 2:45 PM EDT
In a similar theme to NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos used Hillary Clinton’s visit to Iowa as an opportunity to play up liberal dissatisfaction with the potential 2016 presidential candidate.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl traveled to Indianola, Iowa to speak with retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin ahead of his annual Harkin Steak Fry event. During the interview, Karl asked “were some Progressives a little uneasy with Hillary Clinton? I mean, is she going to be too hawkish on foreign policy? Is she going to be too moderate on economic issues?”
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 7, 2014 | 6:17 PM EDT
During an appearance on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Donna Brazile, former campaign manager for Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, admitted to not knowing what a caliphate was while trying to defend President Obama’s policy regarding the terrorist group ISIS.
Brazile argued that the battle with ISIS is “a medieval war that we're looking at to establish a caliphate” before conceding that she had to ask conservative commentator Bill Kristol “exactly what that [caliphate] meant.”
By Jack Coleman | August 25, 2014 | 5:40 PM EDT
Ever notice that you seldom see Ann Compton, longtime White House correspondent for ABC News, appear on this site? What she said yesterday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" helps explain why.
After covering seven presidents and every presidential campaign since the Bicentennial in 1976, Compton is retiring and Stephanopoulos paid tribute yesterday with a nostalgic look back at her remarkable career. Compton began covering the White House more than four decades ago, at the tender age of 27, and was invariably in the thick of it. She was, for example, the only broadcast reporter on board Air Force One with President George W. Bush and his staff on Sept. 11, 2001. (Video and audio after the jump)
George Stephanopoulos Frets Over U.S. Taking Action Against ISIS: ‘Is There A Danger Here of Overreacting?’
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 24, 2014 | 12:04 PM EDT On Sunday, August 24, This Week moderator George Stephanopoulos bizarrely worried that the U.S. might take too much action in combating the terrorist group ISIS.
Speaking to Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, wondered “it struck me how quickly this has all moved. From ISIS being a minor threat, the president talking about it several months ago as the junior varsity, to now an imminent threat, the words of Chuck Hagel, to the United States. And I guess I wonder, is there a danger here of overreacting?” [See video below.]
By Scott Whitlock | August 18, 2014 | 5:20 PM EDT
Rather than cover continuing developments in Gaza and in Ukraine, ABC's This Week devoted six and a half minutes to promoting transgender issues as the new civil rights movement. Highlighting the star of Orange is the New Black, Jon Karl trumpeted, "[Laverne] Cox's role is just one in a growing number reflective of the transgender community now coming of age in mainstream America."
This Week guest host Jon Karl hosted two segments on the topic and offered almost no voice to anyone who may disagree. An ABC graphic wondered, "Transgender Tipping Point?"
By Jack Coleman | August 6, 2014 | 8:02 PM EDT
In the endlessly contentious debate over Israel and the Palestinians, is there a more misleading word than "occupation"?
During the most recent broadcast of ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, New Yorker editor David Remnick became the latest Hamas apologist to cite Israel's "occupation," presumably of the West Bank, as a legitimate basis for Palestinian grievances. Fortunately, The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol was also a panelist on the show. How many others who were watching must have felt like cheering when Kristol spoke, even-handed and armed with the truth. (Video after the jump)
By Jack Coleman | July 15, 2014 | 6:58 PM EDT
That's right -- Cokie Roberts. Yes, the political commentator who has worked at taxpayer-funded National Public Radio since the Reagan era. It wasn't Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, though he was also a guest on ABC's "This Week" when Roberts said what could easily be heard coming from nearly any conservative pundit.
Roberts and company were discussing yet another round of hostilities between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza when Roberts suggested that a widespread perception of American weakness is partially to blame. (Video after the jump)