George Stephanopoulos clearly made a mistake. It was a mistake he made three times, giving $25,000 a year for three years to one of those Gordian knots of elements that make up the Clinton Foundation.
Stephanopoulos reportedly makes around $7 million a year, so $75,000 won’t make him have to skip a meal, but it’s real money.
Why should we care? I’m not sure. The Clintons’ collection makes it unclear to me (I have multiple degrees in accounting and law) whether they’re even tax deductible, but as President Barack Obama has said, people earning what George makes earn enough and shouldn’t be able to take the full tax deduction.
· I don’t care either. I don’t make enough money.
I only think this is essential because he has been posing as a journalist since leaving the Clinton White House.
· That’s not the case.
Here is the first graph of the Wikipedia entry on George Stephanopoulos:
“[He] is an American journalist who works for ABC News as a main anchor. He is a political advisor to the US Democratic Party.
· I didn’t leave anything out of this quote. The second sentence immediately follows the first (or did when I copied and pasted it).
Carol Simpson – a former colleague from ABC News – told CNN: “Reliable sources“over the weekend it turned out that Stephanopoulos “is not really a journalist.”
Ah Hah! Get me my friend Lanny Davis on the phone!
· George Stephanopoulos cannot be guilty of failing in journalistic ethics (which is an oxymoron in itself) because – mind you – even real journalists claim he is not a journalist.
· I am not a journalist and I am not subject to journalistic ethics.
· The defense is concluded, Your Honor.
My paths crossed — literally — when Stephanopoulos was a senior House Republican for Democratic leader Dick Gephardt and I was press secretary for GOP whip Newt Gingrich.
· As executives, we had access to the House Floor, where we would sometimes meet up and chat for a few minutes. We weren’t buddies, but we were certainly polite to each other.
The point is that no one has ever mistaken me for a journalist.
The mistake Stephanopoulos made was aggressively interviewing Peter Schweitzer for his book about the Clinton Foundation’s ties to official Washington, Clinton Cash.
Stephanopoulos should disclose his ties to the Clinton foundations AND should have refrained from conducting this interview.
· This is what a real journalist would do.
· I was talking to a real reporter the other day. The question on the table was: How many national political reporters under 40 have ever covered a city council or school board meeting?
Our collective guess was zero or very close to zero.
That’s not to say they aren’t talented and handsome. But there’s a robust suspicion that most of them would know a solid political story if they stumbled upon it, assuming they weren’t riding on a bus with Susan Page, Dan Balz, or someone else of their stature.
· I used to be a real reporter. I was the news director for WMOA radio (1490 AM in Marietta, Ohio 45750). I was a pretty good reporter, and I learned to listen to the interviewer’s answer and not let him get off topic. “That was a good answer,” I’d say. “Now let’s answer the question AND “he asked.”
I recently gave a talk to House communications assistants. There were maybe 40 people in the room. I asked how many of them had been reporters somewhere in between before they got their current job as a communications assistant in the office of a member of the United States Congress.
· One person raised their hand.
· Inexperienced reporters dealing with inexperienced press assistants.
· Fair fight.
