Weekly Opinion Editorial
GEORGE IS A
POLITICAL HACK!
by
Steve Fair
George Stephanopoulos is the well-known anchor
of ABC’s Good Morning America and the
host of This Week with George
Stephanopoulos. Many Americans may
not remember that before he became the chief political anchor for ABC, George
was one of President Bill Clinton’s top advisors. Stephanopoulos was the 1992 communication
director for Slick Willie’s first presidential campaign. He, along with James Carville is prominently
featured in the 1992 Clinton campaign documentary, The War Room. After Clinton
was elected president, Stephanopoulos was given the title of Senior Advisor and
given the office right next to the Oval Office.
When he left the Clinton administration to become a broadcaster, he was
replaced by Rahm Emanuel. Stephanopoulos
is a graduate of Columbia with a BS in political science. He also has a Masters in Theology from Baliol
College, a part of Oxford University. George
is the son of a Greek Orthodox priest, Robert Stephanopoulos, who reportedly
wanted his son to follow him into the priesthood, which is probably why George
studied theology.
George left the Clinton administration
shortly after Clinton was re-elected and joined ABC in early 1996. Roone Arledge, President of ABC said at the
time: “Stephanopoulos is one of the best
known and most articulate presidential advisers this country has ever
seen. His vast knowledge of Washington
politics and policy will be an enormous asset to ABC News.” ABC initially said he would not be used as an
analyst and not report news or question guests. Because he was viewed as a partisan
at that time, ABC said he would never question guests or report on
politics. Stephanopoulos’ role was to be nothing but a commentator, but after
nearly twenty years, George’s role changed at ABC. He became the face of the network and the
chief political anchor.
On January 7, 2012, Stephanopoulos and
Diane Sawyer co-moderated a Republican primary debate at Saint
Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. There
were six GOP candidates on the stage and during the debate; Stephanopoulos
repeatedly asked Mitt Romney whether the former Massachusetts governor believed
the U.S. Supreme Court should have overturned a 1965 ruling that a
constitutional right to privacy bars states from banning contraception. Stephanopoulos would not accept Romney’s
answer that it was ‘state’s rights’ issue and asked Romney nine questions on
the issue. Romney finally said the
question was, ‘preposterous.’ During the fall general election campaign, the
Obama campaign used the question and Romney’s answer to imply Republicans were
waging a ‘War on Women’ and wanted to ban contraception.
Last week it was revealed that George has
given $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation during the time he was supposed to be a
‘nonpartisan’ at ABC. When it was
discovered, George went on the air and apologized. “Over the last several years,
I’ve made substantial donations to dozens of charities, including the Clinton
Foundation. Those donations were a matter of public record, but I should have
made additional disclosures on air when we covered the foundation,”
Stephanopoulos said. What he didn’t
reveal is that he not only gave the Clinton Foundation money, but he
participated in three panel discussions sponsored by the Clintons- all while
presenting himself as a neutral party in politics.
It has been reported that Stephanopoulos
was pulled as moderator for a scheduled GOP debate in New Hampshire next year
because of his ties to the Clintons, but that is simply not true. Reince Priebus said, “George Stephanopoulos was never going to moderate a Republican debate
anyway. I’ve made it very clear, and I’ve made public statements about this,
that the issue for me, even more so than the donation, was the fact that he
worked for Bill and Hillary Clinton.”
The
RNC has taken control of the Republican primary debate process. The days of using liberal moderators in
Republican debates, whose sole goal is to embarrass GOP candidates and further
the liberal cause are gone. There will
be nine(9) sanctioned debates in the 2016 GOP primary with three other possible
debates. The first debate is in August
2015 in Ohio and Gorgeous George will not be moderating any of them.
Stephanopoulos’ memoir is, “All too Human:
A Political Education. The title most
likely is a nod to Friedrich Nietzsche’s, “All too Human.” Nietzsche was a German philosopher in the
late 1800s whose best known quote is that, “God is Dead.” But Nietzsche IS dead and most certainly rejected that philosphy shortly after breathing his last breath. Much of Nietzsche’s work is reveled in liberal
circles. In his book, Stephanopoulos
says , “ Í came to see how Clinton’s
shamelessness is a key to his political success, how his capacity for denial is
tied to the optimism that is his greatest political strength. He exploits the weaknesses of himself and
those around him masterfully, but the taps his and their talents as well.” He loves the Clintons. Bill is his mentor.
Fact is, George Stephanopoulos is nothing short
of a Hillary Clinton surrogate and a political hack. As long as ABC allows him to masquerade as an
objective journalist, host political news shows and interview candidates, their
creditability is questionable.
