Is Stephanopoulos a Total Hack?

[Jackpine Radical]

That queswtion is suddenly rather important, considering Steffie's little bombshell about Bush's implication in Plamegate. I did a bit of searching on MediaMatters, and turned up something of a mixed bag. On some occasions he seems to be a parrot for the Wingnuts, but not always. Here are some samples.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509120005?is_gsa=1&final=1

On September 11, ABC host George Stephanopoulos repeated a falsehood that had reverberated through the right-wing media the preceding week -- that "there were 2,000 buses under water" that New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin could have used to evacuate his city before Hurricane Katrina's arrival. The claim appears to have originated in a September 6 column by Washington Times editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden, who inaccurately charged that, although Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation before the hurricane's arrival, he "kept the city's 2,000 school buses parked and locked in neat rows when there was still time to take the refugees to higher ground." Conservative websites, including the Power Line and Little Green Footballs weblogs, quickly linked to Pruden's column.


http://mediamatters.org/items/200509260004

As host George Stephanopoulos and guest David Gergen attempted to point out, Will's comments on hurricane frequency ignored the heart of the current scientific debate that postulates a link between hurricane intensity -- not frequency -- and warming trends

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509290004

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, Ronnie Earle is a Democrat. But his office says that he's prosecuted actually more Democrats than Republicans.

[Pirate Smile]

1. He is certainly no hack on the Democratic side. He is certainly no

Democratic loyalist or apologist. He frequently just recites the Corp. Media, DC insider BS.

[leveymg]

2. No. For once I hope he's got it right.

About Bush and Cheney being involved in the Plame smeer, that is.

Otherwise, he's a li'l putz.

[psychonaut]

3. that's why we call him Streptococcoulos, n/t

[NYCGirl]

4. Who's the "we" you refer to? NT

[applegrove]

6. Streptosnuffleupaggus. n/t

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[AX10]

5. Well, Steph doesn't demean Democrats to their faces...

or attack them with stupid questions as Russert does (constantly).

He's no prize package, but he's no Fox "Newswhore" either.

[BootinUp]

7. No I don't think he is a hack.

Just another journalist trying to prevent the appearance that his personal ideological opinions are influencing his coverage. Ever tried that before?

[shrdlu]

8. Journalist?

Has he ever claimed to be a journalist? He's a talking head who would probably hate to admit he owes his present juicy gig to Bill Clinton.

[BootinUp]

10. One whose occupation is journalism:

the collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.

You have a problem with that? I guess you just don't like him, huh?

9. he gossiped about Bill Clinton

and I felt he was being extremely disloyal. He was their confidante and then he just goes around like a big gossip, and like he himself is so 100% honorable. He always just looks like a kid to me too.

[jobycom]

11. He's not a hack, he's just a bit weak.

He couldn't handle the pressure of the White House when he worked for Clinton, and I don't think he can handle the pressure of criticism from the Republicans as a journalist. He's not campaigning for either side. He probably agrees more with the Dems, so he's trying hard to not give that appearance. Unfortunately, his attackers know this, and they push him hard, and he leans to the right in his coverage to try to diffuse the criticism.

It's easy to bully him, in other words, and the Repubs know it.

[orwell]

12. Is this a trick question? n/t

[benddem]

13. One of us is misunderstanding

In the first item George just repeated an oft stated remark about the 2000 buses...but he certainly wasn't the first to make the statement. He should have checked, but it wasn't his lie.
in the 2nd item...George and David Gergen tried to convince Will that he was WRONG about the hurricanes.
in the 3 Earle is a democrat and he did prosecute more democrats than republicans...that's the truth.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. You're right. I selected those items pretty much for the reasons you cite.

I was giving counter-examples to the notion that the Bush connection story was a deliberate disinformation operation in which Steph. was carrying Rove's water. I don't watch much (any) TV, & so have litttle first-hand knowledge of the various talking heads & their behavior patterns. In the first case (buses) Steph did repeat RW disinformation (for whatever reason), but in the latter ones he showed signs of independence. This is reassuring because it means that the Bush/Plame story is not necessarily some setup game from Rove, but may actually be a story from a legitimate if anonymous source.