“The news you feed to the average man must be as carefully chosen as his food.”–Charles Dingle, “Somewhere I’ll Find You” (1942)
Question: Which major television news operation was embarrassed big-time in the wake of the movie massacre in Colorado by foolishly injecting the Tea Party into its coverage? Answer: ABC News with Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos.
To review, here’s what went down on ABC’s “Good Morning America” July 20 after the alleged shooter was identified in news reports as Jim Holmes:
Stephanopoulos: “I’m going to go to Brian Ross. You’ve been investigating the background of Jim Holmes here. You found something that might be significant.”
Ross: “There’s a Jim Holmes of the Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the tea party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.”
Stephanopoulos: “OK, we’ll keep looking at that. Brian Ross, thanks very much.”
Later, in a story on its website, ABC News said that it and Ross “apologize for the mistake and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.”
But in an obvious attempt to create an alibi and spread the blame around, the network also said, “Several other local residents with similar names were also contacted via social media by members of the public who mistook them for the suspect.” Yeah, sure.
On July 26, at a meeting of the Television Critics Association, ABC News President Ben Sherwood explained thusly: “We put something on the air that we did not know to be true, and the part that needed to be true was not germane to the story we were covering.”
Stephanopoulos, via satellite, told reporters, “This was a breaking news situation and people are going to make mistakes.” Yeah, sure.
As an experienced TV, radio and print journalist, I say this: Before and after going to reporter Ross, anchor Stephanopoulos should have told viewers that there is no hard evidence that the alleged shooter is involved with the Tea Party. None. Period.
A syndicated editorial cartoon in newspapers nationwide July 24 put ABC in its proper place. It featured a caricature of Stephanopoulos saying, “Earlier, ABC News erroneously reported the Colorado suspect may have had connections to the Colorado Tea Party and we want to apologize. ABC is sorry there was no Tea Party connection.” Touche!
ABC also made negative news recently when Barbara Walters blew off an interview on “The View” with George Zimmerman, the killer of Trayvon Martin. Walters was peeved when Zimmerman made certain demands she couldn’t meet and because he chose Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity for his first interview, denying her an exclusive.
Not to be outdone, NBC’s Olympic Games coverage in London failed to recognize ex-heavyweight champ and noted Olympian Evander Holyfield while interviewing him on the street. How’s that for knowledgeable reporting? Strictly slipshod.
Another example of irresponsible reporting is the recent Newsweek magazine cover photo of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney captioned “Romney: The Wimp Factor.” On the other hand, left-leaning Newsweek has had a number of flattering cover photos of President Barack Hussein Obama along with flattering prose.
A big problem in all of this is the culture of liberalism permeating ABC and most of the major news media, broadcast and print. A prime example was ratings-challenged CNN’s recent use of the song “Stupid Girls” as bumper music to introduce a segment on outspoken conservative Sarah Palin patronizing a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Texas.
Dan Cathy, CEO of the fast-food franchise, has come under fire for opposing gay marriage. After Palin visited one of his establishments in late July while stumping for successful Texas Tea Party senatorial candidate Ted Cruz, CNN took its cheap shot.
CNN, which provided spectacular live coverage of Gulf War I in 1992, has hit rock bottom, even trailing detestable, far-left MSNBC. Both are far behind FNC, which has been tops for 12 years. Yet, all are more worthwhile than dinosaur broadcast networks.
Things are so bad at CNN that its president, Jim Walton, quit July 27. During his 10 years at the helm, Walton, 54, oversaw a loss of more than 4 million viewers. This includes 144,000 in the key 25-54 demographic during his last four weeks on the job. Now in panic mode, CNN is mulling a late night talk show and weekend reality shows.
How well I recall when CNN was the Cadillac of cable news in May 1991, when I was a guest on “Larry King Live” to debate politics with a conservative member of the Congress of Racial Equality. A liberal Democrat at the time, I took great delight in continually referring to then President George H.W. Bush as George “Do Nothing” Bush.
A month or so later, I was scheduled for another appearance but was bumped at the last minute for former pro football great Jim Brown, one of my heroes. In late 2010, CNN replaced the popular but aging King with Piers Morgan, an obnoxious Brit. Ugh!
Finally, racing to be first, CNN and FNC aired erroneous reports that the Supreme Court had struck down the individual mandate of Obamacare. With egg on their faces, both networks apologized–FNC after two minutes and CNN after six minutes.
On the other hand, Bloomberg News and the Reuters, Associated Press and Dow Jones wire services got it right. Win some, lose some. And that’s the name of that tune.
