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Despite apologies, PR problems linger for George Stephanopoulos

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos began as it usually does today. But 14 minutes into it came something usual for the program: an apology. It’s the fourth time the embattled ABC News chief anchor apologized. The words he used today were the same he read from the TelePrompTer Friday on Good Morning America.

“Over the last several years I’ve made substantial donations to dozens of charities, including the Clinton Foundation,” Stephanopoulos said. “Those donations were a matter of public record but I should have made additional disclosures on air when we covered the foundation.

george stephanopoulos apologizes

George Stephanopoulos apologizes again on ABC News’ ‘This Week.’

“I now believe that direct and personal donations to that foundation was a mistake. Even though I made them to support work done to stop the spread of AIDS, help children, and protect the environment in poor countries, I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict. I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.”

The assessment from pundits, columnists and other armchair news analysts has been harsh and unforgiving:

From Michael Goodwin of the New York Post:

My, my, the bigger they are, the dumber they think we are.

Dan Rather of CBS was toppled by a phony document scam. Lyin’ Brian Williams at NBC casually mixed fact with self-aggrandizing fiction. Now George Stephanopoulos is caught in a Clinton web of deceit at ABC.

The hat trick of arrogant anchor scandals helps explain why Americans don’t trust network news. With apologies to Walter Cronkite, that’s the way it is, and the way it is stinks.

From Fox News:

ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos may have tarnished his reputation for good after failing to disclose his ties to the Clinton Foundation while reporting on the foundation.

“This was a mistake and I’m not sure he’s going to be able to recover from it any time soon,” Brit Hume, Fox News senior political analyst, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Here’s my thought. This situation is a full-blown PR crisis for both Stephanopoulos as well as ABC News.

For Stephanopoulos, in less than a New York minute,  he unraveled the news achievements that took him years to build. He had managed to climb his way to a top position at ABC News, covering news and politics. That’s quite an achievement for anyone; even more impressive given his former job as a political advisor to President Clinton. He transitioned almost seamlessly from political operative to newsman. Now this.

The fact that he contributed money to the Clinton Foundation is not a huge deal here. Sure, it was a mistake. But then tons of media companies also contributed lots of money to the Clinton Foundation. The problematic issue here is the fact that he failed to disclose the contributions while doing stories on the Clinton Foundation and what contributors received or expected to receive when giving the money. He was part of the story and he was covering the story and he failed to disclose that conflict of interest. That’s conflict of interest 101.

It is absolutely stunning that he withheld such relevant information.

Why didn’t Stephanopoulos say, during those interviews: “I contributed money to the Clinton Foundation. So did NBC Universal, News Corporation, Turner Broadcasting, Thomson Reuters and a dozen media organizations and I know I didn’t expect anything and I am sure neither did they. We did it to help the Foundation do its great work…”

He could’ve gone on: “Of course now I wish I hadn’t given any money. Then I wouldn’t have had to talk about my own person contributions…”

Stephanopoulos knew he had inadvertently become part of the story but didn’t want to man up. Did he just figure he would never get caught?

It was a lie by omission. It cuts to the heart of trust. Can such a lapse in judgment be easily forgotten by viewers… by Republicans?

Publicly, ABC News is standing behind their former political operative turned star anchor.

But it’s difficult to believe that behind the scenes, Stephanopoulos isn’t getting berated by network brasses. Remember, at first NBC News stood by Brian Williams in the early days of his scandal.

I’m not convinced that ABC News can just let this one go with just a simple apology from George Stephanopoulos. This was a HUGE transgression and ABC News has a brand to protect. And that brand is much bigger than just one anchor.


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