Really, can it get any worse? Can once-proud media organizations sully themselves any more? Andrea “NBC News, Washington” Mitchell married to Alan Greenspan. Christiane Amanpour married to former Clinton Administration mouthpiece Jamie Rubin. Speaking of Clinton hacks, James Carville and Paul Begala, shacking up together at CNN. And now this. From Newsbusters:
To highlight the announcement that Bianna Golodryga had been named co-anchor of the weekend Good Morning America, ABC blurred the lines of journalism on Sunday and brought on the host’s fiancee, Barack Obama’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag.
In a fawning piece on Golodryga’s life story, an onscreen graphic identified Orszag only as the journalist’s fiancee. At the end of the segment, the Democratic official strode onto the set, surprising the host. Only then, almost as an aside, did co-anchor Bill Weir explain, “…For those who may not know, Bianna’s fiance is in President Obama’s cabinet.”
What a surprise! A news anchor engaged to an Obama Administration official. And one with, shall we say, a Lothario-like past. Pillow talk — what pillow talk? We’re all professionals here!
In the old days, such relationships were grounds for firing, not a promotion. But the demoralized ABC News obviously no longer cares about propriety, integrity or anything else. Today, sleeping with a source is simply good “journalism.” Not to mention, “access.”
Somewhere, Abe Rosenthal is rolling over in his grave.