UPDATE:
More scrutiny of the timeline over this weekend shows the internal war going on at ABC News. As producers are undermined by on-air talent and ‘un-named’ insiders whispering to reporters.
The Washington Posts’ Greg Sargent appeared to spend his entire weekend taking deep-background calls from un-named ABC employees complaining about the Breitbart booking.
It looks like lefty bloggers aren’t the only ones irked by ABC News’s decision to tap Andrew Breitbart for election-night analysis: People in ABC’s newsroom were also caught completely off guard by the news, a newsroom source tells me.
“This blindsided a good portion of the team here,” the source emails. “And not in a good way.”
The infighting at ABC News and managements’ lack of control over their staff has become so obvious that even the ultra-left Guardian noticed. They referred to ABC’s memo as: “distanc(ing) the network from him (Breitbart) with comical vigor”
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George Soros gave Media Matters for America one million dollars. Over the weekend, Media Matters for America mobilized a small army of writers, researchers and rabble-rousers to intimidate, pester and bully ABC News into rescinding their offer to have this site’s publisher as part of their on-air election night coverage. This begs the question: How much influence does Mr. Soros’s contribution ultimately have over ABC News’ independent decisions?
Of course, Mr. Soros didn’t give any money to ABC News. But, ABC News clearly changed course due in large part to the overwhelming avalanche of pressure put upon them by the well-funded critics at MMFA. Just look at the timeline of events:
Friday, Oct 29th
11:50 AM PT: Big Journalism announces Andrew Breitbart and Dana Loesch have been invited to be a part of ABC News’ election night coverage.
2:33 PM PT: Media Matters slams the announcement and includes comments from ABC News spokesman David Ford: “He will be one of many voices on our air, including Bill Adair of Politifact. If Andrew Breitbart says something that is incorrect, we have other voices to call him on it.”
Overlook for a moment the insulting nature of the second part of the comment (do they keep people on staff to correct Arianna Huffington or any other person of the left?) notice that Mr. Ford is confirming that Breitbart will be on the air at ABC.
Saturday, October 30th
11:10 AM PT: ABC News releases statement claiming Breitbart was only scheduled for online, digital content. “I want to explain what Mr. Breitbart’s role has always been as one of our guests at our digital town hall event… Mr. Breitbart will not be a part of the ABC News broadcast coverage, anchored by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos.”
Of course, the humorous thing about this statement is that the online digital content will probably end up being the most influential and significant content to anyone under the age of 60. Really glad the experts at ABC News are downplaying their own internet presence and its importance. Welcome to 2010, guys.
But here’s the best part of Mr. Ford’s statement: He sent a separate, personal statement directly to MMFA, just for them. See how seriously ABC News takes MMFA, a left-wing political activist group?
Sunday, Oct 31st
10:06 AM PT: MMFA posts an interview with attorney Rose Sanders where she compares Breitbart to a Klansman.
6:50 PM PT: Big Journalism releases e-mails proving that ABC News represented to Breitbart that the town hall he was participating in would be on the air.
Monday, Nov. 1st
6:22 AM PT: MMFA posts reaction to the e-mails. They don’t suggest that the e-mails mean anything other than what they clearly say: Breitbart will be on the air. “It is, of course, possible that Breitbart is misrepresenting his communications with ABC. He does have a clear history of making false allegations.”
In MMFA’s minds, the only way the e-mail doesn’t prove ABC News invited Breitbart on the air, is if Breitbart is lying and the e-mails are false. But at this point, ABC owes its viewers an explanation. If Breitbart is lying, ABC needs to say so now.
7:00 AM PT: Jefferey Schneider, a different ABC News spokesman (how many do they have) claims that this is all Breitbart’s fault for not understanding what was meant by “on the air.” I hope Mr. Schneider takes home a nice salary for having to make that kind of argument sound logical.
You see that ABC News did not dispute the legitimacy of the e-mails, only that they don’t mean what Breitbart (and clearly, MMFA) thought that they meant.
You can also see that each time MMFA complains about ABC News they make another move and respond accordingly. To date, MMFA has printed no less than ten articles about this story in less than a 72 hour period, and ABC News has done their bidding each time.
This is not about Breitbart being on television, this is about the influence MMFA has over what is supposed to be an independent news operation. Why has ABC News responded like lap dogs to the constant complaints coming from MMFA? And now that they are receiving enormous gifts from private individuals, shouldn’t news entities start distancing themselves from MMFA so as not to appear to be unduly influenced by Soros’ millions?
If they are truly independent, ABC News will stop issuing private, written statements for MMFA and start telling them to mind their own business. ABC News must not appear to be doing the bidding of a left-wing political group with their hands in Soros’ expansive pockets.
After all, there is a time and a place for monolithic, left-wing scare-mongering about conservatives: Primetime on MSNBC.
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