Free Republic

At the end of a long interview that covered everything from health care to the economy to the deficit, George Stephanopoulos interviewed President advisor David Axelrod. At the end of the interview, Stephanopoulos asked Axelrod about the previous weekend's statements by Anita Dunn about Fox News. Here's how Alexrod responded. The only argument that Anita was making is that they are not really a news organization, if you watch even its not even their commentators, but a lot of their news program. It’s really not news, it’s pushing a point of view and the bigger thing is that other news...

President Obama and ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos had a minor debate Sunday (September 20th) over whether the president’s health care plan includes a tax increase, leading the host to look up the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of taxes. (video below) In the interview, Stephanopoulos pressed the president on his plan to require people to purchase health insurance. “Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?” asked the host. VIDEO: Obama Defies Dictionary Definition of Taxation

Here is video of President Obama yesterday on "This Week" arguing with host George Stephanopoulos about the meaning of "tax increase." Stephanopoulos even read the definition of "tax" from the Merriam-Webster dictionary! That seemed to get under Obama's skin. He told George that the fact he looked it up in the dictionary showed he was "stretching a bit." Stephanopoulos had asked Obama how Obama's Health Plan is not a tax - including the requirement that people buy health insurance and levying a fine if you don't. I don't think Obama convinced him. . . . (VIDEO)

My guess is Fox couldn’t have pressed him any harder on this … but then we will never know will we. Stay with it … its fun to watch Democrats fight. George Stephanopoulos pressed the President on an insurance mandate for all Americans … and penalties for those who don’t buy into the program. Set aside the argument that the government cannot mandate that people have health insurance anymore than they can mandate that we all eat healthy. George wonders how this is not a tax increase on the middle class … why he even went to the dictionary.

Boy oh boy, someone is going to get a talking to during the morning conference call with Rahm Emanual, and James Carville. George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC's This week with ABCs Inside The White House Guy, let loose a little truth on his blog this week. The former press secretary of the Clinton administration, who has a daily conference call with his ex-White House colleagues, wrote an article which disagrees with most of the Democratic party pundits. It says that Barack Obama's big health care speech last week was not the game changer that they hoped for:

This Sunday, August 2, George Stephanopoulos faces what could be a significant test for the former Democrat operative. Michelle Malkin, author of the best-selling new book, Culture of Corruption will take the seat opposite Stephanopoulos, someone who in his previous incarnation worked hard to destroy other critical-of-Democrat books. (Long-time readers may recall Stephanopoulos's efforts to destroy Gary Aldrich's "Unlimited Access," the hugely popular, highly critical-of-Clinton bestseller.) Given his history, many readers wonder what ambush Stephanopoulos may have in store for Malkin. Given Ms. Malkin's deft performance with other critical interviewers, such as her stunning appearance opposite The Today Show's liberal...

Climate Change: Supporters of economy-killing cap-and-trade legislation not only misquote the Congressional Budget Office's report lowballing the costs. They ignore how CBO cooked the books to get its numbers.We have often cited the CBO in our editorials. It's a nonpartisan entity whose staffers normally do a decent job analyzing data and crunching numbers. But as regards the true cost of climate change legislation, they have fallen victim to the computer-age trap: garbage in, garbage out. In recent weeks, ABC's "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos twice misquoted a CBO analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill that claims that we can save the...

Sunday morning + political talk shows + coffee. The equation has been a vital ritual in Washington for six decades now, manned by a rarified fraternal order of newsmen who practice some very basic journalism. It's the David Gregory, Chris Wallace, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Schieffer hour of charm.

Well, well, well. So the man liberals love to hate . . . might just be right. George Stephanopoulos has acknowledged that Dick Cheney’s national security arguments “have started to get some traction” with the Obama administration. The This Week host made his admission to Robin Roberts on today’s Good Morning America. He did so in the course of explaining Pres. Obama’s photo flip-flop. After promising to release photos of enhanced interrogations, PBO suddenly announced yesterday that his administration would seek to block their release. View video here.

Our exclusive headliner on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" this Sunday: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his first American interview since President Barack Obama's election. George sat down exclusively with the Iranian president for a wide-ranging interview about his thoughts on President Obama and the prospect of a "new beginning" between the U.S. and Iran. And, some spirited exchanges, as you might imagine, on the nuclear talks, the Holocaust, who's really to blame for the breakdown in U.S. - Iran relations, and Roxana Saberi, the 31-year-old Iranian-American journalist convicted in Iran of espionage. (Clip from the interview at ABC link)

George Stephanopoulos gives some background about his interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his blog today. "After the 'This Week' show on Sunday — and after five years of requests — I received word from the Iranian interests section that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had agreed to an interview with me," he wrote. "But there was a catch: I had to be there by Wednesday at the latest." Stephanopoulos made it, and what transpired were "some spirited exchanges, as you might imagine, on the nuclear talks, the Holocaust, and who's really to blame for the breakdown in U.S.-Iran relations." He...

Peace porridge cold: Antiwar protestors can't complain now that President Obama is in the White House. Or can they?

20 tweeting, non-punctuated questions yield news that McCain doesn't support Cheney.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — John McCain was mocked during his failed presidential bid against Barack Obama for a supposed lack of tech-savvy but the Republican senator made a little bit of Web history of his own on Tuesday. The 72-year-old McCain conducted what was billed as the first "Twitterview" -- an interview via micro-blogging service Twitter -- with ABC television political talk show host George Stephanopoulos. McCain, whose messages on Twitter are followed by nearly 225,000 people at @senjohnmccain, replied to around 10 questions from @gstephanopoulos sent in the 140-character-or-less Twitter format.

Defending himself against Steffie.

Something Wicked This Way Comes Silencing The Media To anyone but the most ardent liberal, its quite apparent that the majority of the media is blatantly supporting Obama’s every action. The revelation that for 17 years Rahm Emmanuel (Obama’s Chief of Staff), George Stephanopoulos (ABC News), James Carville and Paul Begala (CNN) have had daily hour long calls that have continued into the Obama administration is but one example. Even though CNN is selling Obama shirts they will tell you they are not bias. Actions by the Obama administration have made it quite apparent to the media you are either...

Ignoring the fact that Republicans were shut out of writing the “stimulus” bill, George Stephanopoulos said Sunday that President Obama has been too bi-partisan. “Some White House officials I talk to concede that he put too much emphasis on ‘non-partisan nirvana’ rather than on getting the job done,” Stephanopoulos said. Then Stephanopoulos momentarily lost concentration and gave a more realistic assessment. “Because the White House set the goal of bi-partisanship, maybe even 80 Senate votes, this does have the feel of a failure, even though it’s a great success.” Please allow us to make a pithy observation. “The difference between...

Those Republicans are so mean-spirited, the Messiah might just be forced to use the clenched fist on them. Won’t be his fault, of course. The GOP will have brought this on itself. That was George Stephanopoulos’ not-so-subtle warning on GMA this morning, as he discussed with Chris Cuomo the fate of the pork stimulus bill, which in a withering column Charles Krauthammer has called “a legislative abomination.” CHRIS CUOMO: Can President Obama go to the people? Can he use that as his trump card here? GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I think it might be what he has to do, Chris. And we’re...

Since last week's Politico story about the regular phone calls between former Clinton White House'ers Rahm Emanuel, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala and James Carville, several conservative outlets have raised the question of a conflict of interest. Media Research President Brent Bozell has been one of the most vocal critics (Rush Limbaugh's callers also jammed the ABC News phone lines). Bozell, who makes a claim not part of the Politico story that these are "strategy phone calls," requested ABC respond to the story on Newsbusters and in an open letter. "With each passing day, ABC's failure to speak to and about...

Media Research Center (MRC) President L. Brent Bozell, III has written a letter to ABC News President David Westin calling on him to publicly address and resolve what appears to be a clear violation of journalistic ethics by ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos. Last week a Politico story broke the news that Stephanopoulos has participated in daily phone strategy sessions with now White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel throughout his tenure at ABC. Mr. Bozell on Thursday issued a statement demanding an explanation, and calling for Stephanopoulos to recuse himself from reporting on an Obama Administration whose plans...

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos is engaged in daily private phone briefings with Obama Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel. He then presents himself as a credible journalist and nonpartisan commentator in reporting about the administration. Such a move crosses journalistic lines, is a clear conflict of interest and must be stopped immediately. The Media Research Center is calling on MRC Action Team members to email Stephanopoulos, David Westin, the President of ABC News and Westin’s boss, Anne Sweeney, Co-Chairman of Disney, and Sweeney's bosses, ABC/Disney's Board of Directors, demanding an immediate end to this obvious conflict of interest. Complete the form below to...

*Alert* MediaSplatters just received this message from the Media Research Center. More of the “behind the scenes” cohorting between the Obama administration and the Leftist Media has been exposed. *MRC Letter viewable by clicking on link to article. *Obama Administration & George Stephanopoulos- DAILY CALLS *Imagine if this was Rush or Levin *Take action and call ABC News Now *Be sure to read the article, and forward it to everyone!

Power, Politics, Gossip On Daily CallD.C.’s Prevailing Take On Politics Often Hatched On Conference Call Including Carville, Emanuel, Stephanopoulos And Begala (The Politico) The conversations don’t begin with hello. They don’t end with goodbye. Most often they pick up with a low, drawling voice uttering something between a sentence and a grunt. “Wahzgoanawn?” For those not accustomed to hearing James Carville when he is trying to enunciate more clearly for television, that translates to: “What’s going on?” So begins another morning in what may count as Washington’s longest-running conversation - a street-corner bull session between four old friends who suddenly...

One of the most critical aspects of a journalist's credibility is his ability to at least appear to be objective. So what happens when one of the biggest names in network journalism George Stephanopoulos host of ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" is revealed to be in constant contact with other former Clinton Administration advisors using their collective knowledge and political acumen to aid President Obama's Chief of Staff in performing his job? The answer to that question will reveal just how dedicated the management of ABC is to the basic tenets of objective journalism; dedicated or contemptuous.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let's go to This Week with Stephanopoulos, whose question was, "Which of your ambitions, which of your campaign promises will you have to scale back on because of the economic downturn?" OBAMA: I want to be realistic here. Uh, not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace that we had hoped. RUSH: Reeeeeeeeally? Not everything we promised, not everything we talked about we're going to be able to do. But remember, my friends: it's not what Obama says, it's how he says it. Even he...

Classic Obama subterfuge from the President-elect on This Week this Sunday.

When was President Bush indicted? When were the top officials of his administration indicted?... And, for what? What were their crimes?... Keeping America safe for 8 years?... Liberating 50,000,000 people in Iraq and Afghanistan?... Spreading democracy?... Fighting Islamic radicals when Democrats voted to surrender? This exchange on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos was outrageous and Barack Obama's response was equally disgusting.

Anthony Pellicano found guiltyConvicted of racketeering, conspiracyBy Leslie SimmonsMay 15, 2008, Hollywood ReporterAnthony Pellicano, the former celebrity private eye who set up shop on the Sunset Strip and boasted clients who were some of Hollywood's rich and powerful, was found guilty Thursday of racketeering, wiretapping and running a criminal enterprise. [Below Reprinted From Newsmax - 2003]From the NewsMax.com StaffWednesday, Nov.12, 2003 10:58 a.m. ESTPellicano Tapes Could Spell Trouble for Bill and Hillary Hollywood is buzzing over "investigator to the stars" private eye Anthony Pellicano, who copped a plea earlier this year after the FBI caught him with a drawer full...

Former top Democratic aide-turned journalist George Stephanopoulos appeared on Friday's edition of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" and agreed with the host that it was "impossible" not to feel exuberant when Barack Obama was declared the winner on election night. Stephanopoulos also repeatedly admitted that he fervently believed all along the Democratic candidate would defeat Senator John McCain. Stephanopoulos' wife, actress Ali Wentworth, also appeared as part of the show's weekly "Oprah Fridays Live" series and asserted that in the spring she asked her reporter husband, "Is Obama going to win? Is Obama going to win? He said, 'Yes. He's going...

Host Don Wade played an interesting Dick Morris sound clip for Stephanopoulos and then asked for his response. That is when Stephanopoulos came right out and said "Dick is a liar." There was no equivocation, no weasel words, just a straight out "liar." Morris was recounting a time when President Clinton called him on the phone and yelled at him for the fact that a Clinton focus group had become news when the group was supposed to be a secret. Morris claimed that Clinton demanded to know who Morris had told of the group. Morris claimed that he only told...

Rick Davis vs. George Stephanopoulos on ABC Polling (video)

A little-known relationship in Sen. Barack Obama’s past — one that had been buzzing in mostly conservative circles for months — took a very public turn Wednesday night during a Democratic debate in Philadelphia. It relates to Obama’s relationship with William C. Ayers, a onetime member of the Weather Underground, a leftist fringe of the 1960s antiwar movement. Known as the Weathermen, the group was responsible for bombings of the New York City police headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971 and of the Pentagon in 1972. During the debate, moderator George Stephanopoulos asked Obama about his relationship...

Republicans have jumped all over Barack Obama's statement in a George Stephanopoulos on "This Week," on ABC on September 7. "Let's not play games," he said. "What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith." The Main Stream Media have largely ignored the statement because members of the MSM believe it is there job as Good Democrats to make Barack Obama look good. Even the Republican oriented Washington Times criticized Republican bloggers for their treatment of the subject. "But illustrating the difficulty of preventing false rumors about his faith from spreading,...

Barack Obama’s campaign brushed off suggestions Monday that a verbal gaffe the Democratic candidate made during a weekend television interview is anything more than just that. In an interview Sunday with ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos, Obama tried to suggest that FOX News and others “closely allied” to Republicans are promulgating the notion that the Illinois senator is Muslim. Asked about whether McCain himself has done anything to suggest he’s Muslim, Obama said, “Let’s not play games. What I was suggesting — you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you’re absolutely right...

You'd think a guy who has demonstrated such flexibility on everything from campaign finance to NAFTA to the Second Amendment to the surge could find a way to wangle some townhall meetings with John McCain into his schedule. But gosh darn it, that would just be too tough for Barack Obama, explains George Stephanopoulos. The "This Week" host made his excuses for the Dem candidate on today's Good Morning America. BILL WEIR: The Obama campaign just agreed to three debates after the McCain campaign called for ten or so townhall meetings. Given his oratory skills, why won't Obama answer that...

My former next-door neighbor Ramesh Ponnuru of the National Review takes note of an apparent flip-flop by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on taxes. In March 2007 McCain told Ponnuru the following: Ponnuru: If you could get the Democrats to agree, or at least to come to the table on entitlements or on tax simplification, are those circumstances under which you’d be willing to accept a tax increase? Sen. McCain: No; no. PONNURU: No circumstances? Sen. McCain: No. None. None. But on This Week with George Stephanopoulos Sunday McCain sounded a bit different, saying of Social Security, "I am a supporter...

McCain on 'This Week' Both candidates took Sunday-show turns today. Noam blogged below on Obama's smooth "Meet the Press" ride. McCain for his part did ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, with somewhat more mixed results. I've never found McCain terribly appealing in the talk-show format. You would think he can channel more of the freewheeling humor that wins him such love on the Straight Talk Express, but he often seems stiff and irritable, as was the case today. (McCain seemed too stressed even to find real levity in the appearance of his dogs on the interview set.) More specifically,...

"I think people make a judgment by what we do and what we don't do. He certainly found time to do other things." -- John McCain John McCain ABC's "This Week" July 27, 2008 ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "There's also been a flap about Senator Obama's decision in Germany not to visit the troops at Landstuhl. He now says that, based on what he was hearing from the Pentagon, there was no way that wouldn't be seen as a political trip, which is why he decided not to go. Do you accept that explanation?" John McCain: "Well, I know this, those...

Commentary OK. I'll acknowledge this. Tim Russert, the host of NBC's Meet the Press, has developed into a good journalist. But just a few years ago, it would be easy to say Russert's roots were showing and I'm not talking about hair color. You see, before suddenly becoming a journalist, Tim Russert worked as a political hack for the Democratic Party. Russert was a former counselor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and New York Governor Mario Cuomo after that, before being hired by NBC in 1984. It's clear to anyone who watches Russert today he has come a long way....

I just spoke to D.A. Pennebaker, the director of "The War Room," who said his film had been doctored to produce a widely-viewed YouTube clip. In a clip from his film on the 1992 Clinton campaign, posted to YouTube today, Clinton advisor Mickey Kantor is -- according to subtitles -- seen referring to Indianans with an expletive and to his colleague George Stephanopolous with a racial slur. "He does not say that. He does not say that," said Pennebaker, after viewing the clip. He said the initial expletive referred to the anticipated reaction in the Bush White House to the...

Nothing in the hysteria over last week's Democratic debate – including the unprecedented opprobrium press critics heaped on the ABC moderators – should have come as any surprise. That doesn't make it any less fascinating a guide to current strange notions of what is and is not a substantive issue in a presidential contest, or any less striking an indicator of the delicate treatment Mr. Obama's media following have come to consider his just due. Moderators Charles Gibson's and George Stephanopoulos's offense was to ask questions Mr. Obama didn't want to address. Worse, they'd continued to press them even when...

Politics: McCain is right to question Obama's ties to a '60s radical with a fondness for explosives. Obama's response to the issue is to slander a pro-life conservative colleague. And we thought the Clintons had no shame.Speaking on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, John McCain was asked if he thought Barack Obama shared his sense of patriotism. McCain's response was to note Obama's long association with friend and associate William Ayers, a member of the Weather Underground, and the fact that this is not, as Obama insists, irrelevant election year trivia. "I'm sure he's very patriotic," McCain said of Obama,...

Violent chickens roost on candidates' shoulders: exploring the liberal/Marxist nexus Wes Vernon April 21, 2008 Last week's Clinton/Obama debate opened a new door on an old coalition: What is it about Marxists (violent or otherwise) that attracts liberals (well-meaning or otherwise) to their defense? What is their common goal (to the extent that they have one)? The counterculture sixties Here is the mantra of the Weather Underground, as enunciated by one of its leading disciples: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents. That's where it's really at." Who said...

Take cover, ABC! Incoming! “[Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos] disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself.” – Will Bunch, Philadelphia Daily News “Perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.” – Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher “… all the substance of a Beavis and Butt-Head marathon.” – Walter Shapiro, Salon “… petty, shallow, process-obsessed…utterly divorced from the actual issues that Americans want to talk about.” – Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic “…Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos turned in shoddy, despicable performances.” – Tom Shales, The Washington Post What could ABC’s...

Powerline’s John Hinderaker remarks on the ferocity that journalists re supporting Obama and attacking ABC’s Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos for asking Obama about his relations to radical terrorists like William Ayers and to Jeremiah Wright, as well as his remarks about small town people in Pennsylvania. Reporters don’t like it when you pick on their anointed candidate. Joe Klein sums up in the Washington Post. Instead, we are supposed to be terribly interested in the 22nd iteration of their stands on global warming (against), Iraq (against), government controlled healthcare (for), taxes (higher) and other issues that are part of...

<p>Barack Obama seemed puzzled. Angrily puzzled. The apostle of hope seemed flummoxed by the audacity of the question. At the April 16 Philadelphia debate, George Stephanopoulos, longtime aide to Democratic politicians, was asking about his longtime association with Weather Underground bomber William Ayers. Continues...</p>

The left-wing blogosphere's outrage against ABC ["Boycott Fig Newtons!"] over its allegedly unfair questioning of Obama during Wednesday's debate has seeped over into the MSM in the form of Derrick Z. Jackson's Boston Globe column of this morning. While the headline moots the matter as a question "Tough questions or just plain bias?", there's no doubt of the answer in Jackson's mind. Just two paragraphs in, the columnist unleashes [emphasis added]: "In some 1,600 words of transcript, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos tried to eviscerate Obama in Philadelphia on Wednesday."

Amid a storm of criticism that Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate focused too heavily on “gotcha” questions and not enough on substance, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos defended his decision to ask Illinois Sen. Barack Obama about his relationship with former political radical William Ayers. Stephanopoulos denied he’d been spoon fed the question by Fox News host Sean Hannity. “We have been researching this for a while,” Stephanopoulos said in a phone interview from New York. ABC News political correspondent Jake Tapper, he said, had blogged about the issue April 10, after it was first reported by Politico, the political news website....

Media watchers have been asking themselves since Barack Obama became the front-runner to win the Democrat nomination for president when the press will turn against him and start treating the junior senator from Illinois like a candidate instead of a rock star. The worm might have turned on Sunday's "This Week," when, as my colleague Brad Wilmouth reported, Cokie Roberts actually used the feminist card to trash Obama for Hillary's sake.Almost as tasty, about three minutes later, a discussion about how Obama is beatable as the Democrat candidate began with Cokie saying (video available here, relevant section begins at minute...

Is it just me, or was there a tone of defiance in George Stephanopoulos's voice this morning as he declared that Rush Limbaugh can't stop John McCain? The "This Week" host was a guest commentator on today's Good Morning America, and co-anchor Robin Roberts began by playing a clip of a recent Rush comment. ROBIN ROBERTS: Let's start with the Republicans. Of John McCain the big lead over Romney, but not everyone is rallying around McCain. Let's listen to this for a moment. Cut to Rush clip. View video here.