Tag Archives: charlie gibson

Who Will Sub for Robin Roberts on Good Morning America?

With Robin Roberts scheduled to go on leave in August – in order to battle a rare blood disorder – ABC is busy lining up a slate of Good Morning America replacements. Temporary replacements, that is. Roberts will soon be off the air for a number of weeks as she undergoes a bone marrow transplant to deal with her diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome, and TMZ reports GMA producers have approached the following stars to sit in for a week at a time alongside George Stephanopoulos: Diane Sawyer Charlie Gibson Barbara Walters Chris Cuomo Connie Chung Joan Lunden Look for names to be finalized the closer we get to Robin’s departure date, and also look for Roberts to hopefully be gone for fewer than four months. With the illness detected early, the journalist’s prognosis is reportedly “very good.” We couldn’t be happier to hear it.

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Who Will Sub for Robin Roberts on Good Morning America?

Fawning Political Interviews Have Ruined American Politics [Softball]

Howell Raines hit out at Fox News for ruining political debate . But it’s not just Fox . By softballing and coddling interviewees, all of television news has helped politicians get away with appalling lies, distortions and… being Sarah Palin . Put simply: almost without exception, American political interviewers fawn and simper over their subjects, refuse to ask a question more than once and never call bullshit on blatant bullshit. If anchors, interviewers and White House correspondents did their job — to hold elected officials accountable, by their lapels if necessary — politicians of all stripes could not get away with distorting and outright lying, as they do now. Rove-ian veneers would simply be scraped away by the eight words ‘that is not true, please answer my question’. If they were repeated enough on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC it would mean no birthers. No myths about healthcare or rumors of death panels. No paranoid lies about creeping socialism. No George W. Bush. No Sarah Palin. Take, for example, Palin’s 2008 claim to ABC ‘s Charlie Gibson that because she could “actually see Russia from land here in Alaska,” she had foreign policy experience. Imagine if he’d thrown it directly back to her with follow-up questions. What bearing does this have on your ability to make policy? Are you seriously telling us that your qualifications are based on proximity? I put it to you, Governor Palin, that if you have to rely on such a shabby justification, you are woefully lacking. The resulting stammering and incoherence would have sent her limping back to Wasilla. Instead she was, and is, coddled. There is a quote passed around in British journalism, which has a more robust tradition. Every interviewer is instructed to ask themselves, when facing a politician, “why is this bastard lying to me?” Jeremy Paxman, a BBC interrogator, once asked a very senior member of the government a question 14 times ( video here , skip to about 3.30) simply because he evaded it. Next time Republican Congressman Eric Cantor is on your TV lying glibly about his party’s “no cost jobs plan,” or a government takeover of healthcare, picture an interviewer like Paxman, with the facts at his or her fingertips, making him eat his falsehoods live on air. Then consider how that might affect the level of honesty in his next appearance. It is not easy to be confrontational. These are wealthy, powerful, intimidating people who can choose who they talk to. So reporters make an excuse for practicing Hollywood-style access journalism: they claim their job is to ask the questions, air the responses and let the people judge. They are mere conduits. This, to be frank, is pathetic. Take a look at the dysfunction in DC for evidence. All the stations, from Fox to MSNBC , are doing is validating absurd lies by airing them as news. Politicians should fear, to their very cores, being interviewed by people other than Jon Stewart. We need to stop blaming Fox , and start asking questions. Repeatedly.

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Fawning Political Interviews Have Ruined American Politics [Softball]

American Political Interviewing Sucks [Political Interviews]

Howell Raines hit out at Fox News for ruining political debate . But it’s not just Fox . By softballing and coddling interviewees, all of television news has helped politicians get away with appalling lies, distortions and… being Sarah Palin . Put simply: almost without exception, American political interviewers fawn and simper over their subjects, refuse to ask a question more than once and never call bullshit on blatant bullshit. If anchors, interviewers and White House correspondents did their job — to hold elected officials accountable, by their lapels if necessary — politicians of all stripes could not get away with distorting and outright lying, as they do now. Rove-ian veneers would simply be scraped away by the eight words ‘that is not true, please answer my question’. If they were repeated enough on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC it would mean no birthers. No myths about healthcare or rumors of death panels. No paranoid lies about creeping socialism. No George W. Bush. No Sarah Palin. Take, for example, Palin’s 2008 claim to ABC ‘s Charlie Gibson that because she could “actually see Russia from land here in Alaska,” she had foreign policy experience. Imagine if he’d thrown it directly back to her with follow-up questions. What bearing does this have on your ability to make policy? Are you seriously telling us that your qualifications are based on proximity? I put it to you, Governor Palin, that if you have to rely on such a shabby justification, you are woefully lacking. The resulting stammering and incoherence would have sent her limping back to Wasilla. Instead she was, and is, coddled. There is a quote passed around in British journalism, which has a more robust tradition. Every interviewer is instructed to ask themselves, when facing a politician, “why is this bastard lying to me?” Jeremy Paxman, a BBC interrogator, once asked a very senior member of the government a question 14 times ( video here , skip to about 3.30) simply because he evaded it. Next time Republican Congressman Eric Cantor is on your TV lying glibly about his party’s “no cost jobs plan,” or a government takeover of healthcare, picture an interviewer like Paxman, with the facts at his or her fingertips, making him eat his falsehoods live on air. Then consider how that might affect the level of honesty in his next appearance. It is not easy to be confrontational. These are wealthy, powerful, intimidating people who can choose who they talk to. So reporters make an excuse for practicing Hollywood-style access journalism: they claim their job is to ask the questions, air the responses and let the people judge. They are mere conduits. This, to be frank, is pathetic. Take a look at the dysfunction in DC for evidence. All the stations, from Fox to MSNBC , are doing is validating absurd lies by airing them as news. Politicians should fear, to their very cores, being interviewed by people other than Jon Stewart. We need to stop blaming Fox , and start asking questions. Repeatedly.

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American Political Interviewing Sucks [Political Interviews]

Diane Sawyer Drunk vs. Anderson Cooper Drunk: An Alcoholic Anchor Face-Off!

Diane Sawyer will succeed Charlie Gibson as anchor of ABC’s World News in January, making her the second woman to hold the lead role on a network newscast. The move, announced today by ABC, will leave a sizable void at Good Morning America , and has triggered renewed interest in one of Diane’s classic moments. Here’s Diane Sawyer, drunk (or on really strong cold meds), at President Obama’s inauguration in January in what may be the height of unintentional comedy: Diane Sawyer Drunk But, just so we aren’t accused of ripping on Diane Sawyer exclusively, here’s another apparently drunk newscaster broadcasting that same day – Anderson Cooper : Anderson Cooper Drunk Which video do you like better?

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Diane Sawyer Drunk vs. Anderson Cooper Drunk: An Alcoholic Anchor Face-Off!

Diane Sawyer Will Take Over ABC’s World News Tonight Anchor Chair

In moving Sawyer from GMA to World News Tonight next year, ABC News is shifting a star resource from a hugely profitable morning show to a dying legacy newscast. All so she can sleep in a few hours later. Matt Drudge broke the story: Charlie Gibson will retire as anchor of World News Tonight in January, at which point Sawyer, who has been co-anchor of Good Morning America since 1999, will take over

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Diane Sawyer Will Take Over ABC’s World News Tonight Anchor Chair