Clinton.com

The new big story in the cesspool that is Clinton.com is the yesterday's revelation that ABC anchor (and former Clinton staffer) George Stuffingenvelopes Stephanopoulos was revealed to have donated pretty substantial sums to the Clinton slush funds in recent years, including this year, after having questioned the objectivity the author of "Clinton Cash" for having worked in the Bush administration. Take it away, Stacy McCain:

The Hired Liars of Liberal Media

Andrew Breitbart used the phrase “Democrat-Media Complex” to describe the dishonest and hypocritical frauds who consider their partisan opinions to be synonymous with Truth and Virtue.
Based on my own experience — as an ex-Democrat who has been in the news business since 1986 — I long ago concluded that most journalists don’t notice liberal bias for the same reason fish don’t notice water. It’s everywhere, all around them, and it’s all they’ve ever known. Because liberalism is the default mindset of nearly everyone in the media, it becomes a sort of self-confirming prejudice, where those who don’t buy into the liberal mythology are systematically excluded from the industry and the few dissenters are ostracized within the industry.

ABC News Anchor George StephanopoulosDonated $50,000 to Clinton Foundation ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos donated $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, records show. The contribution is publicly available information, but the host had not previously disclosed it to ABC viewers, despite taking part in on-air discussions about the Clinton Foundation and its controversial relationship with foreign donors.
Stephanopoulos, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, confirmed the donation to POLITICO’s Dylan Byers after the Free Beacon contacted ABC News for comment. The host, who acknowledged making two donations of $25,000 between 2013 and 2014, issued a statement of apology for failing to disclose his contributions. . . .
Stephanopoulos’s recent coverage of the topic has been challenged by critics who question his objectivity as a longtime Clinton aide. The host’s April 26 interview with Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer, for example, elicited partisan reactions after Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed the Schweizer to acknowledge the lack of a “smoking gun” among the allegations in his book. . . .
Conservative commentators, meanwhile, complained about Stephanopoulos’s “aggressively” dismissive questioning, and took issue with a former Clinton operative asking Schweizer, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, about his “partisan interest” in writing Clinton Cash. . . .

The vile dishonesty of the Democrat-Media Complex is exceeded only by the vile hypocrisy of the Democrat-Media Complex.

It is now known that the donations reached at least $75k and counting.

It is, of course, Stephanopoulos' right to donate to the charity of his choice, even one run by a former boss, which manages to dole out around 10% of the donations for their "charitable work." There is certainly no doubt that without his position in the Clinton administration (which many young people voters have probably no memory) he would not have his position with ABC news. Those of us that do remember, of course, have never been under the illusion that he was an unbiased reporter.

Fallout from the revelations are continuing.

Immediately, cry on the right came up that Stephanopoulos should be "uninvited" (banned) as a moderator to the upcoming primary and presidential debates.

Let's all recall that the Democrats' 2012 #WarOnWomen main campaign theme was not announced by an acknowledged partisan, but by an unacknowledged, covert one -- George Stephanopolous, injecting birth control into the Republican debate, and furthermore asking about Mitt Romney's views on it -- though Mitt Romney had never before indicated he had any political opinion on birth control. (And his confused, What the hell are you talking about? response signaled that.)

George swiftly acceded to that: Sorry Not Sorry: Stephanopolous Says He Won't Moderate Debates, Just to Avoid Being a "Distraction," But He's Damnsure Going to Be "Covering" His Former Boss and Recent Recipient of His Donations

As @Tark31 said on Twitter: The media's "Fuck You" machine kicks into fourth gear.

Meanwhile, it just so happens that a former campaign manager of Hillary Clinton, who managed several of her state campaigns in 2008, was an intern for George Stephanopolous.

. . .
Mook was an undergrad student at Columbia during Stephanopoulos' brief tenure and was already politically active. He was a member of the College Democrats and was active in Democratic politics in his home state of Vermont.
Mook was also part of the team of interns who worked under Stephanopolous' research assistant at Columbia, responsible for "reviewing thousands of pages of public records and making sure I got my facts straight," wrote Stephanopolous.

Why it's almost as if Stephanopolous' connections to the Clintons are extensive, pervasive, and profound.

And undisclosed.

Byron York of National Review reminds us of how, when Stephanopoulos was first hired by ABC News, they promised to keep him out of news casting and restricted to the editorial side, like say, Bill Kristol:

Flashback 1996: Why ABC shouldn't hire Stephanopoulos

George Stephanopoulos was one of the most partisan of partisan warriors ever — just look at "The War Room," the documentary from the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. So it was something of a surprise in 1996 when ABC News hired Stephanopoulos, fresh out of the Clinton White House. And there was some confusion about what the deeply partisan Stephanopoulos' role would be: Analyst? Pundit? Straight news reporter? At the time, I asked ABC about it and was assured Stephanopoulos would be a pundit — like William Kristol, who was then with ABC News — and would not do any news reporting. Here is the opening of a piece I wrote in December 1996 for the Wall Street Journal editorial page:

Last week ABC News announced it has hired departing presidential aide George Stephanopoulos as a contributor to "This Week," "Good Morning America" and other programs. The network seemed delighted with its catch. Mr. Stephanopoulos is "one of the best known and most articulate presidential advisers this country has ever seen," news President Roone Arledge said. "His vast knowledge of Washington politics and policy will be an enormous asset to ABC News."
The announcement created some confusion about Mr. Stephanopoulos's role. A press release issued by ABC last Wednesday stated that he "will serve both as a political analyst and as a correspondent." Vice President of News Joanna Bistany now says Mr. Stephanopoulos will be just an analyst; he will not report news or question guests on "This Week." Ms. Bistany says his role will be similar to that of ABC contributor William Kristol, who was Dan Quayle's chief of staff. "We want a mix of voices," she says, adding that Mr. Stephanopoulos "won't do anything that has any appearance of conflict."

As it turned out, that didn't last long. Just three years later, in 1999, as the 2000 presidential campaign got under way, Stephanopoulos had shed his pundit's role and was reporting on the campaign.

I would say that until ABC does something real about Stephanopoulos' real conflicts of interest, we should not consider ABC a unbiased news provider. But that would imply that I had ever considered them to be one, which would be a lie.