George Stephanopoulos at Brave New Films

Stephanopoulos: Obama Agrees Now with McCain on Afghanistan

2008-07-26T08:42:43Z

George Stephanopoulos on ABC's World News, July 21, 2008

Sunday Show Roundup: Gramm Cracker

2008-07-26T09:08:12Z

John McCain's economic adviser Phil Gramm said last week that our failing economy is nothing more than a "mental recession" brought on by a "nation of whiners."

Think Progress' Satyam has more on George Will's illogical defense of Gramm.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger: "When Obama is President..."

2008-07-26T08:39:21Z

Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a Freudian slip on This Week with George Stephanopoulos

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Arnold: "When Obama is President..." This Week

2008-07-13T14:33:39Z

Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger makes a Freudian slip on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

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Karl Rove's Non-Denial Denial on Siegelman Case

2008-07-20T13:17:41Z

On This Week this morning George Stephanopoulos asked Karl Rove if he denied contacting the Justice Department prosecuting former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. He responded with a textbook non-denial denial.

If Siegelman's and Alabama GOP lawyer Jill Simpson's stories are true, that would make this case the centerpiece example of the corruption of the DOJ revealed by the US Attorney firing scandal. In fact, it would make most of what we know now seem minor by comparison.

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KARL ROVE REFUSES TO DENY INVOLVEMENT IN SIEGELMAN CASE!

2008-07-21T06:44:05Z

On This Week with George Stephanopoulos Karl Rove refuses to deny his involvement in the Don Siegelman case!

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WATCH: ABC Hosts Heckled: "The Crowd Is Turning On Me"

2008-06-16T15:31:53Z

WATCH: ABC Hosts Heckled: "The Crowd Is Turning On Me"

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Stephanopoulos & Gibson: Certified media whores for Clinton

2008-07-09T15:24:58Z

Montage from the debate on 4/16/2008 in Philadelphia.

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The Questions ABC Should Have Asked

2008-07-09T15:24:51Z

When ABC completely botched their recent Democratic primary debate, I wrote a post asking readers to play moderator and come up with substantive questions that Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos should've asked.

We had an overwhelming response of over 300 questions!

Readers wrote in and e-mailed me asking about the issues that matter to them most, covering everything from universal healthcare to the recession to the Iraq War to trade with China.

Continue reading to see some of the astute, insightful questions that we received, as well as the winner of our ABC question contest:

Obama Legitimizes FOX by Failing to Confront Them

2008-07-23T12:57:01Z

Barack Obama didn’t call out FOX for what they are — a Republican propaganda outlet — when he appeared on FOX News Sunday to talk to Chris Wallace. Unfortunately, this means Obama, the Democrats, and American democracy lost.

Obama did a respectable job answering Wallace’s light/medium-biased questions, but he didn’t go after FOX the way his campaign claimed Obama would in a Friday statement to Talking Points Memo. Instead, he made the error of treating the interview as if it was actually an interview, not an ambush staged by enemies committed to destroying him. Because FOX had two main goals for Obama’s appearance: to further the appearance that FOX is actually a news organization and to gather ammunition against Obama.

FOX clearly accomplished their first goal, since nothing could legitimize FOX more than having a top presidential candidate (and a Democrat, no less) do a sit-down interview with them. What Obama and his campaign failed to realize is how destructive it is to the Democratic party, as well as America and its democracy, to have people think that FOX is anything other than a Republican propaganda outlet. By legitimizing FOX, the stories they run, the lies they tell, and the opinions they espouse are also legitimized. There’s no better example of this than the recent ABC debate, where George Stephanopoulos thought that Sean Hannity would be a good person to ask for questions to ask Obama. Why would Stephanopoulos think that Sean Hannity—a racist, serial liar, and FOX’s strongest, most consistent purveyor of anti-Obama misinformation—is a “fair and balanced” authority on Obama? Because Hannity is on FOX, and Stephanopoulos thinks FOX is a news organization. “Fair and Balanced” is right there in their slogan. And because more high profile democrats don’t identify FOX for what it is, FOX is allowed to retain its appearance of legitimacy, which is all they want. They don’t want to be a news organization — they simply want to create the appearance that they are a news organization to provide cover for their propaganda. And, sadly, Obama was a willing participant in furthering that appearance.

FOX Conjures Obama Contradiction

2008-07-14T13:02:52Z

A lot of people complained about the bias at last week's ABC debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton but it was the same bias you can find at all the major networks, a bias towards controversy, sensationalism, superficiality, and corporatism. Fox News, in contrast, has all those same biases as the other networks, but has, in addition, a clear ideological bias I've documented in dozens of YouTube videos in which Fox distorts the facts to help the right or hurt the left. Fox provided a good example of such bias in its coverage of last week's ABC debate when Fox deliberately misinterpreted an ambiguity in something Obama said, quoted it out of context, and created a contradiction that wasn't there, as I show in this video.

You can find the rest of the April 16, 2008, ABC Democratic debate from which I took a clip for this video on the ABC website at: abcnews.go.com You can find more of Obama's April 17, 2008, statement about the debate from which I took a clip for this video at: www.youtube.com And, you can find DOZENS of more examples of Fox News bias on my Fox News bias playlist on YouTube at: www.youtube.com

For further info, don't miss BNF's latest film: The FOX Is Wrong! (Obama)

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Sunday Show Roundup: Towering Babble

2008-07-23T12:12:54Z

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: How much substanceless absurdity and ridiculousness can be squeezed into this campaign before Tuesday's big Pennsylvania Primary? Watch everybody cram like crazy in today's Sunday Show Roundup episode of TPMtv.

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THE FOX IS WRONG! (Obama version)

2008-07-26T09:08:18Z

FOX’s objective is clear: carpet bomb Barack Obama with negative stories, distortions, and smears before the Pennsylvania primary in an attempt to skew the outcome toward the Republicans’ preferred adversary, Hillary Clinton. But did FOX imagine that the “liberal” media would be such willing accomplices?

Check out our latest episode of the gameshow sensation that’s sweeping the nation — THE FOX IS WRONG: OBAMA! Play along as FOX guests and personalities distort and misrepresent the statements of Obama and those around him, only to have that pesky “liberal” media pick up the smears and keep on running! For the finale, watch in wonder and amazement as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos allows Sean Hannity to actually spoon-feed him a question on Hannity’s radio show, then parrots it almost word-for-word a day later during ABC’s infamous Democratic debate in Pennsylvania!

For an added bonus, check out our last video to see what nine minutes of FOX on Obama looks like (don’t worry, the video is just 54 seconds). There you can get a small taste of FOX’s strategy to saturate their viewers with as many negative Obama stories as a cable line can carry — FOX spews more Obama smears in nine minutes than most networks deliver all day! And remember, this is just a summary of NINE MINUTES on FOX — there are 1,440 minutes every day...

Watch the videos, sign the petition, and fasten your seatbelts — we’ve got a crazy few months ahead, and the media won’t reform itself…

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Leaked: ABC's Stephanopoulos interviews John McCain

2008-07-26T09:08:18Z

Last week's Democratic debate in Philadelphia was an abysmal display of journalism. By sticking to trivial topics for half of the debate, ABC sought to provoke controversy without asking the candidates serious questions. The Huffington Post's Jason Linkins wrote that the debate "ventured into territory so utterly asinine that I could scarcely believe what I was witnessing."

Ironically, the mainstream media have been giving John McCain a free ride while trying to pin Clinton and Obama with manufactured "gotcha" questions. In fact, they don't seem to be challenging McCain at all. So there's no reason to think ABC's brand of pseudo-journalism won't continue tomorrow morning, when George Stephanopoulos will interview McCain on his show.

We used satire in this video because we felt it's our most effective way to make a point about the shoddy journalism coming from ABC. The network was so desperate to stir up controversy at the debate that Stephanopoulos took incendiary remarks from FOX's Sean Hannity and tried to pawn them off as his own question.

We can't let the FOXification of the mainstream press continue. What's more, we can't allow journalists like Stephanopoulos to give John McCain a free pass. What are the satirical questions you think Stephanopoulos and his colleagues should be asking McCain? Post them to the website and let us know just how shoddy their journalism has become. We'll award the best (meaning worst) satire. It's high time we hold ABC to higher journalistic standards!

And please support the work of Campaign for America's Future in forcing intelligent questions onto Sunday news shows. Weekend Watchdog's Bill Scher wants Stephanopoulos to ask, among other things, why McCain hasn't given "consistent straight answers about what seven years of conservative economic policies have done to the American economy?" Weigh in with your own substantive questions.

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They Learned All the Wrong Lessons

2008-06-12T09:33:45Z

"The War Room" Recut... Here are some key moments from "The War Room," the documentary on the 1992 campaign.

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Protest ABC Today at 4 in Burbank!

2008-04-22T22:13:06Z

The outrage across the netroots to the atrocious debate moderation by ABC has been tremendous. It's time to take it to the next level, the streets.

Live in the Los Angeles area? Come join the Courage Campaign in front of the ABC/Disney studios in Burbank at 4 p.m. today.

Help us pass out flag pins to ABC/Disney employees leaving their Disney corporate office and ask whether they can pass their own flag-pin litmus test: "Are you patriotic enough to wear a flag-pin?" We need to know how many people are coming, so please RSVP here.

Meet us at ABC's Disney Studios in Burbank in front of the West Alameda Gate, between S. Buena Vista and Keystone Streets. We're going to protest ABC's debate disaster and pass out flag pins to their employees until about 7 p.m.

We've got the flag pins. Now, we just need you.

TPMtv: Wall to Wall Ugly

2008-06-18T09:35:34Z

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: If you were spared watching it in real time, relive the awfulness of last night's ABC debate in today's episode of TPMtv.

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TPMtv: Fred's Fantasy Island

2008-06-14T15:29:57Z

Remember how Fred Thompson was the GOP's ticket to holding the White House in 2008? One of the great stories of the 2008 campaign has been the non-story of Fred Thomspon, his almost complete irrelevancy to the progress, discussion and direction of the campaign so far. In today's episode of TPMtv, we look at how the Fred fantasy started coming unhinged from the Fred reality.

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Barack on This Week with George Stephanopoulos

2008-06-12T21:30:17Z

Check out the full interview of Barack Obama on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

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