Erick Erickson
RedState
11/1/2010
ABC News was going to have Arianna Huffington and Andrew Breitbart on TV on election night to discuss American politics, etc. Breitbart, at least, was going to be involved in a digital town hall. The television anchors would regularly go into the townhall, talk to the reporters, talk to Breitbart, etc.
But the left soiled their collectivist shorts over the idea that the man who brought down ACORN would dare get treated legitimately on ABC News. In fact, reporters within the newsroom also complained. It seems bringing down ACORN must have repercussions.
ABC News is backing away from Breitbart, claiming he was never going to be on TV anyway. Of course, one does not put up someone like Brietbart in a very fancy hotel, etc. for just a webcast.
Not only is ABC News backing away, but it is making sure everyone knows what Andrew Breitbart is not. Andrew Morse of ABC News Digital put out a statement saying, “Mr. Breitbart is not an ABC News analyst. He is not an ABC News consultant. He is not, in any way, affiliated with ABC News. He is not being paid by ABC News. He has not been asked to analyze the results of the election for ABC News.”
So what is he? Surely this cannot be about Shirley Sherrod. Why? Because they are not backing away from Arianna Huffington, a woman whose website reported that black people were resorting to cannibalism after Katrina, who got sued by a lady for accusing the lady of sleeping with President Obama, and whose own husband decided he was gay after years of putting up with Arianna.
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Instapundit
11/1/2010
ANDREW BREITBART BUSTS ABC NEWS FOR LYING. And publishes the email.
Plus, from the comments: “Brahahahha who even watches ABC for news? I mean they have that hack George Stephanopoulos as an ‘unbiased’ news person. My God he was part of that whole Carville Begalla war room of people that just destroyed anyone that even farted in the general direction of Clinton.”
When I heard that ABC was having Andrew on as a commentator, I thought it demonstrated a surprising degree of open-mindedness and courage. Apparently I was wrong, especially about the courage. They’d rather be apparatchiks,practicising “journolistism” instead of journalism, I guess — but what will they do when the apparat isn’t there for them any more?
UPDATE: ABC Owes Viewers Explanation. It’s more of the behavior that has earned them the name of “the insanestream media.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Why what ABC News thinks about Breitbart doesn’t matter that much: Political Blogs Rise As Trusted Sources, Media Watchdogs. (Bumped.)
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If You Can’t Beat Them, Silence Them: Left Blacklists Breitbart, ABC Caves
Lori Ziganto
Big Journalism
11/2/2010
The Left nauseatingly pays lip service to the terms “tolerance” and “diversity.” In reality, they are highly intolerant and they hate diversity, particularly diversity of thought. They hate free markets and really loathe free marketplaces of ideas. As such, the stompy foot temper tantrums were in full force when it was announced that Andrew Breitbart and Dana Loesch, would be participating in ABC’s election night coverage. A coordinated effort between the usual suspects immediately, and predictably, sprung up. How dare ABC include people who won’t merely spout the Left’s talking points and somehow blame George W. Bush and people too stupid to understand the “nuance” of Democrats and their policies? Oh, and racists, natch.
The first usual suspect to start shrieking in typical intolerant lefty fashion was the ever-inane Media Matters. Media Matters, an organization filled with tools so sanctimonious that they give themselves titles like “Senior Fellow.” Dude. You are a blogger. They, of course, offered only ad hominem attacks on Breitbart, like calling him a “propagandist.” Hello, pot! Meet kettle. Cowardly ABC immediately started to spin, by offering Media Matters this wuss statement:
ABC News’ David Ford told Media Matters: “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.”
Because, of course, the liberally biased Politifact would be the one to go to if Andrew Breitbart did something pesky like, you know, tell the truth…
Read the rest at BigJournalism.com
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And here is Andrew Breitbart’s account of events, Email Reveals ABC News Walked Back ‘Bigs’ Publisher Participation in Election Night Coverage:
In response to the announcement that I would provide my analysis on ABC News from Arizona on election night, like-clockwork, from the George Soros-funded Media Matters to Keith Olbermann to Huffington Post to Daily Kos to Talking Points Memo to Twitter (#boycottABCNEWS), the institutional left began on Friday to inundate ABC News with a wave of partisan objections and unfounded allegations against me.
Make no mistake: this is a calculated “astroturf“ intimidation campaign by the well-funded and frightened-for-their-political-lives institutional left to quash dissenting voices. It’s what they do…
