Alfonse D'Amato

The cost of Clinton loyalty

Posted

How deeply can one’s love, loyalty and financial commitment to the Clintons run? Just ask George Stephanopoulos.

We recently learned that Stephanopoulos, ABC News’s chief anchor and network favorite, failed to disclose to viewers or ABC brass that he had donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation over the past few years.

The total is a drop in the bucket for a man who recently signed a five-year, $105 million contract with ABC.

Stephanopoulos’s relationship with the Clintons was never a secret. He was a key advisor to Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, and then served as a senior White House aide. ABC News hired him almost immediately after he left the Clinton White House.

Nonetheless, journalists are supposed to be impartial and independent. Yet Stephanopoulos has now proved that his loyalty has clouded his integrity. He believed that he could apologize and move on after his undeclared Clinton Foundation donations came to light, but he was deeply mistaken. His actions have left media people and the American public scratching their heads.

While ABC claims that Stephanopoulos made an “honest mistake,” people behind the scenes at the network admit that executives are disappointed and angry. You have to wonder, who asked Stephanopoulos to donate to the foundation? Were the donations in exchange for interviews or inside information from the Clinton camp?

On April 26, Stephanopoulos conducted a confrontational interview with Clinton Foundation critic Peter Schweizer. He harshly questioned Schweizer about his findings, and failed to ask key questions whose answers would have bolstered Schweizer’s claims about the foundation’s shady dealings and therefore implicated and embarrassed the Clintons.

Donating to the Clinton Foundation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Stephanopoulos’s long record of loyal service to the Clintons. After hiring him, ABC assured the public that he would not be reporting on politics, but that was never the case.

Page 1 / 2