Eric Alterman's latest column: Why you should approach this Sunday's "This Week" with caution

[alp227]

Think Again: On TV News, “Right” Makes Right

So ABC News apparently thinks it’s appropriate to invite former political advisor to George W. Bush, Matthew Dowd, to guest host ABC’s “This Week” next week. Dowd found himself on the outs with Bush when he joined ABC in 2007, but he has never denounced the political principles that led him to join the most right-wing administration in American history to begin with. Nor insofar as I am aware, has he demonstrated any particular commitment to the principles of journalism. According to The Huffington Post, he remains a corporate consultant for ABC, and an ABC spokesperson says that Dowd can be depended upon to provide “independent and fair analysis on issues confronting the country...He has tremendous ability to speak to and understand all sides of an issue.”

--snip--

And again, I haven’t seen enough of Dowd’s analyses to make an informed judgment about whether he has dropped a lifetime of political beliefs and can remain neutral—or at least appear to on TV. But it’s been an unfortunate rule of thumb that when right wingers are hired as news analysts, they are hired to propound their beliefs, and when liberals get the nod, they are expected to denude themselves of any previous insight into the way the world works.

Read more: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/03/ta030510.html

Kathleen Sibelius will appear on Meet the Press on Sunday also, so if you can't stand to see a former Bush speechwriter doing interviews, watch NBC on Sunday morning instead of ABC. Thanks.

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. ABC "News" - No longer content with being merely "FAUX Lite"

They have moved on to straight up FAUX clone. :puke:

[annabanana]

2. With any luck, ABC will disappear from my cable line up this week.

(Due to it's fight with Cablevision)

I realized that I NEVER watch it anyway... not ABC... not even for misc sitcoms.

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. Maybe he will bend over backwards to be fair.

Hah! Am I crazy or what?

[KoKo]

7. LOL's ...You are not "Crazy" but just have "misplaced Trust."

It's not unusual.

[chelsea0011]

4. Is Michael Moore doing the NBC news?

[KoKo]

8. You aren't gonna' see MM around those parts unless they can trash him...

and I'm sure they are waiting to catch him with "naked lady" in a "Rest Room." It's what they live for.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Do you think Dowd is getting a try-out as permanent 'This Wk' host?

Hasn't Geoorge Stephanopoulos moved on to Good Morning America?

[northernlights]

6. happily thanks to dtv I don't get abc

or nbc. I sometimes get PBS from Bangor. And I sometimes get CBS also out of Bangor, just enough to catch an occasional weather report and Big Bang Theory.