Monday, May 18, 2015
Stephanopoulos Made No Mistake - He Paid To Play - Just Like Everyone Else
If you don't think that people are paying to play with the Clinton's then you are simply being foolish. Did you know that NBC paid Chelsea Clinton $26,724 for each minute she was on the air? Astonishingly she did not have one day of experience. Did You know that Hillary was paid by Simon & Schuster $14 Million for a book that immediately tanked and lost money. Did you know that when Hillary was Secretary of State Bill was making an unbelievable windfall on the speaking circuit, in 2012 he made the obscene sum of $106 Million? Bill was taking this money from people that knew full well that Hillary stood a very good chance at being President in 2016. This is not complicated, this is not difficult to understand, there is nothing more here than what meets the eye.............it is called pay to play, graft, payola or a bribe for access or favors.
This is exactly what George Stephanopolous was doing and yet he had the unmitigated gall to hide it from his audience and employer and tell everyone it was an honest mistake. In typical fashion, the mainstream news media is basically covering for one of their own by accepting this false narrative that old George is trying to sell to the public.
ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos has given $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, charitable contributions that he did not publicly disclose while reporting on the Clintons or their nonprofit organization, the On Media blog has learned.
In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Stephanopoulos made $25,000 donations to the 501 nonprofit founded by former President Bill Clinton, the foundation's records show. Stephanopoulos never disclosed this information to viewers, even when interviewing author Peter Schweizer last month about his book "Clinton Cash," which alleges that donations to the foundation may have influenced some of Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state.
In a statement to the On Media blog on Thursday, Stephanopoulos apologized and said that he should have disclosed the donations to ABC News and its viewers.
"I made charitable donations to the Foundation in support of the work they’re doing on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, causes I care about deeply," he said. "I thought that my contributions were a matter of public record. However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the Foundation. I apologize."
Stephanopoulos is the chief anchor and chief political correspondent for ABC News, as well as the co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America" and host of "This Week," its Sunday morning public affairs program. Prior to joining ABC News, he served as communications director and senior adviser for policy and strategy to President Clinton. He also served as communications director on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.
In its own statement on Thursday, ABC News said it was standing behind its star anchor.
"As George has said, he made charitable donations to the Foundation to support a cause he cares about deeply and believed his contributions were a matter of public record," the network's statement read. "He should have taken the extra step to notify us and our viewers during the recent news reports about the Foundation. He’s admitted to an honest mistake and apologized for that omission. We stand behind him."
ABC News later told the On Media blog that it would not take any punitive action against Stephanopoulos: "We accept his apology," a spokesperson said. "It was an honest mistake."
Sources with knowledge of Stephanopoulos' charitable giving said he gives to dozens of charities every year and that the total sum of these annual contributions is in the millions of dollars. Those sources said that the Clinton Foundation contributions represent a very small percentage of the total.
On the April 26 edition of "This Week," Stephanopoulos interviewed Schweizer and challenged the author's assertions that Hillary Clinton may have committed a crime because there was a "troubling pattern" between donations to the foundation and Clinton's actions as secretary of state.
"We've done investigative work here at ABC News, found no proof of any kind of direct action," the host told Schweizer. "An independent government ethics expert, Bill Allison, of the Sunlight Foundation, wrote this. He said, 'There's no smoking gun, no evidence that she changed the policy based on donations to the foundation.' No smoking gun."
Later in the interview, Stephanopoulos said, "I still haven't heard any direct evidence, and you just said you had no evidence that she intervened here." He also noted that other news organizations that used Schweizer's research "haven't confirmed any evidence of any crime."
Among the more notable revelations to come out of Schweizer's research is the relationship between the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One, a former Canadian mining company that was taken over by Russia in 2013 with U.S. government approval. From 2009 through 2013, Uranium One’s chairman donated $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation.
Hillary Clinton has said that there is "not an inherent conflict of interest" between the foundation donations and her decisions at the State Department. Her campaign has consistently dismissed the accusations as partisan attacks.
CORRECTION: ABC News initially stated that George Stephanopoulos had given a total of $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation. In an interview on Thursday afternoon, Stephanopoulos said he actually gave $75,000 over 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Posted by: Various Authors
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