ABC's George Stephaopoulos to Host Clinton Townhall Meeting

If there were any remaining doubts about the bias displayed by ABC News' Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos in the now infamous April 16, 2008 Democratic Presidential Campaign debate, they can now be put to rest.

Two days before the Indiana and NC primaries on May 6, 2008, ABC News will air a town hall meeting for presidential candidate; Hillary Rodham Clinton. The program will be hosted by a close associate of Senator Clinton and former top aide to President Bill Clinton, George Stephanopoulos.  

The April 16th Democratic debate was widely criticized and described by many viewers as shoddy and inferior journalism. The first half of program was considered tabloid and tawdry and lacking journalistic merit.

Stephanopoulos was widely ridiculed because one of the questions he asked Senator Barack Obama was fed to him by right wing Conservative, Sean Hannity. The question about Obama's tangential relationship with Chicago Professor and former 60's anti-war radical Bill Ayers was constructed to  amplify Obama's relationship with Ayers and further the right-wing Conservative smear campaign against the Senator.

The Obama presidential campaign has been plagued by documented efforts by the Clintons, Clinton surrogates and the Republican Party to smear Senator Obama's character and reputation and to redefine his as a sort of Manchurian candidate with ominous and suspicious associates and friends.
George Stephanopoulos's long standing relationship with the Clintons became the focus of criticism following the ABC News debate because of the appearance of a  conflict of interest posed by his involvement in the program and recorded evidence that he had been fed at least one question for Senator Obama by right-wing radio and TV talk host, Sean Hannity.

The question dictated by Sean Hannity to Stephanopoulos follows:

HANNITY: There are two questions that I don’t think anybody has asked Barack Obama, and I don’t know if this is going to be on your list tomorrow. One is – the only time he’s ever been asked about his association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground who on 9/11 of all days in the New York Times was saying "I don’t regret setting bombs. I don’t think we did enough." When asked about it by the Politico, David Axelrod said that they have a friendly relationship, and that they had done a number of speeches together and that they sat on a board together. Is that a question you might ask?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I’m taking notes right now.

HANNITY: September 11, 2001 of all days, there was an article in the New York Times. And there are a number of quotes about Bill Ayers. The Politico had in there the comments from David Axelrod.

Maybe this is ABC's way of demonstrating that it is not biased. But if I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath while waiting for the company to air Senator Obama's next Town Hall meeting.

Read about the The ABC News coverage of Clinton Town Hall meeting on the Drudge Report

UPDATE!

Some question exists about whether ABC News invited all three presidential candidates to participate in the May 4, 2008 Town Hall Meeting following is an excerpt from USA today.

What's up this weekend: Traffic on TV

It's going to be a busy Sunday on TV. Democrat Barack Obama will be grilled by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press for the full hour. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton takes questions from voters and onetime Clinton White House aide George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week. And Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, continuing the Democrats' detente with Fox, will be on Fox News Sunday.

On the campaign trail, Republican John McCain is down all weekend with no public events. Both Democratic candidates are speaking at a party dinner Sunday night in Indianapolis. So is Dean.

Clinton attends three get-out-the-vote events tomorrow in North Carolina, at the Wake Forest College Birthplace Museum in Wake Forest, a park in Gastonia and the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame in Mooresville. She ends the day in Indianapolis at a campaign event with Indiana working-class rocker John Mellencamp. (You may recall, he also sang at an Obama rally in Evansville on April 22).

No word yet on Obama's Saturday schedule.
Posted by Jill Lawrence at 04:54 PM/ET, May 02, 2008 in Looking ahead