TV Newser reports today that CNN's Christiane Amanpour has accepted the permanent host job for their ABC's Sunday morning news show, This Week. She will take up the position in August, with the execrable Jake Tapper to continue as fill-in shill (shill-in?) in the interim.
What a pleasant surprise to see one of the few remaining real old-fashioned journalists on teevee finally given a prominent Sunday morning spot. It appears that Tim Russert has finally found his successor, on another channel.
(h/t BruinKid for a briefly visible diary which seems to have disappeared.)
Well, according to Politico, she's been offered the job. So, you may start crying like a baby, David Gregory. The race for ratings just got a whole lot more interesting!
Do you get the feeling that Rachel Maddow may become a far more frequent guest of Gregory?
Welcome to Press the Face, a Sunday-morning talk show liveblog where you can respond to the Sunday talks with your opinions, support, refutations, or ravings. The larger goal is to provide meaningful accounts of the the shows for those who are unable to watch them, but it's also an opportunity to share our thoughts in real time as armchair spectators of the sport of political discussion.
This week President Obama continued urging Congress to spring forward to embrace and pass health care reform. Meanwhile, some who didn't get the memo fell back on suggestions that Americans without coverage simply visit the emergency room. While we Yanks fiddle, the world watches and waits. Will the U.S. spring forward to the 20th century and provide a way for all its citizens to have the health care they need? Or will we fall back to the days where only the wealthy can afford the care they need while the middle and working classes struggle to afford even the most basic and usually inadequate coverage? Oh, wait--those days are now. . .
I'd say, if ABC doesn't select Amanpour, they will have made the mistake of the century. A brilliant woman, she has proven time and again that she can carry on a conversation with some of the most important people in the world.
She is like Maddow, in the sense that she listens to an interviewee and responds with intelligent questions, comments or rebuttals.
John Amato brilliantly suggests that Jon Stewart should guest host ABC's "This Week".
If you've ever expended the effort to sign an internet "petition", then you can spend two minutes to 1) Recommend the above-linked diary, and 2) Follow the story on Crooks and Liars which leads you to the link to make the request to This Week on ABC.
In May 1996, a sheepish businessman admitted to a hotel bellhop, "There's a guy in the lobby who was running for president two months ago, and now I've forgotten his name." When the bellhop told him the man was the former Tennessee Governor, the businessman quickly remembered, "that's right, Lamar Alexander."
Now, 14 years after he hung up his trademark red and black flannel shirt as he exited the 1996 Republican presidential primaries, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander suddenly matters again. As his jousting with President Obama at Thursday's White House health care summit and his appearance on ABC's This Week shows, the man who once walked a thousand miles around the Volunteer State is now the face of the all-out Republican opposition to health care reform.
Sometimes I watch the Sunday shows and wonder if anyone can battle the Republicans and come out on top. Weak tea answers abound so frequently that it's really quite exciting when someone we all know and not every one loves, does a bang-up job.
Today the credit goes to Arianna Huffington. Great job of deflecting all that media "conventional wisdom." Her FACTS were winners....not just an emotional appeal to steer people to your side of the argument.
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney went on This Week on Sunday to discuss his views on the Obama administration's use of the civilian justice system (as opposed to the military courts) for the Christmas Day bomber and others. Cheney largely rehashed many of his prior arguments- that accused terrorists should be treated as enemy combatants, that waterboarding is an essential tool, etc.- but he pulled a sleight of hand which seemingly went unnoticed by Jonathan Karl, the interviewer.
Logging onto the Politico home page just now, the top two articles are about former Vice President Dick Cheney. How is it that Cheney has managed to stay in the news?
As you may have heard, Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes made an appearance this weekend on ABC;s This Week. Here's some of the highlights, capturing Ailes calling President Obama a radical, Arianna Huffington calling him out for bailing on coverage of Pres. Obama's debate with House Republicans, and (my personal favorite moment) Paul Krugman telling Ailes, straight to his face, that Fox News had "deliberately" misled its viewers on health care reform.
The voyage of the Senate stooge continues to roll along. Apparently, Senator DeMint had no idea that the Supreme Court Decision rendered this week has opened up the door for multi-national corporations-foreigners or ("furnors" in DeMint speak) to participate/donate to our candidates in elections.
This morning I nearly brought up my breakfast when Former RNC Chairman and Bush Advisor Ed Gillespie, proudly declared on ABC'S This Week that Daily Kos had endorsed Dede Scozzafava. She recently dropped out of the race for New York's 23rd Congressional District seat formerly held by Republican John McHugh, who was lured away by the Obama administration to be Army secretary.
This outrageous statement was made during the Roundtable portion the show and other members of the roundtable were George Will, Dee Dee Myers, Ron Brownstein and Rev. Al Sharpton.
I am a daily reader of Daily Kos and never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that this could be true. Gillespie was aiming to illustrate just how far left Scozzafava was in her stance on social issues. I visited This Week's website and could not find any video of this portion of the show. All posted clips exclude Ed Gillespie. Is this true how could this have happened, and if not what would Gillespie's motive be to lie?
I've never agreed with pretty much anything that George Will agrees with or supports.
Likely due to the fact that he is a staunch conservative and I am a Fighting Liberal.
Still, prior to today, I could listen to his arguements and then afterwards, try and figure out what kind of crazy logical could bring him to his point of view.
The loser of the 2008 Presidential Election, Senator John McCain, demanded President Obama, the man who vanquished him at the polls last November, drop the Public Option from any health care reform efforts during an interview ABC's "This Week".
Via Mediabistro comes the news many of have been expecting when NBC replaced the suddenly deceased Tim Russert with an asshat in a big suit, David Gregory.
For the first time since June 27th, 1999, ABC's "This Week" drew more Total Viewers and A25-54 demo viewers than NBC's "Meet The Press," the longest running show in television history. The ratings win for "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" marks the first time in over ten years that the program scored first in both categories during regular coverage. The closest ABC had come was in August 2007, when "This Week" scored first in the demo, but tied "MTP" in Total Viewers.
Here is the ratings breakdown for Sunday:
ABC "This Week" 2.80M / 980K
NBC "Meet the Press" 2.77M / 910K
CBS "Face the Nation" 2.31M / 650K
FOX "Fox News Sunday" 920K / 350K
ABC News used to be a legitimate news source. Now they book right-wing crackpots like Michelle Malkin, who is to thoughtful analysis as a hammer is to a healer's hands.
If ABC News is nothing more than a promotional outlet for authors of hysterical fringe fiction such as Malkin--she has a new book out, which must be why she's emerged from her tea party outhouse recently--they need to drop the "News" from their name. They are now as credible a news source as "Live! With Regis and Kelly."
So I know that there is a rule against call outs. I have been very hesitant to engage in that particular habit in the past, since one of the things I value about this board is the community. However, some of the things I have seen posted here about Vice President Biden have made me rather annoyed to the point where I feel compelled to write a simple request: lay off.
My favorite comment thus far from our impromptu "pile on Biden" day celebration has been this one. It is fairly representative of the sentiment, and not quite as nasty as many of the other ones that have floated around here.
What to do with Joe Biden You know on shrunken heads, how the lips are sewn together? Just a thought.
