Election? What Election? George Stephanopoulos Disappears and Politics Stops on ABC
Is there a clause in George Stephanopoulos's contract stating that politics must be ignored if he's not there? On Tuesday, for the second straight day, the former Democratic operative turned journalist was absent from Good Morning America.
Despite March 20th featuring a
critical primary in the Republican race for the White House, a
Stephanopoulos-less GMA allowed just 19 seconds on the topic. (Dancing With the Stars, by contrast, received six minutes.)
The hosts who did show up for work on Monday and Tuesday's GMA also
skipped a new ABC poll finding that "Two-thirds of Americans say the
U.S. Supreme Court should throw out either the individual mandate in
the federal health care law or the law in its entirety."
On the network's website, Greg Holyk explained:
This ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that Americans oppose the law overall by 52-41 percent. And 67 percent believe the high court should either ditch the law or at least the portion that requires nearly all Americans to have coverage.
Usually, when Stephanopoulos is on the show, there will be full
reports, plus interviews with candidates or analysts. On Monday, the
program was similarly light. Fill in-host Dan Harris offered a quick
segment recapping Sunday's Puerto Rico primary.
On Tuesday, the show's only mention of the presidential election came
this way: In a news brief, Harris chided, "...While saying his campaign
is focused on fundamental issues, Santorum said the unemployment rate
does not matter to him. He later seemed to admit that that may have been
a bit of a gaffe, saying once in a while, he needs a do-over."
A transcript of GMA's two political segments (out of a total four hours) from Monday and Tuesday, can be found below:
