ABC BLOWS CHANCE FOR BALANCED COVERAGE BY MOVING GIBSON TO WORLD NEWS TONIGHT

Alexandria, VAABC News announced today that Charles Gibson, co-anchor of Good Morning America, will become the sole anchor of World News Tonight starting May 29. Current World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas is stepping down to take maternity leave. While Gibson displayed political fairness when he hosted the 2004 town-hall style presidential debate, on Good Morning America and as a fill-in on World News Tonight Gibson has rarely strayed from the media elites liberal template. For example:

• In 2004, after President Bush asked Congress to extend his tax cuts, Gibson confronted then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card with the standard liberal complaint: The President last night called for making the tax cuts permanent. Is that, in a sense, making deficits in the hundreds of billions of dollars permanent?
  

• On Good Morning America, Gibson bent over backwards to promote John McCain during his run against Bush in 2000, hosting him far more than all of his GOP primary rivals combined.
  

• In a June 2, 1999 town meeting, Gibson scolded President Clinton for being timid on gun control. A year later, on the May 12, 2000 Good Morning America, Clinton returned to hear Gibson tell him his efforts weren't sufficient.
  

• Bush is using this term 'compassionate conservative' as he campaigns, which is an interesting juxtaposition of two seemingly contradictory terms, Gibson complained to New York Times columnist William Safire in November 1999.

Charlie Gibson is a reputable journalist from the liberal media, and thats the problem, said MRC President Brent Bozell. ABC had a great chance to bring some political balance to its anchor slot at World News Tonight but chose not to ABC blew it.

For more media analysis of Charles Gibson, complete with audio and video, visit www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2006/cyb20060523.asp#4