Bozell Rips ABC News for Tapping Clinton Crony to Direct its Already Hostile War Coverage - Press Release - February 21, 2003 - Media Research Center

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Media Research Center President Brent Bozell lambasted ABC News for its decision to put well-known Clinton crony and liberal apologist Rick Kaplan in charge of its war coverage, which has already proven to be hostile toward the U.S.

The man who made CNN into the Clinton News Network will now direct ABCs (anti-) war coverage, Bozell said. Both Peter Jennings and White House correspondent Terry Moran have already undermined ABCs credibility with their continuous, often gratuitous, attacks on President Bush and the war effort. Kaplan will turn ABC News into a nightly picket-line showcase of anti-war liberals with no one to balance them.

Bozell noted that even White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer chided Moran for ABCs biased coverage during a White House press briefing on February 12:

Moran: What is the administrations assessment of the likelihood of the risk that Saddam Hussein with his back up against the wall, with war seeming almost inevitable, will open up his arsenal of germs and chemicals and disperse them to terrorists?

Fleischer: Does this mean that ABC News is acknowledging that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction?

Rick Kaplans Greatest Hits

From 1980 through late 1997, Rick Kaplan worked for ABC News as executive producer of Nightline, Prime Time Live and finally World News Tonight. In the fall of 1997, Kaplan accepted the post of CNN President.

• At CNN, Kaplan attended an insiders-only Gore campaign mock debate.
  
  
• At CNN, Kaplan produced a two-hour special on Clinton's 1996 fundraising scandal. The special was biased in favor of Clinton, as Kaplan instructed CNN staff to "limit their use of the word 'scandal' in reporting on Clinton's campaign fundraising woes."
  
  
• At CNN, Kaplan became a repeat overnight guest in the Lincoln Bedroom.
  
  
• At ABC News, Kaplan spiked World News Tonight stories on the Clinton Whitewater scandal.
  
  
• At ABC News, Kaplan became a Clinton golfing buddy.
  
  
• At ABC News, Kaplan organized a Clinton campaign appearance on the Don Imus Show after the campaign faltered in New York during the 1992 campaign.
  
  
• At ABC News, Kaplan advised the Clinton campaign on media strategy to neutralize the Gennifer Flowers "bimbo eruption" during the 1992 campaign.
  
  
• Kaplan has been quoted as saying those who see liberal bias are "liars."
  
  

Rick Kaplan will now report to ABC News President David Westin and work with Peter Jennings whom the MRC has documented as the most anti-war anchor of the Big Three, Bozell said.

To schedule an interview with Mr. Bozell, or another MRC spokesperson,
contact Katie Wright at (703) 683-5004, ext. 132.