As with any dull, lifeless marriage, it’s probably better that this one ends than that they stay together out of obligation.
I want to try an idea out on you, but really think it over before you say no. Okay?
“This Week with Chelsea Clinton.”
Christiane Amanpour is preparing to leave as the anchor of “This Week,” the Sunday morning news program on ABC, two people with knowledge of her plans said Tuesday…
Rumors about Ms. Amanpour’s status on “This Week” have swirled for months, and were given more oxygen last Sunday when The New York Post said that ABC News executives were “mulling who might replace” her. ABC did not deny the newspaper’s report…
At the time she joined ABC, she said she would “focus on the intractable convergence of domestic and foreign policy.” Arguably her biggest scoop on ABC came last February when she interviewed then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak shortly before he stepped down.
Ms. Amanpour’s tenure on “This Week” coincided with a decline in ABC’s competitive position on Sunday mornings.
Here’s the Post item from Friday alleging that neither side was thrilled with the other and that Amanpour might be angling to go back to the foreign affairs beat at CNN, which makes sense. If you were a journo who’d made your rep in international news, what would you rather be doing these days: Covering Iran’s nuclear progress, Syria’s civil war, and Egypt’s new Islamist government or refereeing ideological slapfights between George Will and Paul Krugman?
Like everyone else in America, I’ve never understood why ABC tapped someone with her resume for a political talk show. The idea, I guess, was to add a foreign-affairs dimension to Sunday morning yakfests, but that’s kind of like hiring a business reporter to anchor SportsCenter. Sure, there’s some subject-matter overlap, but nobody’s watching SC for a panel discussion on revenue sharing or the salary cap. And even if a crisis overseas blows up and dominates the U.S. news cycle, what special insight is Amanpour supposedly bringing to “This Week” by dint of her experience as a correspondent? The Mubarak interview was a nice “get” but (a) it was Barbara Walters, not Amanpour, whom Assad turned to for ABC’s latest big “get,” and (b) if it’s Amanpour’s contacts abroad that are prized by ABC, they should have put her in the field rather than behind a desk in D.C. By making her anchor, they were promising especially penetrating discussions of foreign affairs from week to week. Does anyone think they delivered?
Exit question: Amanpour’s loss is Jake Tapper’s gain, right? He’s delivered for them before, you know.
I want to try an idea out on you, but really think it over before you say no. Okay?
“This Week with Chelsea Clinton.”
Christiane Amanpour is preparing to leave as the anchor of “This Week,” the Sunday morning news program on ABC, two people with knowledge of her plans said Tuesday…
Rumors about Ms. Amanpour’s status on “This Week” have swirled for months, and were given more oxygen last Sunday when The New York Post said that ABC News executives were “mulling who might replace” her. ABC did not deny the newspaper’s report…
At the time she joined ABC, she said she would “focus on the intractable convergence of domestic and foreign policy.” Arguably her biggest scoop on ABC came last February when she interviewed then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak shortly before he stepped down.
Ms. Amanpour’s tenure on “This Week” coincided with a decline in ABC’s competitive position on Sunday mornings.
Here’s the Post item from Friday alleging that neither side was thrilled with the other and that Amanpour might be angling to go back to the foreign affairs beat at CNN, which makes sense. If you were a journo who’d made your rep in international news, what would you rather be doing these days: Covering Iran’s nuclear progress, Syria’s civil war, and Egypt’s new Islamist government or refereeing ideological slapfights between George Will and Paul Krugman?
Like everyone else in America, I’ve never understood why ABC tapped someone with her resume for a political talk show. The idea, I guess, was to add a foreign-affairs dimension to Sunday morning yakfests, but that’s kind of like hiring a business reporter to anchor SportsCenter. Sure, there’s some subject-matter overlap, but nobody’s watching SC for a panel discussion on revenue sharing or the salary cap. And even if a crisis overseas blows up and dominates the U.S. news cycle, what special insight is Amanpour supposedly bringing to “This Week” by dint of her experience as a correspondent? The Mubarak interview was a nice “get” but (a) it was Barbara Walters, not Amanpour, whom Assad turned to for ABC’s latest big “get,” and (b) if it’s Amanpour’s contacts abroad that are prized by ABC, they should have put her in the field rather than behind a desk in D.C. By making her anchor, they were promising especially penetrating discussions of foreign affairs from week to week. Does anyone think they delivered?
Exit question: Amanpour’s loss is Jake Tapper’s gain, right? He’s delivered for them before, you know.
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