With his credibility in question, it’s entirely possible that ABC could shut their primary political anchor (and longtime Clinton friend) George Stephanopoulos out of covering the 2016 Presidential campaign.
Such a decision, of course, renders ABC’s contract with Stephanopoulos moot.
And such a decision rendering Stephanopoulos’s contract moot would cost ABC a pretty penny. Because it turns out, they were spending upwards of $100 million to boost their political reporting and news credibility with a guy who seems to possess none.
ABC has plenty of reasons to be freaking out over the George Stephanopoulos scandal — 105 million, to be exact.
The “Good Morning America” and “This Week” anchor renewed his contract last year for $105 million, TV industry sources told The Post Monday.
The seven-year deal — which dwarfs the five-year, $50 million contract scored by since-suspended NBC rival Brian Williams — was supposed to keep Stephanopoulos in front of ABC’s cameras through 2021.
Not that anyone’s counting, but this would make the second major prime-time anchor’s downfall in less than six months, the other being the aforementioned Brian Williams, whose ridiculous story about being shot down in Iraq bought him out of his NBC Nightly News contract for at least half a year, maybe more. Between both networks, which are struggling to compete already, with 24/7 cable news programming and entertainment programming on streaming services like Netflix, the two “journalists” they hired to be a part of their resurgence could end up costing them not just money, but any competitive edge.
Rand Paul has already made it clear he will not talk or respond to Stephanopoulos, but fortunately for Stephanopoulos, at least the Democrats still think he’s fair. Neither Bernie Sanders or Martin O’Malley could come up with any reason at all as to why Stephanopoulos should recuse himself from political coverage. I wonder why.