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You are here: Home / Just don’t tell me how it ends

Just don’t tell me how it ends

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Josh Marshall is right about this:

I hate to say it. But anybody got a guess how long Christiane Amanpour lasts at This Week?

To be clear, I think she was an absolutely inspired choice by the ABC brass. Brilliant. But with this pushback from the right, do they have the stomach?

I’m not sure how this ends: maybe with a heavily edited Breitbart tape, maybe with an Anti-Defamation League attack on her for saying something critical of the Israeli government, maybe ABC will just claim the ratings were no good.

We’ll see, but I’ll be surprised if she’s still on it in 2011.

Update. My gut feeling is that will be ADL/TNR attack that does her in. Here’s Marty Peretz last week:

This, however, is not the case with Christiane Amanpour who was chief cook and bottle washer for CNN for many years…until, that is, she moved to ABC where she does This Week. She knows just what she is talking about and just how she is slanting her reportage on both Israel and the United States in the Middle East. Her strength is her hauteur.

The competence of Americans to judge Middle Eastern issues would increase dramatically if she were suddenly to find herself out of a job.

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    Xero

    If she has to go all David Gregory to stay, she may as well leave.

    ..or Jake Tapper, I know JohnMcC misses ‘him, but gregory is the epitome of vapid sunday host.

  2. 2.

    Chad S

    I think she’ll be around a long time. She’s been criticized by both sides for years and still is around(and being slowly promoted up the food chain).

    I think this criticism of her is a story that dies by the time it gets to the beltway and no one outside of it, except for the inside baseball people(politically speaking) even noticed it.

  3. 3.

    BombIranForChrist

    Yeah, I predict it will be some kind of manufactured wingnut outrage. Her tan will look insufficiently orange, and she is therefore a spawn of Satan. QED.

  4. 4.

    Sloegin

    She’ll have a Nasr moment within 6 months. Even if the goons have to invent one from whole cloth.

  5. 5.

    JGabriel

    Amanpour has a $2 million/year contract, from what I’ve read. Don’t remember the source, unfortunately.

    Assuming that’s correct, I don’t think ABC will be that eager to pull her from This Week. I say she lasts until 2011.

    2012, that’s a different matter. I give her a 50% chance of making it till 2012, but she’ll definitely make it to 2011.

    .

  6. 6.

    Keith

    Hey, at least it’s one less Sunday show we may see John McCain on, so it’s a win so far.

  7. 7.

    r€nato

    It’s tragic that we have all this sophisticated media, news can travel around the world virtually at the speed of light. We ought to be at the dawn of a New Enlightenment.

    Instead, so much of this information technology is used to promote consumerism, peddle disinformation, propaganda and comfortable lies, and spread porn.

    Sadly, the quality of the porn doesn’t quite make up for the first two.

  9. 9.

    Tom

    This is a major problem with the capitalistic system… just like Geico firing their spokesman after he left that rant against the tea party, or South Park not showing the Muhommad South Park — when it comes to controversial decisions, even if they’re only controversial for a limited number of vocal whack jobs, it’s always the best decision to err on the side of caution. There’s no room for principle in the executive board room — unless you think it’ll earn you more money. In instances when a company is trying to reach the broadest audience possible, that’s almost never the case.

  10. 10.

    beltane

    @r€nato: Our technology has evolved faster than we ourselves have. Advanced information technology in the hands of a species that is only a few hundred generations removed from the Stone Age will not give you an enlightenment.

  13. 13.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Christie is going to be around for a long time. She is a bulldog journalist, and a bulldog person, she is not going to put up with the shit from anyone who tries to take her down. They take her on at their peril. I could be proved wrong in the future, but I will guess that anyone who takes on Christie is going to regret it, and soon. And that m-f who is behaving as if she ran over his dog this week. He is so toast.

  15. 15.

    PaulW

    just how many scalps are the Far Right allowed to collect before they get called on their bullshit?

    they go after Rather and Amanpour, but an asshole like Breitbart gets caught being a lying scumbag and he gets a better book deal.

    Breitbart Delendus Est.

  17. 17.

    JGabriel

    r€nato:

    It’s tragic that we have all this sophisticated media …

    … and not enough sophisticated media people to fill it.

    .

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    actually, if Marty and his fellow travellers proceed with their usual spittle-flecked subtlety, it may backfire on them. I imagine when Shales sobered up he was surprised to find himself the object of general scorn (Wolcott has a nice post on this)

  20. 20.

    Mark S.

    This, however, is not the case with Christiane Amanpour who was chief cook and bottle washer for CNN for many years

    Real classy, Marty.

    Seriously, is Peretz that much less crazy (and racist) than Joseph Farah?

  21. 21.

    jimBOB

    The competence of Americans to judge Middle Eastern issues would increase dramatically if Marty Peretz would STFU.

    Before you bury Amanpour, keep in mind that Marty Peretz had an ongoing jihad against Peter Jennings, and never dislodged him. Just because they are loud and single-minded in their assholery doesn’t mean they are always effective.

  23. 23.

    salacious crumb

    these anti-semite labels from the supposed guardians of Israel’s honor is getting stale and its just not that creative anymore, especially since Amanpour’s husband is Jewish. maybe they need to first figure out who is fucking whom..is amanpour doing him or is he doing her? if its the earlier, then she is definitely an anti-semite.

  24. 24.

    horatius

    The competence of Americans to judge Middle Eastern issues would increase dramatically if Marty Peretz choked on five dildoes and a wetsuit.

    Fixed.

  25. 25.

    Kryptik

    Seriously, this is just ridiculous. Assholes tilting at windmills. I mean, how else can you justify that idiot TV critic from the WaPo taking Amanpour’s statement about ‘mourning all who died in the war’ as some super secret shoutout to the Taliban voicing her support for them?

  28. 28.

    beltane

    @salacious crumb: In Marty Peretz’s world, the fact that Amanpour’s husband is Jewish has no bearing on her alleged antisemitism. All it means is that her husband is a self-hating Jew, which is the same as being an antisemite.

  29. 29.

    Chad N Freude

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Shales’s column was repugnant and repellent, but credit where it’s due, he referred to Meet the Press as “the oldest established permanent floating chat game in D.C.” (For those who are not gay enough or old enough to revere classic musical comedy, that’s a punning reference to a song in “Guys and Dolls”. Maybe Shales is planning an updated version called “GOPs and Dullards”.)

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    Kryptik:

    … how else can you justify that idiot TV critic from the WaPo taking Amanpour’s statement about ‘mourning all who died in the war’ as some super secret shoutout to the Taliban voicing her support for them?

    I always thought America was big enough to acknowledge the dead of both sides from any conflict we engaged in.

    Tom Shales’ America is a far smaller, meaner, pettier place than the America where I thought I lived.

    .

  33. 33.

    MikeJ

    @beltane:

    In Marty Peretz’s world, the fact that Amanpour’s husband is Jewish has no bearing on her alleged antisemitism.

    I have to say, some of the best sex I’ve ever had was with a ex-then-re-then-ex-girlfriend I really, really hated at the time. In Marty Peretz’s world, it just proves the case.

  34. 34.

    Shalimar

    @Mark S.: Isn’t Farah the one who debunked the Obama birth certificate story before figuring out how much money he could make off of it? I think that makes Peretz crazier since we know he really believes all the crazy shit he spouts whereas Farah could be doing it to get rich off of his readership.

  35. 35.

    tomvox1

    She’s a Persian woman with an accent who doesn’t toe the Israel First line. AIPAC and their brain dead servants have had their knives drawn for months.

    Also, too: Marty Paretz is an anti-Arab sexist douche bag.

  37. 37.

    daveNYC

    I always thought America was big enough to acknowledge the dead of both sides from any conflict we engaged in.

    When did you ever get that impression? Hell, the only reason we acknowledged the dead Vietnamese is because that’s how we were keeping score.

  39. 39.

    Frank

    We’ll see, but I’ll be surprised if she’s still on it in 2011.

    If her ratings are good, they will keep her. And sometime news, even bad news, is good for a show. I haven’t watched a Sunday morning talk show in years because of their obvious right-wing tilt. Because of the uproar over Amanpour, I will watch her this coming Sunday.

    As someone else stated, if McCain doesn’t like her and won’t ever be a guest on her show, that can only be a good thing.

    By the way, wouldn’t KO, Rachel and Ed have been fired by now if all it took was right-wing whining?

  40. 40.

    KCinDC

    I really don’t understand the hostility toward her. It’s not as if her name is Muslime Amanpour. I mean, I guess Peretz would prefer she were called Jewishe Amanpour, but that doesn’t apply to most of the other right-wing wackos.

  41. 41.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mark S.:

    Seriously, is Peretz that much less crazy (and racist) than Joseph Farah?

    ‘Some say’ that Marty Peretz owes his position at the New Republic to having married the right person. This would make Marty the male version of Sally Quinn.

    The fact that both parties would find this analogy very, very offensive and personally hurtful doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

  42. 42.

    Mark S.

    @burnspbesq:

    That was pretty enjoyable to read, but the part I loved was this:

    Update: Patterico says the foregoing are “reasons that conservatives should not support the Republican party,” not reasons for being embarrassed about being a conservative. Fair enough. I’d accept that as a friendly amendment, but we’re not friends.

    I haven’t kept up on conservative blogger bitch fighting, but that was catty. Rowl!

  44. 44.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Mary Peretz

    The competence of Americans to judge Middle Eastern issues would increase dramatically if she were suddenly to find herself out of a job.

    The competence of Americans to judger Middle Eastern issues would increase dramatically if the doors to the New Republic were nailed shut during working hours and the building was burned to the ground.

  46. 46.

    Karen

    @KCinDC:

    No because if she was Jewishe Amanpour she’d be a self-hating Jew. Haven’t figured out who’s worse in Peretzville.

  47. 47.

    Josh

    Karen, beltane, I think the Peretzes and Foxmen of the world hate Jewish critics of Israel more: their existence really messes up the “If you denounce the Israeli Right, you’re denouncing The Jews” message. Indeed, I have a recollection of a music review in Commentary a few years ago talking about the work Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim did for Palestinian musicians: the critic (Teachout?) wrote, well, this is an awful thing, but you can’t expect Said to behave any differently; Barenboim, on the other hand, is a traitor.

  48. 48.

    Karen

    @Josh:

    Then they’d hate me. I’m Jewish and never went for the Israel is always right line and I have cousins in Tel Aviv. That doesn’t mean the Palestinians are always right either.

    The truth is I believe Likud has been in bed with Hamas for a long time. After all, if there is really peace, their power is gone and that’s not going to happen. Rabin found that out the hard way when a settler assassinated him.

  49. 49.

    bob h

    The Host must display the requisite obsequiousness to Republican guests, and proper awe at George Will’s omnicient intellect.

  50. 50.

    Bulworth

    chief cook and bottle washer for CNN

    Sigh. I’m sure there’s nothing personal, racist, or anti-female about this “insightful” piece of thought.

  51. 51.

    bootsy

    Peretz and Tom Shales are no less gigantic racist clowns than Breitbart. Unfortunately, they get more respect. Respect from people like the editors of the Kaplan (Washington) Post, which unfortunately still counts.

    OT: JStreet has a petition up supporting the building of the Muslim Center in Lower Manhattan. (Somehow they managed to get a supportive quote out of Jeffrey Goldberg. Is he going to be tossed out of the Likud club now?) (Whoops, not sure that petition is still active, because they wanted to get the support sent on this morning)

  52. 52.

    bcinaz

    I wonder how Jake Tapper is feeling about being the “go-to guy” for Wingnuttia, McCain, et al. Not exactly a boost in journalism credibility for the ol’ career.

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