WashPost TV critic smears ABC's Amanpour as possible terrorist sympathizer

[babylonsister]

:wow: I wonder if abc will do the right thing and condemn Shales or ignore him?


http://mediamatters.org/blog/201008020006

WashPost TV critic smears ABC's Amanpour as possible terrorist sympathizer

August 02, 2010 8:27 am ET by Eric Boehlert


This is really just beyond the pale.

Everyone knows that Post critic Tom Shales can't stand Christiane Amanpour and has what is now officially a creepy obsession with belittling her work. Shales began his rather unsightly campaign back in March when ABC announced Amanpour would be taking over as host of ABC's This Week on Sundays. (Shales objected to the Amanpour choice because conservatives objected. Or something.)

So naturally when Amanpour made her debut this weekend, Shales panned her work. (She's too foreign!) And yes, he did it in weirdly personal and catty way, referring to Amanpour as a "globe-trotting Fancy-Pants."

But this slight from Shales' critique was particularly hateful, uncalled for, and completely unprofessional {emphasis added}:

Perhaps in keeping with the newly globalized program, the commendable "In Memoriam" segment ended with a tribute not to American men and women who died in combat during the preceding week but rather, said Amanpour in her narration, in remembrance of "all of those who died in war" in that period. Did she mean suggest that our mourning extend to members of the Taliban?

Are you kidding me? Shales really suggested that on her network debut, Amanpour gave a shout-out to members of the Taliban who died in combat last week? What is wrong with this man and when will Shales have the decency to extend an apology to Amanpour?

Here's the full clip of Amanpour's "In Memoriam" segment. Shales must have been the only viewer on the planet who thought Amanpour was honoring fallen terrorists on ABC yesterday.

Video at link~

[Lost4words]

1. the Washington Post glorified fish wrapper!

former 25 year subscriber!

[otohara]

2. What An ASShole

hard to believe this is the Washington Post we're talking about. I'd expect this from the Washington Times

[zipplewrath]

3. I caught that

I suspected personally that she wasn't making reference to the Taliban, but possibly to the Afghans that are dying.

[ellenfl]

9. maybe we should have shales go to the m.e. and have him

walk in amanpour's shoes as a war correspondent. i bet he'd change his tune . . . after he changed his undies.

ellen fl

[niyad]

4. "globe-trotting fancy pants"??? as opposed to any MALE reporters who work the globe, eh?

what a sexist, ignorant jerk. she is an incredibly talented and gifted person, courageous in a way that shales could never be, and I guess that makes him feel just how completely inadequate he is.

[walldude]

12. How do you get sexist out of that? What I get is

she is a real journalist who goes out and uncovers the truth while he sits in his air conditioned office writing pablum that will be read by politicians getting their manicures. He's jealous and he can spot a real journalist a mile away because he embodies the fake journalist. However I saw nothing sexist in that comment.

[niyad]

13. you didn't, but I did-- has he EVER attacked a male reporter in that fashion?

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

5. At least he didn't call her a "war slut"

Oct2001

<snip>
Rupert Murdoch has personally apologized to Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, for a recent column written by New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser, The Observer has learned.

Mr. Murdoch's apology was prompted by Ms. Peyser's Sept. 21 column, in which the writer referred to Ms. Amanpour as a "CNN war slut."

That line-as well as another passage in which Ms. Peyser accused Ms. Amanpour of bias and wondered what the reporter's "Jewish in-laws think"-outraged friends and colleagues of the CNN correspondent, who lives in London with her husband, former State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin.

Ms. Amanpour, who was reporting in Pakistan when Ms. Peyser's column appeared, was troubled by it, too. Not long afterward, she expressed her feelings in a letter to Mr. Murdoch.


http://www.observer.com/node/45200

[babylonsister]

6. I hadn't heard that; guess murdoch and his minions don't

like honest, classy, intelligent women journalists. Andrea must have been jealous.

[blogslut]

7. Wow

Seriously, wow.

[EFerrari]

8. I wonder how many readers the WaHo has. Three? Four?

Support independent media and help put Shales out of his misery.

[AspenRose]

10. Good Lord that was offensive.

x(

[WinkyDink]

11. Maybe it's because of who is her husband:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiane_Amanpour