In a radio interview back in March, an unabashed George Stephanopoulos said that he's “not pretending” to be an unbiased journalist.
The former senior Clinton advisor and current ABC News chief anchor told actor and radio host Alec Baldwin that spending the first 20 years of his career in politics has helped him put news stories into perspective for his viewers to then “go make up their own minds.”
When asked if he worried whether he could be fair and objective when he made the jump from working in the White House to the anchor's chair, Stephanopoulos said no.
“I didn’t worry about it,” he said. “And I’ll tell you what actually worked for me, and this is probably different for people who grow up and begin their career as journalists…
“I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t have personal opinions; couldn’t pretend that I wasn’t a Democrat… I sort of accepted that.”
He went on, “And then I said, but my job is to analyze things and report on them and tell people with the benefit of my experience—help them put this all into perspective, and then they can go make up their own minds.”
“And by not pretending that I was someone else, it freed me up inside,” Stephanopoulos said.
The ABC News personality discussed how he made a promise to himself when he began his career as a political commentator:
He would not disavow his political beliefs.
“One of the promises I had made myself when I started to be a commentator was, not that I would disavow by any means—I don’t think it was honest—my previous views, but what I owed my audience was to sort of tell them the same kinds of things I would say if this were a meeting inside the White House,” Stephanopoulos said.
He discussed how he differs from other journalists in that he has a certain sense of “empathy and understanding” for politicians and public servants which gives him “a better sense of how things are going to play out.”
“I have been inside those rooms where the decisions are made. And I do tend to believe that most politicians, public servants most of the time are well-motivated, trying to do the best they can according to their vision of what right and wrong is," said Stephanopoulos.
“Having that empathy and understanding gives me a better sense of how things are going to play out,” he reasoned.
But, “I’ll ask tough, direct questions and follow up,” he added.
For George Stephanopoulos's full remarks, listen to the podcast below.
Critics have called into question Stephanopoulos's credibility as a journalist and his relationship with the Clintons as a conflict of interest. His personal views and strong ties to the Clintons are no secret, having made over $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation since 2011.
Stephanopoulos has apologized twice on-air for his failure to publicly disclose his contributions to the Clinton Foundation since the news broke back in May.
In a statement, ABC's star anchor said that he thought his donations were "a matter of public record," but that he "should have taken the extra step" to personally disclose them.
"In hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the Foundation," Stephanopoulos said.
ABC followed suit by calling the incident an "honest mistake."