So Much for ‘Whistleblower’ Coverage at ABC and CBS
Rival networks join forces to punish disclosure.
By James Freeman
Nov. 7, 2019 3:56 pm ET
Co-host Amy Robach on the New York set of ABC’s "Good Morning America" in 2018. PHOTO: LOU ROCCO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In the 50 days since news consumers were told that a federal whistleblower was expressing his disapproval of a presidential phone call, CBS News has aired or published more than 100 stories on President Donald Trump and Ukraine. Counting stories from local affiliates, the number rises above 200. That’s according to the Dow Jones Factiva news archive.
But CBS hasn’t come close to the wall-to-wall coverage offered by rival ABC News. A Factiva search of ABC stories about Mr. Trump and Ukraine yields 687 results for the last 50 days.
More than 300 of the ABC stories specifically include the term “whistleblower”. And roughly all of the stories are derived from the original allegations formulated by the unnamed government employee in consultation with the office of Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.). Mr. Schiff publicly denied that such consultation had occurred but later acknowledged the fact as his falsehood was exposed.
Usually news organizations like ABC and CBS at least pretend to spend their days trying to report previously non-public information. But they recently decided not to report the name of the federal “whistleblower.” Ironically, the entire impeachment case hinges on an assumed political motivation by Mr. Trump for comments on a phone call that were not illegal. Yet by maintaining a blackout on the identity of the “whistleblower,” news outlets are impeding the public’s ability to learn about the possible political motivations of Mr. Trump’s accuser.
Not that the public can’t make a pretty good guess, given this January 2017 tweet from the alleged whistleblower’s lawyer, Mark Zaid:
#coup has started. First of many steps. #rebellion. #impeachment will follow ultimately. #lawyers
And then there’s this Zaid instant classic from July of 2017:
It’s very scary. We will get rid of him, and this country is strong enough to survive even him and his supporters. We have to.
But it seems that the sudden reverence for the imagined Constitutional right of an alleged whistleblower to remain anonymous doesn’t extend to people releasing information from non-Trump organizations like ABC and CBS. In fact these organizations have joined together to punish disclosure and forcefully deter any future whistleblowing within their news divisions.
The New York Post’s Sara Nathan reported this morning:
CBS News has fired a female staffer believed to have had access to the tape of Amy Robach raging against ABC News, Page Six understands.
We reported on Wednesday that ABC News chiefs discovered a former employee could be behind the leak of the damning footage of Robach slamming the network for shelving her interview with Jeffrey Epstein’s “sex slave” Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Sources told Page Six that a former staffer had access to the footage of Robach as she aired her frustrations over a hot mike — and that employee was now believed to be working at CBS.
A TV source told us later on Wednesday that the woman was let go from CBS, after ABC execs alerted the rival network.
ABC sources confirmed to us that they’d informed counterparts at CBS about the staffer “as a courtesy.”
This afternoon the Associated Press also is reporting that CBS has fired the employee. How lovely that two giant news organizations are willing to set aside their competitive differences and extend to each other the “courtesy” of helping to limit disclosure and dissent. And they say civility is dead!
On Wednesday Jeremy Barr noted in the Hollywood Reporter that ABC was making a serious effort to pull the mask off its internal whistleblower:
ABC News on Wednesday confirmed that it is pursuing the “source” of a leaked video that showed anchor Amy Robach expressing frustration with the network for not broadcasting an interview she conducted in 2015 with one of Jeffrey Epstein’s chief accusers.
“We take violations of company policy very seriously, and we’re pursuing all avenues to determine the source of the leak,” the network said in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter.
On Tuesday, the conservative advocacy group Project Veritas published the video... On Wednesday, journalist Yashar Ali
reported that ABC has identified the individual who accessed the Robach video.
And now it seems that CBS, which as far as this column can tell hasn’t been harmed at all by the employee, has fired her on the principle that whistleblowing must not be tolerated—unless it damages people like Mr. Trump.
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