It’s Official! Christiane Amanpour To Anchor This Week

by Glynnis MacNicol | 3:46 pm, March 18th, 2010

» 29 comments

David Westin’s Email to the ABC News Staff

I am delighted to announce that Christiane Amanpour will join ABC News as the new anchor of “This Week.” A highly respected journalist recognized around the world for her reporting, she brings to her new position a wealth of experience and knowledge, as well as a deep commitment to bringing news of the world to the American people. She will also appear on all other ABC News programs and platforms to provide international analysis of the important issues of the day. And, she will be anchoring primetime documentaries on international subjects.

Christiane will join us from CNN where, for two decades she has reported from the world’s major conflicts, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans. She has received every major broadcast journalism award. A formidable interviewer, she has sat down in global exclusives with many of the world’s leaders and military chiefs from the Middle East, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan to Africa, Europe and the United States.

More than once over the years we’ve talked with Christiane about her joining us in one position or another. Until now, it wasn’t the right time or the right fit. We are fortunate that this time it worked for Christiane and for us.

With Christiane we have the opportunity to provide our audiences with something different on Sunday mornings. We will continue to provide the best in interviews and analysis about domestic politics and policies. But now we will add to that an international perspective. All of us know how much the international and the domestic have come to affect one another – whether it’s global conflict, terrorism, humanitarian crises, or the economy. And our international reporting has long been a hallmark of ABC News, part of the legacy Peter Jennings left for us. Christiane will bring the international and the domestic together, in the interviews she does and in the roundtable over which she presides. Our audience has come to us for years to see differing points of views expressed in intelligent and compelling ways; now the different points of view will be expanded beyond partisan politics alone.

Christiane will be joining ABC News in August. Until then, Jake Tapper has agreed to become the regular, interim anchor of “This Week.” Ian Cameron will continue as executive producer. All of us owe a debt of gratitude to him and to Jake, Terry Moran, Jonathan Karl, Barbara Walters, Elizabeth Vargas, and Matthew Dowd for taking up the reins of the program during this transition. Thanks to their hard work and dedication we’ve maintained the high standards set by George Stephanopoulos before he left the program for “Good Morning America.”

Please join me in welcoming Christiane to ABC News.

March 18, 2010

To: CNN Staff

From: Jim Walton

I have some news for you about Christiane Amanpour. ABC News will announce today that she is joining that organization to headline one of its programs. You may have seen media speculation concerning this move; out of respect for Christiane, we have reserved comment until now, when we all agree that the time is right to share her plans.

Over the years, Christiane and I have talked about her professional goals and personal interests, and more recently about the excitement of a new opportunity at this point in her career. While I don’t presume to speak for her, as her colleague and friend for more than 25 years I know that this decision has not been an easy one. Since 1990 when Christiane became a CNN international correspondent, she has covered the defining news events of our time. Her work burnished our news brand and gave it authority. In turn, the CNN imprimatur opened doors for her around the world and provided a global platform for the intelligent, courageous, principled reporting that is her signature. CNN and Christiane helped make each other great.

She will depart her CNN International show at the end of April. We’ll announce changes to the CNNI programming schedule in the coming weeks; today is about honoring our friend. For her hard work these many years on behalf of CNN; for going where the story was, wherever in the world that might be; for her passion, character and generosity; and most of all, for her extraordinary journalism, Christiane has our gratitude, respect and sincere best wishes

Pages: 1 2

abc, Christiane Amanpour, CNN, George Stephanopoulos, This Week

same2u

This is a bit anti-climatic. I am just glad it is not Jake Tapper.
The Real Royal King

This is such good, good news. Real fairness, real balance, real depth for national AND international news at long last comes to American television. We are all much better for it.
Olby Sucks

Real terrorist sympathizer…..
MichelleF

Lateral move, from one lib to another
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Jake Tapper should have gotten the job; he’d be the next Tim Russert. Amanpour=New Coke.
MichelleF

I agree finch, I think Jake at least tries to be impartial, which is why I’m guessing S2U doesn’t like him.
Jelperman

A real journalist on ABC?

Olby Sucks, you are one dumb twat.

The next Tim Russert? In that case, I’ll pass. Were it not for congestive heart failure, that gasbag would still be hounding Obama about Louis Farrakhan, and badgering Hillary about her husband’s tallywacker. The man was to journalism what Etch-A-Sketch is to art.
Jelperman

Same2U, I’m just glad they brought in someone from outside The Village.
Caryson

Another leaving the Sinking CNN Ship……..will the last person at CNN turn out the lights!

When they leave MSNBC, nobody wants them!
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

That’s what made Russert great. Obviously, he was a huge, huge liberal (a Moyniham alum), but he went after everybody. Whenever your guy (or gal) was on MTP, you hated Russert. But the next week he did the same thing to the guy (or gal) you hate. I think Tapper is in that same mold. And I think we need A LOT more of that.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Caryson is right. Soon CNN will be run by part-time volunteers–sorta like a charity car wash.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

CNN is cribbing their “transition strategy” for Larry King’s eventual demise from Weekend at Bernie’s.
MichelleF

I agree Finch, Although you knew Russert leaned to the left, since he’s passed I’ve felt that he was kind of the end of an era. There is absoluetly NO impartiality in the MSM media anymore. Thank goodness for the alternate media.
marcus.lewis

@michelleF FNC is still impartial right? they are MSM
MichelleF

Way more than the rest. The problem is the others are SO far left that anything even slightly to the right in comparision seems extreme right. I’d put up FOX’s straight news people up against ANY straight news from any other network. The problem is you libs confuse NEWS shows with OPINION shows. There is a difference.
Puter Boi

I don’t watch the Sunday shows anymore….and I have no dog in this fight, because frankly….I don’t care. That being said I see an iceberg ahead for ABC ‘s ship, “This Week”….

It’s not just ABC….the whole Sunday format is old and tired. Dressing it up isn’t going to change that fact.
StewartIII

NewsBusters: ABC Replaces Clinton Operative with the Wife of a Clinton Operative as Amanpour Gets ‘This Week’
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2010/03/18/abc-replaces-clinton-operative-wife-clinton-operative-amanpour-gets-wee
The Real Royal King

Olby Sucks says:
March 18, 2010 at 4:23 pm

Real terrorist sympathizer…..

—-

Any your support for that particular slander is what, Jeff? I suppose you missed Ms. Amanpour’s expose on women under the Taliban? Lots of terrorist sympathy there. All the Marys in Heaven you are a dimwit!
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

I wouldn’t call her a terrorist sympathizer, but she has seriously misreported on the water-boarding debate. She wrongly claimed that Americans submerged Gitmo detainees in barrels of water with their hands cuffed to the sides of the barrel. That bears no resemblance whatsoever to the water-boarding that the CIA used against a total of 3 terrorist (or, for that matter, the water-boarding that thousands of our own military personnel undergo every year as part of their survival training. Marc Theissen recently did a great job of calling her on that. The video is here:

http://www.anonymousfinch.com/2010/03/15/this-week-with-christine-amanpournew-coke/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Manny-Laureano/562418598 Manny Laureano

I can hardly wait for George Will to tear her a new one. Her cute little British accent will only take her so far. Her clear liberal bias will be on display for all to see.
OxyCon

I guess you have to replace one Democrat party apparatchik with another…especially when it comes to the Lamestream media?

How long do you think it will be before we see Amanpour reporting from Hamas headquarters in the Gaza strip about how evil Israel is?
TylerDurdin

Jake Tapper should have gotten it.

The Real Royal King – she is a terrorist sympathizer.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gordon-Bloyer/537945868 Gordon Bloyer

Amanpour, LOL. This must be a joke. She will be the Katie Couric of This Week. I never miss the weekend talk shows. This dingbat may make me change my mind.
MichelleF

Uh Oh Gordon, I sense you will soon be called a Sexist. Just wanted you to be prepared.
http://www.thecobraslair.com Cobra

AnonymousFinch writes:

“She wrongly claimed that Americans submerged Gitmo detainees in barrels of water with their hands cuffed to the sides of the barrel. That bears no resemblance whatsoever to the water-boarding that the CIA used against a total of 3 terrorist (or, for that matter, the water-boarding that thousands of our own military personnel undergo every year as part of their survival training. Marc Theissen recently did a great job of calling her on that. The video is here:”

And you have access to the CIA interrogation footage to substantiate you claims….oh…I’m sorry. The CIA DESTROYED those videotapes.

“The CIA got rid of 92 videotapes depicting the harsh interrogations and confinement of “high value” al-Qaeda suspects, government lawyers disclosed yesterday, as a long-running criminal probe of the tapes’ destruction inched toward a conclusion that is not expected to result in charges against CIA operations employees, three sources said. “http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030200852.html

The argument that Marc Theissen makes: That since US millitary personnel goes through torture RESISTANCE training, the torture they are trained to resist can’t be construed as torture, is absolutely the most silly argument I’ve ever heard, but let’s play the game, Finch.

Under the S.E.R.E which stands for (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape):

“The first week is classroom instruction on tactics for surviving behind enemy lines and evading capture. Then, during the second portion of the training, students are literally set loose in Fort Bragg’s sprawling woods for up to a week to try to evade instructors hunting them. After the students are captured, they are taken to a fake concentration camp, where they are subjected to mock interrogations and simulated torture for the final week.

A retired Army Ranger who passed the SERE course in 1994 agreed to discuss his experiences in detail…”

“…When soldiers are brought to the mock prison, already sleep-deprived and hungry from a week on the run, they are isolated in rows of small pens too small to fully recline or stand up. They are kept awake for days, moved about with bags on their heads, stripped naked and interrogated using techniques to provoke humiliation and shame….

…Instructors at the SERE school pour water over the hooded prisoners, creating the sensation of suffocation. “If you have ever had a bag on your head and somebody pours water on it,” the Ranger recalled, “it is real hard to breathe.”

Stress positions — a term so often cited in investigations of wartime detainee abuse it has nearly entered common lexicon — are often employed at SERE school. Soldiers are forced into a squatting position with both palms facing up, or an excruciating half crouch with arms extended out straight, called the Iron Man. After a while, “Your legs go numb. Your knees go numb. Your feet tingle,” the Ranger said. “It feels like fire. Eventually, you can’t hold yourself up.”

Mock prisoners at SERE school get kicked and slapped with an open hand. They are forced to “low crawl” through mud and dirt at the fake prison and get constant “PT,” or physical training — exercise — to wear them out. Without access to a bathroom, prisoners urinate and defecate in their clothes.

In addition to sexual humiliation, psychological duress is a big part of the program and comes in a variety of flavors, including an overall assault on a soldier’s values. Mock interrogators desecrated an American flag, stepped on a copy of the Constitution, and “kicked the Bible around,” the Ranger said — an echo of the abuse of the Koran alleged at Guantánamo. Soldiers were ridiculed for their lack of knowledge of the Constitution and U.S. history. “They begin to preach propaganda and attack your institutional base,” the Ranger said. “Everything about SERE school is a mind f—”

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/29/torture

C’mon Finch. Let’s go POINT BY POINT on the S.E.R.E. experience. Let’s see just how far on the plank you’ll walk out on defending the Bush Administration.

–Cobra
wmcneill

Cristiane Amanpour is simply the wrong person for this job as host of This Week. She has the wrong credentials. Her interviews don’t seem to have any substance. Her roundtable looks as exciting as a funeral procession. I don’t think she has the political background to understand what questions she should ask. The is just another bad example where having the right connections and looking good on paper will get you through the door. After that, everything goes to hell. I’m predicting that the people at ABC News will release her in less than twelve months. I miss the days when serious, well educated, politically savvy journalists would host THis Week. Now we have a rich, little princess with some power handlers kicking down doors for her in some sort of elitist action. They got her into This Week. Will someone there please kick her out.
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