ABC Political Analyst Matthew Dowd To Host This Week Sunday

ABC is deploying former Bush strategist and political commentator Matthew Dowd to moderate their Sunday political program This Week this Sunday, which is currently rotating hosts on a weekly basis since the departure of George Stephanopoulos to Good Morning America. With Jake Tapper, Barbara Walters, and Terry Moran among past rotating hosts, Dowd will be the first moderator since Stephanopoulos himself to have a background outside of objective journalism.

Stephanopoulos first jumped from being a key figure in the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign (and later a White House senior adviser during Clinton’s first term) to an ABC news correspondent. It took six years of experience as a journalist for Stephanopoulos to assume the host chair on This Week, however. Dowd’s transformation from senior adviser for the Bush/Cheney reelection campaign to This Week host has taken half the time. Although the campaign was also six years ago, he did not become a political contributor to ABC until 2007.

Despite his partisan history and the fact that Dowd will be the first host with a Republican past, ABC does not seem worried the program will appear unbalanced. He has the advantage of having begun his career as a Democrat and very publicly distancing himself from the Bush administration in its second term, and ABC saying, “Since joining ABC in 2007, Matthew Dowd has provided independent and fair analysis on issues confronting the country. He has tremendous ability to speak to and understand all sides of an issue.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!