Brian Elliot Ross (born October 23, 1948)^[1] is an American investigative correspondent for ABC News. He has been with ABC News since July 1994. From 1974 until 1994, Ross was a correspondent for NBC News.

Major scoops[link]

In 1998, Ross broke the story on ABC's Primetime of sweatshops in Saipan, the capital of the Mariana Islands, where the women were forced to have abortions. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was later convicted for fraud, represented some of the owners of the sweatshops. In 2005, Ross reported that Abramoff funded an all expense-paid trip by Tom DeLay to Saipan, to benefit the sweatshop owners.^[2]

On May 15, 2006, Ross reported that the federal government was monitoring journalists' telephone records in an effort to track down leaks. Allegedly, the CIA was tracking reporters from ABC News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. It is unclear exactly how the government was tracking the targeted journalists.^[3]

On May 24, 2006, Ross reported on the lead story for ABC World News Tonight that the Justice Department was investigating Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, for possible connections to the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal. Both the Justice Department and Dennis Hastert issued denials, but Ross insisted the story was correct.^[4] Ross did say that the investigation may eventually "wash out and be nothing".^[5]

On September 6, 2006, Ross reported that Pakistan has decided not to seek the capture of Osama bin Laden, so long as bin Laden acts "like a peaceful citizen."^[6] Pakistan denied the report.^[7]

On September 29, 2006, Ross reported that Florida Rep. Mark Foley (R) sent underage male Congressional aides sexually explicit internet messages.^[8] This led to Foley's resignation from Congress.

Fort Hood shootings coverage[link]

In November 2009, Ross co-wrote an article titled "Officials: Army Told of Hasan's Contacts with al Qaeda" which claimed that Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan had made attempts to "make contact with people associated with al Qaeda".^[9][10] He made the same claims on Good Morning America.^[11] Other reporters said that Nidal's contact was limited to emails to his former imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, who had also been the imam of two of the September 11 terrorists.^[12]

Awards[link]

In 2003, Ross received the George Polk Award given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting.^[13]
In 2007, Ross and the ABC News Investigative Team won a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, for breaking the story of Mark Foley's inappropriate contact with Congressional pages, ultimately changing the course of the election.

Controversy[link]

False Iraq-US anthrax scare reports[link]

Ross has been criticized by Glenn Greenwald and others for a series of stories which linked Iraq and the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States. These reports were based upon anonymous "high level" sources and were both denied by the Administration^[14] and subsequently shown by other reports to be false.^{[citation needed]} It is claimed that Ross unwittingly helped build support for the invasion of Iraq via his high profile erroneous reporting.^[15][16] Dan Froomkin asked on August 5, 2008 in the Washington Post^[17] "So who told ABC the powder looked Iraqi?"

The NY Sun reported that Ross was ordered by a federal judge to reveal his sources.^[18] In response, an ABC News spokesperson said that the organization was going to protect its sources.

Exposé on Toyota[link]

In a broadcast entitled "Expert: Electronic Design Flaw Linked to Runaway Toyotas" which aired the night before a Congressional Panel began investigating the issue of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, Ross claimed that the problem was caused by a defect in the electronic system. Toyota pointed out that the expert used by Ross was paid by the defense attorneys, and the video footage by Ross showing a tachometer shooting from 1,000 to 6,200 RPM was staged because the vehicle was actually sitting in a parking lot with the transmission firmly in Park. Toyota has demanded a public retraction and formal apology from Ross and ABC News.^[19][20][21]

Bachmann presidential campaign incident[link]

On July 19, 2011, according to the presidential campaign of Michele Bachmann, when attempting to question Bachmann about her migraines, Ross "rushed toward" Bachmann and her staff and "disregarded repeated requests to stay back".^[22] According to Michael Crowley, a reporter for Time who witnessed the resulting intervention by Bachmann staffers, the staffers "pounced on [Ross], grabbing and pushing him multiple times with what looked [...] like unusual force. In fact, [Crowley had] never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event, especially not a presidential one." Ross said he'd only been treated like that before "mostly by Mafia people."^[23][24]

References[link]

1. ^ Brian Ross Biography (1948–)
2. ^ "DeLay's Lavish Island Getaway". ABC News. April 6, 2005. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=647725&page=1. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
3. ^ Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report: (May 15, 2006). "Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling". ABC News. http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/federal_source_.html. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
4. ^ "Hastert Fights Back Against ABC News Report". ABC News. May 25, 2006. http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2005233&page=1. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
5. ^ Kurtz, Howard (May 26, 2006). "Hastert, Justice Dept. Dispute Inquiry Story". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501796.html. Retrieved April 26, 2010. 
6. ^ Brian Ross Reports: (September 6, 2006). "Pakistan Gives Bin Laden Free Pass". ABC News. http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/pakistan_gives_.html. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
7. ^ Brian Ross Reports: (September 6, 2006). "Pakistan Denies Bin Laden Gets a Pass". ABC News. http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/pakistan_denies.html. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
8. ^ Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Maddy Sauer Report: (September 29, 2006). "Exclusive: The Sexually Explicit Internet Messages That Led to Fla. Rep. Foley's Resignation – The Blotter". ABC News. http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/exclusive_the_s.html. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
9. ^ "How ABC News' Brian Ross Cooked His 'Hasan Contacted Al Qaeda' Scoop". Gawker.com. November 10, 2009. http://gawker.com/5401562/how-abc-news-brian-ross-cooked-his-hasan-contacted-al-qaeda-scoop. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
10. ^ "Fort Hood Shooter Tried to Contact al Qaeda Terrorists, Officials Say". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=9030873. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
11. ^ "Broadcast Yourself". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J93Ur8vTjHk. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
12. ^ Rucker, Philip; Johnson, Carrie; Nakashima, Ellen (November 10, 2009). "Hasan e-mails to Islamic cleric did not result in FBI inquiry". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/09/AR2009110902061.html?sid=ST2009110903704. Retrieved April 26, 2010. 
13. ^ "George Polk Awards for Journalism press release". Long Island University. http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/polk/press/2005.html. Retrieved November 15, 2006. 
14. ^ Anthrax concern grows in D.C.., Seattle Post Intelligencer, Saturday, October 27, 2001
15. ^ "Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News – Glenn Greenwald". Salon. August 1, 2008. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
16. ^ "The unresolved story of ABC News' false Saddam-anthrax reports – Glenn Greenwald". Salon. April 9, 2007. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/09/abc_anthrax/index.html. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
17. ^ Froomkin, Dan (August 5, 2008). "A White House Forgery Scandal?". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/08/05/BL2008080501703_5.html?hpid=opinionsbox1. Retrieved April 26, 2010. 
18. ^ "Journalist Ross of ABC Ordered To Disclose Sources – September 28, 2007 – The New York Sun". Nysun.com. September 28, 2007. http://www.nysun.com/national/journalist-ross-of-abc-ordered-to-disclose-sources/63572/. Retrieved October 26, 2010. 
19. ^ Toyota Seeks ABC Retraction of ‘Irresponsible’ Report (BusinessWeek)
20. ^ Toyota Demands ABC Retract Report (Wall Street Journal)
21. ^ Toyota Demanding ABC Retract and Apologize for Faulty Report on Unintended Acceleration (FOX News)
22. ^ Kindy, Kimberly (July 19, 2011). The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/afternoon-fix-bachmann-says-headaches-not-an-issue/2011/07/19/gIQAkEhNOI_blog.html#pagebreak. 
23. ^ Time. July 19, 2011. http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/19/reporter-accosted-after-bachmann-comments-on-migraines/. 
24. ^ The Washington Post. July 19, 2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/michele-bachmanns-handlers-rough-up-reporter/2011/03/03/gIQA1cFKOI_blog.html. 

External links[link]

• Biography at ABC News
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Brian Ross (journalist) on Charlie Rose
• Brian Ross (journalist) at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Brian Ross (journalist) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Brian Ross (journalist) at the Notable Names Database
• Brian Ross interviewed on Conversations from Penn State
• Brian Ross interview by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! about the forced abortions in the Mariana Islands. (January 4, 2006)
• Brian Ross breaks United States Department of Justice Grants Scandal

Brian Ross may refer to:

• Brian Ross (racing driver) (born 1960), race car driver
• Brian Ross (journalist) (born 1948), American investigative correspondent for ABC News
• Brian Ross, vocalist for heavy metal bands Blitzkrieg and Satan
• Brian Ross (singer), member of wizard rock band Draco and the Malfoys

This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Scott Lee Peterson
Born	(1972-10-24) October 24, 1972 (age 39) Beverly Hills, California
Conviction(s)	First degree murder in the death of Laci; second degree murder in the death of Conner
Penalty	Death sentence
Status	Incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison
Spouse	Laci Peterson (1975–2002) (m. 1997–2002) «start: (1997)–end+1: (2003)»"Marriage: Laci Peterson (1975–2002) to Scott Peterson" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Scott_Peterson)
Parents	Jacqueline Helen Latham and Lee Arthur Peterson

Scott Lee Peterson (born October 24, 1972) is an American murderer convicted of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn son in Modesto, California, in 2002. Peterson's arrest and subsequent trial received significant American news media coverage until 2005, when he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. He remains on death row in San Quentin State Prison while his case is on appeal to the Supreme Court of California. He maintains his innocence.

Early life[link]

Peterson was born in San Diego, California, to Lee Arthur Peterson (born May 9, 1939) and his wife, the former Jacqueline Helen Latham (born September 16, 1943).^[1] Peterson's father worked for a trucking company, and later owned a crate-packaging business. His mother owned a boutique in La Jolla, California, called The Put On.

Peterson attended the University of San Diego High School (now Cathedral Catholic High School) and studied briefly at Arizona State University and Cuesta College before transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he graduated with a B.A. in agricultural business in 1997. He worked in a San Luis Obispo cafe as a waiter while attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, when he met Laci Denise Rocha. The couple married in August 1997.

Disappearance of Laci Peterson[link]

On December 24, 2002, Laci Peterson was reported missing from their Modesto, California home. She was eight months pregnant^[2] with a due date of February 10, 2003, and the couple had planned to name the baby, a boy, Conner Peterson. The exact date and cause of death of Laci was never determined. Peterson initially reported his wife missing on Christmas Eve, and the story quickly attracted nationwide media interest.^[3][4]

Modesto police didn't immediately identify Peterson as a suspect, largely because Laci's family and friends maintained their faith in his innocence during the month following Laci's disappearance.^[5] Eventually police grew more suspicious due to inconsistencies in his story. On January 17, it became known that Peterson had numerous extramarital affairs,^[6] most recently with a massage therapist named Amber Frey. She approached police about Peterson, whom she had just begun to date, after discovering he was actually married to a missing woman. At this point, Laci's family announced that they had withdrawn their support of Peterson. They later said that they were angered not by the affair, but that Peterson had told Frey that he'd "lost" his wife and that he would be spending his first Christmas without his wife—14 days before Laci disappeared. To the Rochas, this meant that Peterson had already planned to kill Laci long before her disappearance.^[7]

Frey became a key witness in the case against Peterson when she agreed to let the police tape their subsequent phone conversations in hopes of getting him to confess.^[8] Despite this, Peterson was not recorded making any confession to Frey.

Frey told the police that two weeks before Laci's disappearance, Peterson had implied to her that he was a widower by saying that he had "lost his wife."^[9] During the trial, the audio recordings of Peterson and Frey's telephone conversations were played, and the transcripts were publicized. Their contents proved to be both revealing and, ultimately, damning to Peterson's character. For example, they revealed that in the days after Laci went missing, Peterson claimed to Amber that he had traveled to Paris to celebrate the holidays, in part with his new companions Pasqual and François. In reality, Peterson made one of these phone calls while attending the New Year's Eve candlelight vigil in Modesto for his missing wife.^[10]

Recovery of body[link]

On April 14, 2003, the remains of a fetus washed ashore from San Francisco Bay in Richmond's Point Isabel Regional Shoreline,^[11] north of the Berkeley Marina, where Peterson had been boating the day of Laci's disappearance. The next day, a partial female torso missing its hands, feet, and head washed ashore in the same area. The body was identified as Laci Peterson, the fetus as Laci's unborn child. Autopsies were performed, but due to decomposition the specific cause of death could not be determined. The medical examiner did note that Laci had suffered some broken ribs (the 5th, 6th, and 9th ribs) prior to her death; these injuries were not caused by the body dragging along the rocks in the bay. Prosecutors theorized that Laci may have been suffocated or strangled ^[12] in the couple's home. The FBI and Modesto Police Department performed forensic searches of the couple's home, Peterson's truck, the tool box in the back of his truck, his warehouse, and his boat. The only piece of forensic evidence identified was a single hair, thought to belong to Laci, found in a pair of pliers from Peterson's boat.^[13]

Arrest[link]

Peterson was arrested on April 18, 2003, in La Jolla, California, in the parking lot of the Torrey Pines Golf Course, where he said he was meeting his father, brother, and Zak O'Regan for a game of golf. At the time of his arrest, Peterson was in possession of the following non-golf specific items:^[14]

His hair and goatee had been dyed blond, although he claimed the lighter hair color was the result of chlorine from swimming in a friend's pool. The pool's owner later testified that, to his knowledge, Peterson had never swum in his pool or made use of his hot tub.^[15]

Trial[link]

Peterson had been represented before his arraignment by veteran criminal defense attorney from Modesto, California, Kirk McAllister. McAllister had met with Peterson before Peterson's arraignment. Peterson told Judge Nancy Ashley when he was arraigned that he could not afford the services of a private attorney.

Chief Deputy Public Defender Kent Faulkner was also one of the attorneys assigned to the case.^[16] Peterson later indicated that he had sufficient funds to hire private attorney Mark Geragos, who had done other high-profile criminal defense work.^[16] A judge moved Peterson's trial from Modesto to Redwood City, California on January 20, 2004, due to increasing hostility toward Peterson in the Modesto area.^[17]

The trial, the People of the State of California v. Scott Peterson, began in June 2004 and was followed closely by the media. The lead prosecutor was Rick Distaso. Geragos led Peterson's defense.

Prosecution witness Amber Frey engaged her own attorney, Gloria Allred, to represent her interests. Allred was not bound by the gag order imposed on everyone else involved in the trial. Although she maintained that her client had no opinion as to whether Peterson was guilty, Allred was openly sympathetic to the prosecution. She appeared frequently on television news programs during the trial.^[18] Allred played a key role in keeping many facts about her client's past from the public eye.^[19]

Peterson's defense lawyers based their case on the lack of direct evidence and played down the significance of circumstantial evidence.^[20] They suggested that the remains of the fetus were that of a full-term infant and theorized that someone else had kidnapped Laci, held her until she gave birth, and then dumped both bodies in the bay. The prosecution's medical experts were able to prove that the baby had never grown to full term and died at the same time as his mother.^[21] Geragos suggested that a Satanic cult kidnapped the pregnant woman.^[22] He also claimed that Peterson was "a cad"^[20] for cheating on his pregnant wife but not a murderer.

One juror was removed early in the trial due to juror misconduct and was replaced, this on a complaint by CourtTV. A videotape showed the juror and Brent Rocha, Laci Peterson's older brother, speaking as they passed one another in the courthouse.^[23] Jury foreman and attorney Gregory Jackson later requested his own removal during jury deliberations, most likely because his fellow jurors wanted to replace him as foreman.^[24] Geragos told reporters that Jackson had mentioned threats he had received when he requested to be removed from the jury.^[25] Jackson was also replaced by an alternate. On November 12 the reconstituted jury convicted Peterson of first-degree murder with special circumstances for killing Laci and second-degree murder for killing the fetus she carried. The penalty phase of the trial began on November 30 and concluded December 13 when, at 1:50 P.M. PST, the twelve-person jury recommended a death sentence for Peterson.

Members of the jury stated in later press appearances that they felt that Peterson's demeanor – specifically, his lack of emotion and the phone calls to Amber Frey in the days following Laci's disappearance – indicated he was guilty. They based their verdict on "hundreds of small 'puzzle pieces' of circumstantial evidence that came out during the trial, from the location of Laci Peterson's body to the myriad lies her husband told after her disappearance." They also decided on the death penalty because they felt Peterson betrayed his responsibility to protect his wife and son.^[26]

Evidence[link]

Peterson changed his appearance and purchased a vehicle using his mother's name in order to avoid recognition by the press. He added two pornographic television channels to his cable service only days after his wife's disappearance;^[27] the prosecution suggested that this meant Peterson knew his wife would not be returning home. He expressed interest in selling the house he had shared with his wife,^[28] and he did sell Laci's Land Rover.^[29]

Testimony for the prosecution included Rick Cheng, a hydrologist with the United States Geological Survey, and an expert witness on tides, particularly of the San Francisco Bay. Cheng admitted during his cross-examination that his findings were "probable, not precise";^[30] tidal systems are sufficiently chaotic, and he was unable to develop an exact model of the bodies' disposal and travel. The prosecution explored an affair by the defendant with Amber Frey, and the contents of their taped telephone calls.^[31]

The defense suggested a prostitute accused of stealing checks from Peterson's mailbox may have murdered Laci, but Modesto police Detective Mike Hermosa did not indicate the prostitute, who stole the checks to trade for drugs with an Asian gang, was ever a suspect in Laci Peterson's disappearance. Prosecutor Dave Harris noted that the checks were stolen after Laci vanished, meaning the woman could not have been involved in her disappearance.^[32]

Geragos seemed quite confident that Dr. Charles March could single-handedly exonerate Peterson, by showing that the fetus Laci carried died a week after prosecutors claimed that the fetus died. Under cross-examination, March admitted basing his findings on an anecdote from one of Laci's friends that she had taken a home pregnancy test on June 9, 2002. "Prosecutors pointed out that no medical records relied on the June 9 date and March became flustered and confused on the stand – and even asked a prosecutor to cut him 'some slack' – undermining his credibility."^[33] Summing up this key defense witness, Stan Goldman, a criminal law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles said, "There were moments today that reminded me of Chernobyl."^[34] According to one newspaper account about Dr. March's testimony, "But by the end of his testimony Thursday, legal analysts and jurors closed their notebooks, rolled their eyes, and snickered when they thought no one was looking."^[35]

Motives[link]

The prosecution presented Scott Peterson's affair with Amber Frey and money as a motive for the murder. Prosecutors surmised that Peterson killed his pregnant wife due to increasing debt and a desire to be single again.^[36]

Sentencing[link]

San Quentin State Prison, where Peterson is incarcerated

On March 16, 2005, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi formally sentenced Peterson to death, calling the murder of his wife "cruel, uncaring, heartless, and callous".^[37] The prescribed method of execution was lethal injection. He also denied the defense's request (which was based on evidence of juror misconduct and media influence) for a new trial and ordered Peterson to pay $10,000 toward the cost of Laci Peterson's funeral.

In the early morning hours of March 17, 2005, Peterson arrived at San Quentin State Prison. Peterson was reported not to have slept the night before, being too "jazzed" to sleep, calling some to question his state of mind.^[38][39] Peterson joined other inmates in California's sole death row facility while his case is on automatic appeal to the Supreme Court of California in San Francisco. National Geographic made a documentary on San Quentin prison, with Scott Peterson's admission to the prison being covered in Part Two of the documentary.^[40]

Media portrayals[link]

In 2004, Peterson was played by Dean Cain in The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story.

In 2005, he was portrayed by Nathan Anderson in another TV movie, Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution. Janel Moloney played the part of his lover, Amber Frey.

Further reading[link]

• A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation by Catherine Crier, Cole Thompson (2005) ISBN 0-06-076612-3
• Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson Is Guilty by Anne Bird (2005 Regan Books)
• Dr. Henry Lee's Forensic Files: Five Famous Cases Scott Peterson, Elizabeth Smart, and more... by Henry C. Lee, Jerry Labriola (2006) ISBN 1-59102-409-9
• Presumed Guilty: What the Jury Never Knew About Laci Peterson's Murder and Why Scott Peterson Should Not Be on Death Row by Matt Dalton with Bonnie Hearn Hill. (Atria, 2005) ISBN 0-7432-8695-2 ISBN 978-0743286954
• Stone Cold Guilty The People v. Scott Lee Peterson by Loretta Dillon, (self-published?) ISBN 1-4116-3453-5
• We, the Jury: Deciding the Scott Peterson Case, compilation (2007) ISBN 1-59777-536-3
• I'm Sorry I Lied To You: The Confession of Scott Peterson by Donna Thomas. 3rd Edition (Duj Pepperman Enterprises) ISBN 1-59453-969-3

References[link]

California portal

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2011)

George Stephanopoulos
Stephanopoulos at Tulane University in April 2009.
Born	George Robert Stephanopoulos (1961-02-10) February 10, 1961 (age 51) Fall River, Massachusetts, United States
Ethnicity	Greek
Education	Columbia University (B.A.) Balliol College, Oxford University (M.A)
Occupation	Television journalist political advisor
Years active	1982–present
Salary	$8 million (per year) [1]
Title	Good Morning America Co-Anchor (since 2009) This Week Host (since 2012) ABC News Chief Political Correspondent (since 2005)
Political party	Democratic Party
Religion	Greek Orthodox
Spouse	Alexandra Wentworth
Children	Elliott Anastasia Stephanopoulos[2] Harper Andrea Stephanopoulos[2]
Family	Parents:[2] Nickolitsa Gloria (née Chafos) Stephanopoulos Robert George Stephanopoulos
Website
http://abcnews.go.com/gma/georgestephanopoulos George module at Good Morning America,

George Robert Stephanopoulos (born February 10, 1961) is an American television journalist and a former political advisor.

Stephanopoulos rose to early prominence as a quick-witted communications director for the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign of Bill Clinton^[3], subsequently becoming White House Communications Director then Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy before departing in December 1996. Today he is chief political correspondent for ABC News, co-anchor of ABC News' Good Morning America (GMA), host of ABC's Sunday morning This Week,^[4] and primary substitute for ABC network anchor Diane Sawyer on ABC World News.^[5]

In recent years he has co-hosted ABC News' special live coverage of political events with Sawyer and Charles Gibson and launched an ABCNews.com blog, George's Bottom Line.

Stephanopoulos is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.^[6]

Early life and education[link]

Stephanopoulos was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, to Greek immigrants, Robert George and Nickolitsa ("Nikki") Gloria (née Chafos) Stephanopoulos.

His father is a Greek Orthodox priest and Dean Emeritus of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City^[2], and his mother was for many years director of the national news service of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.^[2] Young George also became a follower of his parents' faith and long considered entering the priesthood himself.

Following some time in Purchase, New York, Stephanopoulos attended suburban Cleveland, Ohio's Orange High School, where he wrestled competitively. In 1982, he received his bachelor of arts degree in political science from Columbia University in New York, where he was a sports broadcaster for WKCR-FM, the university's radio station. Stephanopoulos was the salutatorian of his class and was also awarded a Harry S. Truman Scholarship.^[7]

Stephanopoulos speaking at Virginia Tech in March 2006

Stephanopoulos's father always wanted his son to become a lawyer, if not a priest. Promising him he would attend law school eventually, George took a job as an aide to Cleveland congressman Ed Feighan in Washington, D.C.. Though he rose to Feighan's chief of staff, Stephanopoulos agreed to cede to his father's wishes and attend law school if he succeeded in a second attempt to earn a Rhodes Scholarship after having been rejected for the Rhodes Scholarship during his senior year at Columbia. He earned a M.A. in Theology at Balliol College. He maintains he spent much of his time trying to root his political leanings in the deeper philosophies that he studied there.

Early career[link]

In 1988, Stephanopoulos worked on the Michael Dukakis 1988 U.S. presidential campaign. He has noted that one of his attractions to this campaign was that Dukakis was a Greek-American liberal from Massachusetts.^[8] After this campaign, Stephanopoulos became the "floor man" for Dick Gephardt, U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader; he held this position until he joined the Clinton campaign.

Clinton Administration[link]

Stephanopoulos was, along with David Wilhelm and James Carville, a leading member of Clinton's 1992 U.S. presidential campaign. His role on the campaign is portrayed in the documentary film The War Room (1993).

At the outset of Clinton's presidency, Stephanopoulos served as the de facto press secretary, briefing the press even though Dee Dee Myers was officially the White House Press Secretary. Later, he was moved to Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy, when Myers began personally conducting the briefings (following several verbal missteps by Stephanopoulos) and David Gergen was brought in as the new White House Communications Director. The move was largely viewed as a rebuke to Stephanopoulos's handling of public relations during the first six months of the Clinton administration.

On February 25, 1994, Stephanopoulos and Harold Ickes had a conference call with Roger Altman to discuss the Resolution Trust Corporation's choice of Republican lawyer Jay Stephens to head the Madison Guaranty investigation, that later turned into the Whitewater controversy.^[9]

Stephanopoulos resigned from the Clinton administration shortly after Clinton was re-elected in 1996.^[10]

His memoir, All Too Human: A Political Education (1999), was published after he left the White House during Clinton's second term. It quickly became a number-one bestseller on The New York Times Best Seller list.^[11] In the book, Stephanopoulos spoke of his depression and how his face broke out into hives due to the pressures of conveying the Clinton White House message. Clinton referred to the book in his autobiography, My Life, apologizing for what he felt in retrospect to be excessive demands placed on the young staffer.

Stephanopoulos's book covers his time with Clinton from the day he met him in September 1991 to the day Stephanopoulos left the White House in December 1996, through two presidential campaigns and four years in the White House. Stephanopoulos describes Clinton in the book as a "complicated man responding to the pressures and pleasures of public life in ways I found both awesome and appalling."^[12]

Real Estate Loan Controversy[link]

In 1994, columnist Jack Anderson reported that Stephanopoulos sealed an $835,000 commercial real estate deal consisting of a two-story apartment including an eyeware retailer with a below-market loan rate from a bank owned by Hugh McColl who had been called by President Clinton "the most enlightened banker in America." A NationsBank commercial loan officer said that this loan did "not fit our product matrix" as banks typically only offer such loans for customers with deep pockets and on a short-term adjustable rate basis. Stephanopoulos' real estate agent explained that "nobody making $125,000 could qualify for the property without the commercial property (lease)." One former senior bank regulator told Anderson that, "If his name were George Smith, and he didn't work in the White House, this loan wouldn't have gotten made."^[13] Regarding the controversy, NationsBank stated, "The loan described by Jack Anderson as a commercial loan to George Stephanopoulos was, in fact, a residential mortgage loan. At the time the loan commitment was made, Mr. Anderson (or his imaginary 'George Smith' who 'doesn't work in the White House') could have walked into any NationsBanc Mortgage Company office in the DC area and received the same excellent rate and term for the same deal."^[14] However, Stephanopoulos' realtor states that he would not have qualified for the loan without the commercial property rent. One NationsBank source states that the issuance of a residential loan on mixed-use properties is such a rarity that it wasn't even addressed in the "NationsBanc Mortgage Corporation's Program Summary" or its "Credit Policy Manual." A NationsBanc underwriting memo revealed that one of the three restrictions for mixed-use properties is that "the borrower must be the owner of the business entity." The source claims that NationsBanc told the listing agent that, "We're not (interested in mixed-use properties), but we do have an appetite for this particular loan." NationsBank's primary regulator at the time was Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig, a Rhodes scholar who attended Yale Law School will President Clinton, and who had been asked to investigate NationsBank by Democratic congressmen Henry B. Gonzalez and John Dingell.^[15]

ABC News[link]

After leaving the White House at the end of Clinton's first term, Stephanopoulos became a political analyst for ABC News and served as a correspondent on This Week, the Sunday morning public affairs program; World News Tonight, the evening news broadcast; GMA, the morning news program; along with other various special broadcasts.

[edit] This Week host

In September 2002, Stephanopoulos became host of This Week, and ABC News officially named him "Chief Washington Correspondent" in December 2005.^[16] The program's title added the new host's name.

When named to the position, Stephanopoulos was a relative newcomer to the show, usurping longtime panelists and short-term co-hosts Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts who, for a few years, briefly replaced the long-term original host, David Brinkley.

Opinion columnist and part-time ABC News commentator George Will is the only remaining member of the original This Week panel from the Brinkley days to participate consistently in the weekly show; Donaldson and Roberts still appear on the program on a very limited basis. Fareed Zakaria was a weekly panelist during the first two years of Stephanopoulos's tenure, broadening the show with his perspective on world and Middle Eastern issues.

[edit] This Week ratings

ABC News executives reportedly offered Ted Koppel, former Nightline anchor, the This Week host job in 2005 after the program's ratings had become a regular third-, fourth-, and sometimes fifth-place finish after competitors NBC, CBS, Fox and syndicated programs.^[17] However, This Week beat Meet the Press on January 11, 2009, when Stephanopoulos interviewed president-elect Barack Obama.^[18]

In February 2009, the gap between NBC's Meet the Press and its competitors – CBS's Face the Nation and ABC's This Week – began closing. Meet the Press posted its lowest ratings since NBC's David Gregory became moderator in early February, with the show airing Sunday, February 1, averaging just 3.9 million viewers. Face the Nation averaged 3.33 million total viewers, while This Week came in just behind with 3.32 million total viewers.

2008 U.S. presidential debate[link]

On April 16, 2008, Stephanopoulos co-moderated, with Charles Gibson, the twenty-first, and ultimately final, Democratic Party presidential debate between Illinois Senator Barack Obama and New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the 2008 election cycle. While the debate received record ratings, the co-moderators were heavily criticized for focusing most of the first hour of the debate on controversies that occurred during the campaign rather than issues such as the economy and the Iraq War. Stephanopoulos acknowledged the legitimacy of the concerns over the order of the questions,^[19] but said they were issues in the campaign that had not been covered in previous debates.^[20]

[edit] Good Morning America co-host

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen is interviewed by Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos

In December 2009, the ABC News president offered Stephanopoulos Sawyer's job on GMA after Sawyer was named anchor of World News. Stephanopoulos accepted the new position and started on December 14, 2009. Stephanopoulos announced on January 10, 2010, that that would be his last broadcast as the permanent host of This Week. He is now the co-host of Good Morning America. It was announced that he would return as host of This Week in December 2011.

[edit] World News Tonight

Stephanopoulos substitutes for Sawyer on nights when she is away on assignment or unavailable.

On May 1, 2011, Stephanopoulos broke into regular programming at approximately 10:15 p.m. to provide coverage of a special U.S. presidential address, which ended up being that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. He hosted coverage along with Christiane Amanpour, David Muir and Brian Ross through 1:00 a.m.

Criticism[link]

Stephanopoulos was quoted in a January 27, 2009, article "Power, Politics, Gossip on a Daily Call" by John F. Harris in The Politico. The article was about a daily call Stephanopoulos participates in with his friends Carville, Rahm Emanuel, and Paul Begala. Harris describes the call as " a street-corner bull session between four old friends who suddenly find themselves standing once more at the busiest intersection of politics and media in Washington."^[21]

In the article, Stephanopoulos says he does not surrender his reputation as an independent journalist during the daily information-sharing calls. "We are all good friends," Stephanopoulos is quoted as saying. "We just like talking to each other, and I learn a lot from it ... and that's why we have been doing it for so long."^[21]

After the article ran, conservative media critic Brent Bozell and some conservative bloggers launched a campaign against Stephanopoulos: "Will Stephanopoulos be critical of the White House’s plans when he spends every morning helping to craft them? Not likely. He must from this point forward recuse himself from any reporting involving the Obama administration," Bozell said in a press release. Conservatives deluged ABC with emails and calls on the topic.^[22]

The Politico's Ben Smith reported: "I don't think they have the story quite right, nor does its author, John Harris, who emails: 'The calls are certainly a fascinating Washington ritual, but by no means do I think George Stephanopoulos is participating in strategy sessions. To my mind, he established his journalistic bona fides more than a decade ago, even as the Clinton administration was still underway, when he showed his willingness to report aggressively on Democrats as well as Republicans.'"^[22]

Online[link]

During the 2008 presidential election campaign, Stephanopoulos launched a blog George's Bottom Line on the website of ABC News.^[23] Stephanopoulos blogs about political news and analysis from Washington.^[24]

In October 2008, Stephanopoulos began posting updates to Twitter, a social-networking website. He also launched a public profile page on Facebook, another social-networking website.^[25]

In popular culture[link]

Stephanopoulos was the inspiration for the character of Henry Burton in Joe Klein's novel Primary Colors (1996). Burton was subsequently portrayed by Adrian Lester in the 1998 film adaptation.

Michael J. Fox's character, Lewis Rothschild, in the film The American President (1995), written by Aaron Sorkin was modeled after Stephanopoulos. He was also used by Sorkin as the model for Rob Lowe's character, Sam Seaborn, on the television drama series The West Wing. Fox based his portrayal on Stephanopoulos as well.^{[citation needed][clarification needed]} According to Stephanopoulos, his role in the Clinton administration was more like Bradley Whitford's character Josh Lyman than Seaborn or Rothschild.^[26]

In an episode of the first season of the TV series Friends titled The One With George Stephanopoulos, the characters of Monica Geller, Rachel Green and Phoebe Buffay realize that Stephanopoulos is staying in an apartment across the street from theirs and, being attracted to him, they proceed to spy on him throughout most of the night.

Stephanopoulos appeared in the Pawn Stars episode "Buy the Book", where he bought a first edition of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls for $675, after haggling with owner Rick Harrison.

Awards[link]

Stephanopoulos returned to his alma mater, Columbia University, in 2003, serving as the keynote speaker at Columbia College's Class Day.^[27]

In May 2007, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from St. John's University in New York City.

Personal life[link]

He is married to Alexandra Wentworth,^[28] an actress, comedian and writer. The couple have two daughters – Elliott Anastasia Stephanopoulos^[2] and Harper Andrea Stephanopoulos;^[2] the family lives in New York City.

In 1995, after a collision with a parked vehicle as he was pulling out of a parking space in front of a restaurant in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C,^[29] Stephanopoulos was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident and driving with an expired license and license plates. Only the charge of leaving the scene of an accident was subsequently dropped.^{[citation needed]}

Along with a number of other notable Greek Americans, he is a founding member of The Next Generation Initiative, a leadership program aimed at getting students involved in public affairs.

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Journalism portal
	Television portal

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage (New York City). ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
• Stephanopoulos, George (1999). All Too Human – A Political Education. Little, Brown (Boston, Massachusetts). ISBN 978-0-316-92919-6.

External links[link]

• abcnews.com/thisweek, This Week with George Stephanopoulos official website
• blogs.abcnews.com/george, George's Bottom Line, an ABC News blog by Stephanopoulos
• George Stephanopoulos on Twitter
• George Stephanopoulos at the Internet Movie Database

A political hack is a negative term ascribed to a person who is part of the political party apparatus, but whose intentions are more aligned with victory than personal conviction. The term "hired gun" is often used in tandem to further describe the moral bankruptcy of the "hack".

Political hack may also be used by a political opponent in order to erode confidence or credentials of an opponent or his hired campaign help. Often used to demean well credentialed individuals for political purposes.

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