Maybe it was the newsroom backlash … or maybe it was the Twitterstorm … but whatever it was, something has spooked ABC News about its decision to utilize Andrew Breitbart as an election night analyst … or in the new parlance, “non-analyst bystander who may tangentially be related to tonight’s telecast…”
First, the backlash. It goes beyond the Internets, according to Greg Sargent:
It looks like lefty bloggers aren’t the only ones irked by ABC News’s decision to tap Andrew Breitbart for election-night analysis: People in ABC’s newsroom were also caught completely off guard by the news, a newsroom source tells me.
“This blindsided a good portion of the team here,” the source emails. “And not in a good way.”
Cue the walk-back:
Mr. Breitbart is not an ABC News analyst.
He is not an ABC News consultant.
He is not, in any way, affiliated with ABC News.
He is not being paid by ABC News.
He has not been asked to analyze the results of the election for ABC News.
Mr. Breitbart will not be a part of the ABC News broadcast coverage, anchored by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos. For the broadcast coverage, David Muir and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg will contribute reaction and response gathered from the students and faculty of Arizona State University at an ABC News/Facebook town hall.
He has been invited as one of several guests, from a variety of different political persuasions, to engage with a live, studio audience that will be closely following the election results and participating in an online-only discussion and debate to be moderated by David Muir and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg on ABCNews.com and Facebook.
Well somebody needs to tell that to Breitbart. Because he thinks he will be analyzing the results from Arizona. And apparently, their will be TWO Breitbartian “analysts” at work Tuesday night…
In the immortal words of Paddy at the Political Carnival … “haha.” Or as Sargent put it:
Go anywhere near Andrew Breitbart and you’re bound to get burned.
Let that be a lesson to you.
