Tom Shales = Fail Whale

I'll admit when I first heard that ABC hired Christiane Amanpour from CNN to become the new host of their Sunday bobblehead show, This Week, I was a bit puzzled by the hire. For one thing, I think of her as a foreign policy journalist and for the record, consider her analysis and work in that field rather brilliant. But I just couldn't imagine her presiding over the weekly Villager bitchfest, much less indulging in the vapid discourse there that pretends to be serious analysis on domestic politics. It also seemed a somewhat demoralizing move by ABC when only a few weeks ago they did a major buyout, dumping at least a couple hundred of their long time employees. I was surprised they didn't promote from within the ranks and I thought for sure Jake Tapper had the lock on the job.

However, Tom Shales' hit piece on her demands a response in defense of Christiane's creds. She's smarter, braver and better looking than Shales or most of the potential guests on the program. I feel certain she can hold her own on domestic issues and perhaps she can provide some international context within which to frame them. In any event, the thoroughly unwatchable Shales should look in a mirror before he starts disparaging Christiane's looks or her hairdo. What a jerk.

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