Yellow Journalism

George Stephanopoulos

George Stephanopoulos should be the poster boy for what's wrong with modern journalism today and an additional reason why Christians should keep their backsides out of politics.

Wait a minute. What does George Stephanopoulos have to do with politics? Isn't he a TV journalist employed by ABC who hosts "Good Morning America" and "This Week with George Stephanopoulos"? Rather, Stephanopoulos is a Democratic Party operative who masquerades as a TV journalist. 

How did the Democratic Party manage to get Stephanopoulos onto a major television network? Actually, that's a stupid question since the majority of American journalists today are affiliated with the Democratic Party. That's evident in their journalism that nearly always slants toward the promotion of big government control and away from small government, independence and self reliance.

Stephanopoulos landed his job at ABC because he worked for former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. He served in the Clinton administration as the White House Communications Director and later as a Senior Adviser for Policy and Strategy before he left in 1996. One of his tasks during his employment in the Clinton administration was to destroy Clinton's enemies and political opponents.

Though the diminutive faux journalist officially separated from the Clinton administration nearly 20 years ago, he still serves as a Clinton-Democratic Party operative today. That was evident in his recent interview with author Peter Schweizer that wasn't only bad, but became even worse after the evidence surfaced that Stephanopoulos had donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation. 

Schweizer's book, "Clinton Cash" laid out the dots that highlighted several large donations made to the Clinton Foundation by people who then received political favors. Though Schweizer never claimed to have any direct evidence of wrong-doing on the part of Bill and Hillary Clinton, he used the timeless smoke and fire technique to suggest that the Clintons and their foundation are corrupt and warrant a federal investigation.

Nevertheless, Stephanopoulos skewered Schweizer by suggesting that the author, himself a former Republican operative, had a political agenda to promote and a very active imagination by painting the Clintons in his book as greedy opportunists. Stephanopoulos's hatchet job on Schweizer would probably have worked until the matter of his donation to the Clinton Foundation surfaced.

Naturally, after Stephanopoulos got caught with his pants around his ankles, he apologized. He should've been fired by ABC because his integrity--if he ever even had any--is gone. Only an imbecile would take him seriously now as a fair and unbiased journalist.

What does this have to do with Christians? For too many years, Christians have been relying on the popular culture to carry their water instead of getting out into the world and contending for the faith. But how? By trying to advance the gospel through the media and the ballot box. 

That doesn't work and it seldom ever has. Perhaps the last truly conservative politician who stemmed the tide of godless leftism in America was Ronald Reagan who returned the nation to the conservative principles of self-reliance and smaller government when he was elected to the presidency in the fall of 1980.

But that was 35 years ago. A lot has changed since then, including the culture that has moved well to the left of where it was in 1980. Many Americans now approve of abortion, same-sex marriage and legalized drugs as opposed to 1980 when they condemned such things. Though many folks would attribute the opinion changes to progress, the real reason is because godless secularists such as George Stephanopoulos have used their positions to spread their rotten influence throughout the culture.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul wrote this in his first of two letters to fellow apostle Timothy: "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules." (2 Timothy 2:3-5)

Indeed. The way to change the culture begins on the street and in the trenches where the battle for the soul of America begins. It doesn't occur via the media or the ballot box. Because if you're going to try and promote the gospel that way, you're going to lose every time. 

Remember that political operatives such as George Stephanopoulos aren't the exception to the rule. They are the rule and they're a sad reflection of the culture that produced them. You want to change that? Change the culture the right way. "Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction." (2 Timothy 4:2)