THE REVIEWS ARE IN – AT 8:02 P.M. ET:  We have commented occasionally on the many journalistic inadequacies of Christiane Amanpour, the former chief international correspondent for CNN, citizen of the world, possessor of a refined British accent, professional leftist, apologist for things Islamic, daughter of a guy named Mohammed, and painful bore to those of us who take journalism seriously.

In a recent blunder, one out of many, ABC News hired Amanpour to anchor its "This Week" program, once graced by David Brinkley, helmed for a time by George Stephanopoulos, and recently run by the fine Jake Tapper.  The result has been a complete disaster, as NewsBusters reports:

After manning the helm of ABC’s “This Week” last Sunday for the second time since her August 1 debut, longtime foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour continues to receive decidedly negative reviews...

...Tom Shales, Washington Post style columnist, was one of the many mainstream critics who railed on her debut August 1 performance, calling her “miscast,” “shrill,” and “showy” — descriptions some have criticized as sexist. His sharpest critique, however, was the accusation that Amanpour meant to give her respects to the Taliban during the show’s “In Memoriam” segment. “Perhaps in keeping with the newly globalized program, the commendable ‘In Memoriam’ segment ended with a tribute not to American men and women who died in combat during the preceding week but rather, said Amanpour in her narration, in remembrance of ‘all of those who died in war’ in that period,” he wrote. “Did she mean to suggest that our mourning extend to members of the Taliban?”

Yeah, that's our Christiane, a real international "sophisticate," well above the peasantry and those American hicks who really think that enlarging freedom is a bit better than snuffing it out.  Such ordinary folk.

Viewer commentary after the first two shows that flooded message boards, Twitter, and Facebook, has been similarly negative. “I’ll have to find something else to watch on Sunday morning. I can’t stand to listen to the new host. I also want to know what happened to the ‘round table,’” wrote mlw777888 in the comment section on the show’s webpage. “The table that they have now is as lopsided as the opinions.”

Lopsided?  Is the peasant calling for balance?  What a demeaning concept.

Amanpour has no business being in that chair.  Tapper, who's earned his spurs as a tough, fair political reporter, was just fine.  But he isn't as hot among the wine-and-Brie crowd, which is what a lot of this casting is all about.

August 15, 2010