ABC Spox Calls <em>Daily Caller</em> Story 'Nonsense,' Tucker Carlson Calls Him 'Whiney' and 'Hardboiled'

An egg tossing contest might be in order for The Daily Caller and ABC News. Although we fear the dry cleaning bill could be quite high. Jeffrey Schneider, Senior VP and Spokesman for ABC News who also handles communication for a myriad of programs such as "World News with Diane Sawyer," and "20/20," has one word for The Daily Caller's story on Martha Raddatz' relationship with President Obama over the years. As a matter of fact, it's the same word he uses to describe the publication's attempt to attack ABC Spokesman David Ford: "Nonsense." In a story published early this morning by Daily Caller story by Publisher Neil Patel and Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson, they into great detail about Ford's attempt to discredit Josh Peterson, the reporter who looked into the story on Raddatz, a longtime ABC correspondent and tonight's debate moderator. "When confronted with proof by The Daily Caller months later, ABC made up facts to minimize the appearance of impropriety," they wrote. "A network flack named David Ford sent a statement to sympathetic liberal news outlets attacking Peterson for daring to question Raddatz’s impartiality. In his statement, Ford claimed that Obama’s attendance at the wedding didn’t mean anything, because 'nearly the entire law review attended the wedding.' ...When Peterson pressed Ford for just how many Harvard law students went to Raddatz’s wedding, Ford stopped answering. None of this stopped the Huffington Post, Politico or the Daily Beast from dutifully repeating Ford’s whopper with no questions asked." Schneider sees The Daily Caller story as uncanny timing for tonight's debate. "I think they failed to smear Martha and in lieu of that they're trying to attack David Ford and it's just nonsense," he told FishbowlDC by phone today. When asked to comment on Schneider's remarks, Carlson replied, "It's remarkable how whiney these hardboiled newsmen get when held to their own standards. We didn't try to smear anybody. We just printed a series of verifiable facts we thought our readers had a right to know. That's called journalism." He added, "I'm really struck by how fragile these network people are. It's like they've never been challenged before, and I guess compared to the rest of us they really haven't. But it's also clear they know on some level their business is terminal, overtaken by cable and the internet, and it's just a matter of time before it's just a memory. I guess I might be hysterical too if I worked at ABC."

Fishbowl

ABC Spox Calls Daily Caller Story 'Nonsense,' Tucker Carlson Calls Him 'Whiney' and 'Hardboiled'

Betsy Rothstein

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Betsy Rothstein