Tom Shales v. Christiane Amanpour: Criticizing the Critic

By Chris Ariens 

WaPo media critic Tom Shales is getting it from a few sides today after his review of “This Week with Christiane Amanpour.”

ABC News tells Salon that Shales’ questioning of the wording of the “In Memoriam” segment is “an utterly fabricated controversy.” Here’s what Shales wrote:

…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. Did she mean to suggest that our mourning extend to members of the Taliban?

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Shales also called Amanpour a “globe-trotting Fancy-Pants.” (We’re not sure which is worse, the Taliban-tie or using the term Fancy-Pants.) Shales didn’t much care for the choice of Amanpour to host “This Week” when it was announced in May.

Says ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider, “We scratch our heads at the way in which [Shales] has said some of these things.”

Last night on “Countdown” Keith Olbermann put Shales in “World’s Worst” last night:

“You know what Ms. Amanpour can include in next week’s ‘In Memoriam’ segment? Tom Shales’ career.”


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