ABC News Clears the air about Andrew Breitbart’s Participation in their Election Night Coverage

By Chris Ariens 

It didn’t take long, after conservative author, commentator and webtrepreneur Andrew Breitbart announced he would be participating in ABC News’ election night coverage, for the pitchforks to come out.

Keith Olbermann gave ABC News the bronze in ‘World’s Worsts’ last night (video after the jump), the Twittersphere’s been buzzing all day, and the Washington Post now reports ABC News insiders are none too pleased either. “This blindsided a good portion of the team here,” a source emailed WaPo’s Greg Sargent. “And not in a good way.”

Andrew Morse, executive producer of ABC News Digital, was forced to explain Breitbart’s role today. He is a participant in an election night Town Hall to be streamed on ABCNews.com. “There has been considerable consternation and misinformation regarding my decision to ask him to participate,” says Morse, explaining: “Mr. Breitbart is not an ABC News analyst. He is not an ABC News consultant. He is not, in any way, affiliated with ABC News. He is not being paid by ABC News. He has not been asked to analyze the results of the election for ABC News.”

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ABC News has anchor David Muir and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg (big sis to Mark) at the Town Hall at Arizona State University. They will be contributing to ABC News’ TV coverage Tuesday night. Breitbart will not.

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