ABC Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts doesn’t have a problem with peddling falsehoods especially when it’s about race, as her eagerness to give credence to the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax. This explains her eagerness on Wednesday to celebrate the revisionist history peddled by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project having a docu-series premiere on Hulu, which ABC takes part in.
Ahead of the segment, Roberts teased her “conversation with Nikole Hannah Jones, the award-winning investigative reporter behind The 1619 Project, the groundbreaking work now a docu-series and why, she says, it is for everyone.”
“Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-jones is back again with her most ambitious endeavor yet,” Roberts gushed at the top of her report. Soon adding that Hannah-Jones was “[h]osting a new Hulu original docu-series adapted from her landmark The New York Times magazine anthology and best-selling book, The 1619 Project.”
Such praise should be reserved for meaningful and honest assessments of American history. Roberts was gaslighting viewers and ignoring criticism of Hannah-Jones’s “life's work” (as Robert’s put it) from actual history professors and scholars who cover the period Hannah-Jones wrote about and found it lacking facts.
She also didn’t care that The New York Times had to publish an extensive correction (which is now behind a paywall) to Hannah-Jones’s essay after those actual historians came forward. And as The Federalist reported in 2020, The Times stealth-edited The 1619 Project some six months later. (To read NewsBusters’ compendium on what’s wrong with The 1619 Project, click here)
But the facts didn’t mean anything to Roberts, who ended her report by letting Hannah-Jones get the last false word:
ROBERTS: One word to describe, okay, if I say, The 1619 Project is --
HANNAH-JONES: Truth.
Roberts also marveled at the timing of the show’s debut, noting it “[p]remiering at a time when heated debates about how history is taught in our children's schools are erupting across the nation.” “Just last week, the Florida Board of Education made headlines after it rejected the addition of an advanced placement African American studies course,” Roberts clutched her pearls.
As they were ending the segment, Roberts touted the effort Hannah-Jones was putting into trying to get her fictitious book added as required reading in schools. “Nikole has also advocated for her work and similar journalism to be included in school's history curriculums across the country and says those who disagree have not kept her from continuing her work,” she boasted.
Tell us more about how Critical Race Theory is not an influence in schools.
“She didn't hesitate at all on that one word,” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos touted. “I know! She is so thoughtful in how she responds to things,” Roberts added.
This disinformation about The 1619 Project and American history from Robin Roberts was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Hulu and BMW. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Good Morning America
January 25, 2023
8:07:10 a.m. Eastern(…)
ROBIN ROBERTS: Plus, my conversation with Nikole Hannah Jones, the award-winning investigative reporter behind The 1619 Project, the groundbreaking work now a docu-series and why, she says, it is for everyone
(…)
8:16:44 a.m. Eastern
ROBERTS: We going to turn now to my conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-jones, whose The New York Times best-selling book The 1619 Project is about to debut as a docu-series. And just like the book, Nikole says the series is a show for everyone.
[Cuts to video]
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES: I feel excited and I feel anxious. You never know how something will go out into the world but I know how hard we worked on it.
ROBERTS: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-jones is back again with her most ambitious endeavor yet.
HANNAH-JONES: As a woman in my 40s, I am part of the first generation of black Americans in the history of the United States to be born in a society in which black people have full rights and citizenship.
ROBERTS: Hosting a new Hulu original docu-series adapted from her landmark The New York Times magazine anthology and best-selling book, The 1619 Project.
HANNAH-JONES: The very first enslaved Africans were brought here over 400 years ago. Since then, no part of America's story has been untouched by the legacy of slavery.
ROBERTS: You feel that in all aspects of American -- of who we are.
HANNAH-JONES: Yes.
ROBERTS: It can be traced back and has the remnants of slavery? Do you think that's something that people will understand with this series?
HANNAH-JONES: Absolutely, I mean, that is what the series argues, so it's not just a historical documentary, it's actually a documentary about contemporary society.
ROBERTS: Jones traveling across the country sharing the stories of everyday people from all walks of life.
HANNAH-JONES: We follow real-life Americans as, you know, the unionization fight with Amazon workers in Alabama and New York. We follow a black mother who lost one of her twins she was pregnant with because of racism in health care.
[From series] In about 22 weeks, things started to physically change for you.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I'm in pain. I can't walk down a flight of steps or up a flight of steps. I can't walk down a block. And she's aware of all those things and still doesn't make her check me further.
ROBERTS: What resonated with you most?
HANNAH-JONES: What resonated with me most is just the enduring spirit of black people in this country.
ROBERTS: The thought-provoking series also introducing viewers to Jones and her family on a personal level.
HANNAH-JONES: My father, he always flew a flag in our front yard. One thing about dad, he was patriotic.
UNIDENTIFED MAN: He was part of that United States Army. They served their country. But hey, you served your country, don’t mean your country gonna serve you.
ROBERTS: And although the show is told through the lens of black Americans, Jones says this is something for all Americans to watch and reflect on.
HANNAH-JONES: This is the American story. We've tried to segregate these histories, there's black history and then there’s American history. But you can't understand America if you don't understand the role of black Americans, the role of slavery, the role of racism.
ROBERTS: Premiering at a time when heated debates about how history is taught in our children's schools are erupting across the nation. Just last week, the Florida Board of Education made headlines after it rejected the addition of an advanced placement African American studies course.
HANNAH-JONES: This medium of television is democratizing. You can ban what someone can learn in a classroom but you can't stop them from watching this documentary series and getting that information. So, I think it is really coming at a critical time.
ROBERTS: One word to describe, okay, if I say, The 1619 Project is --
HANNAH-JONES: Truth.
[Cuts back to live]
ROBERTS: And from the moment The 1619 Project hit the shelves, it has become Nikole's life's work. She also told me she's truly loving her time now at Howard University where she's teaching classes once a week in her tenured position there. Nikole has also advocated for her work and similar journalism to be included in school's history curriculums across the country and says those who disagree have not kept her from continuing her work.
And she makes it abundantly clear that she wants this to be in addition to, not in replace of what is being taught.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah. She didn't hesitate at all on that one word.
ROBERTS: I know! She is so thoughtful in how she responds to things. But yes, yeah. And The 1619 Project premieres tomorrow on Hulu.
