Carole Simpson was a long-time anchor and reporter for ABC News, and is best remembered for anchoring on Sunday nights for a number of years. She's also remembered for moderating the 1992 presidential debate in Richmond, and especially for suggesting with a little bit of vinegar that President Bush, "the education president," should answer an education question first. Her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president in her post-journalism years is utterly unsurprising (it's more surprising she's now claiming it was some kind of slip.)
Roy Sekoff of the Huffington Post was incredibly lame on Hannity & Colmes arguing that if Carole Simpson supports socialist health care, that's not left-wing, because it polls well. That's like claiming that supporting tax cuts isn't conservative, because it polls well. In truth, Simpson has a long record of liberal commentary with little regard for how it would affect her image as an anchor of hard news. Here's a list of her liberal outbursts, starting with the recent Hillary endorsement:
"I endorse you for President of the United States. It’s very freeing now that I’m not a journalist, that I’m able to speak my own mind and free expression, but I just wanted you to know that I had a dream that before I died I would see a woman as president of the United States. I think you are the woman and I think this is the time.” — Former ABC News anchor Carole Simpson endorsing Senator Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, as quoted in MSNBC’s “First Read” daily political blog, October 17, 2007.
“I’m going, ‘Oh, my God, are children going to grow up stupid?’ And I don’t say that to them, but when I hear some of their answers to questions, I’m like, ‘They still think that Saddam Hussein blew up the World Trade Center!’ And I’m telling you, I’ve been to cities [in the] Northeast, South, Midwest, far West, Pacific Northwest, I’ve been all over the country, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, how could they miss this?’ And then I look at the election, and I’m going, ‘Well, of course our kids are not bright about these things because their parents aren’t.’”
– Former World News Tonight/Sunday anchor Carole Simpson, who now travels the country for ABC News to talk to high schoolers about how to consume news, at a National Press Club forum shown on C-SPAN, November 8, 2004.“When you tell me, ‘Let the states decide,’ that scares me, okay? I’ve got a little map here of [the] pre-Civil War [United States], free versus slave states. I wish you could see it in color and large. But if you look at it, the red states are all down in the South, and you have the Nebraska Territories, the New Mexico Territories, and the Kansas Territories. But the Pacific Northwest and California were not slave states. The Northeast was not. It looks like the [Electoral College] map of 2004.”
– Simpson reacting to a comment made by MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan at the same forum a few minutes later.“Tonight former Vice President Al Gore has announced he will not run for President in 2004. The statement puts to rest months of speculation. It is a remarkable decision from the man who won the popular vote in the 2000 election.”
– Carole Simpson on ABC’s World News Tonight, December 15, 2002."In every family there are people and situations you would just as soon keep from others. So, when you express shock and outrage at Bill and Hillary’s brothers’ involvement in the pardon controversy, consider what your own relatives might do if you possessed the power of the presidency."
– Carole Simpson, anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight/Sunday, in her ABCNews.com "On My Mind" commentary, February 24, 2001."What an exhilarating moment it must have been for her – the first First Lady in history to be elected to public office. There, for all the nay-sayers to see, was the woman who had finally come into her own, free at last to be smart, outspoken, independent, and provocative, all qualities she had been forced as First Lady, to ‘hide under a bushel.’ Still she was voted one of America’s most admired women. Just wait. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet." – End of "On My Mind" ABCNews.com commentary by ABC News anchor Carole Simpson, January 7, 2001.
"This was an issue about voting rights. Yet, Justice Thomas voted with the conservative majority. His vote could have changed history. But it was not to be. He is firmly entrenched on the Court’s right....In five major cases involving civil rights and liberties, he voted against minorities every time, including rulings against job discrimination and voting rights. He’s only 52 years old and could conceivably spend another 30 years on the Supreme Court. If, during his tenure, President-elect Bush ends up making a couple of more appointments like Justice Thomas to the Supreme Court, I have heard many women and minorities say, ‘God help us.’"
– ABCNews.com online column by World News Tonight/Sunday anchor Carole Simpson, December 17, 2000."How much better could we spend $60 billion in this country than on an iffy missile shield? How about providing health insurance for the 44 million Americans still not covered? Or helping the elderly pay for their prescription drugs? How many children could be immunized against childhood diseases? Couldn’t it be used to completely reform public education? How many crumbling public schools could be renovated? Could that money find a cure for cancer, heart disease and stroke? Could it be used to build affordable housing? Could it ease poverty and homelessness? Wouldn’t the money go a long way to repairing the infrastructures of our aging Northeastern cities? Proponents of NMD say the system is an insurance policy to safeguard the nation’s security. But like every other form of insurance, if it doesn’t pay the dividend, what good is it?"
-- ABC weekend anchor Carole Simpson in a July 9, 2000 article posted on the abcnews.com Web site.ABC News anchor Carole Simpson to Bill Clinton: "You've got the big plane, you've got the big house, you've got the cars, the protection. Aren't you going to suffer great post-partum depression after you leave office?"....
Simpson to Clinton while inside Arkansas tomato factory: "I have to bask in this moment, for a moment, because I am here talking to the most powerful man on the planet, who was a poor boy from Arkansas..."
Clinton: "A place like this."
Simpson: "Place like this. I am an African-American woman, grew up working class on the south side of Chicago, and this is a pretty special moment for me to be here talking to you. How does it feel talking to me? That I made it, too, when people said I wouldn't be able to?"
--ABC's World News Tonight (Sunday), November 7, 1999.ABC News Washington reporter and anchor Carole Simpson: "I fear that the Contract with America, if enacted, may be detrimental to the family, especially those of single women and their children....But my fear is that Mr. Gingrich, given his history, may increase what I see as a new mean-spiritedness in this country....I would like to think that the American people care about poor people, about sick people, about homeless people, and about poor children. I am shocked by the new mean-spiritedness."Question: "I don't think it's your personal liberal bias that's well-known, but the liberal bias of your network is obvious."
Carole Simpson: "I challenge you to give me examples of that. I disagree wholeheartedly. I think it's again, an example of the mean-spiritedness that is these days also directed at the media."
Question: "Do you think the Democrats have been exhibiting mean-spiritedness towards the Republican efforts at reform? Their intentional misrepresentation of those efforts are consistently presented at face value in the mainstream press...[and] an effort at character assassination of the new congressional leaders."
Simpson: "I disagree totally. I think the coverage of the new Republican leadership has been extremely positive."
-- Carole Simpson in an America Online auditorium session, January 5, 1995."Presiding over the signing of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty is just the latest in a string of foreign policy successes for the President."
-- ABC anchor Carole Simpson, October 23, 1994 World News Sunday."I won't make any pretense that the American Agenda is totally neutral. We do take a position. And I think the public wants us now to take a position. If you give both sides and 'Well, on the one hand this and on the other that'--I think people kind of really want you to help direct their thinking on some issues."
-- ABC News reporter Carole Simpson on CNBC's Equal Time, August 9, 1994."I am shocked when people say that [the media was pro-Clinton], I really am. I mean, people forget January and February, when the media was on Clinton's case with Gennifer Flowers, all the draft stuff. I'm amazed at the public's selective memory."
-- ABC anchor Carole Simpson on C-SPAN, November 10, 1992.Reporter Carole Simpson: "Here we are at 1991 worrying about war, worrying about a recession, four-fifths of the American people think we're on the wrong track. I think this recession comes at the worst time..."
Sam Donaldson: "Well, now does everyone agree with me this is a result of Reaganomics?"
Simpson: "I do."
-- Exchange on This Week with David Brinkley, December 30, 1991.
