Mark Halperin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the author and conservative commentator, see Mark Helprin.
Mark Halperin (born 1965) is the ABC News Political Director.
Halperin was born in Bethesda, Maryland, and is a graduate of Walt Whitman High School (1983), and of Harvard University. With brothers David and Gary, he is son of Morton Halperin.
In 1988, Halperin started out as a desk assistant for ABC News and a researcher for World News Tonight. He then worked in the investigative unit of World News Tonight and as a general assignment reporter in Washington. In 1992, he worked full-time as an off-air producer covering Bill Clinton. In 1994, Halperin became a producer with ABC's Special Events unit in New York and later an editorial producer. In 1997, he was named the Political Director for ABC News.
Aside from his editorial duties, Halperin also appears frequently as a correspondent and political analyst for ABC News television and radio programs. He is also the founder and editor of The Note, which appears daily on ABCNews.com. In October of 2006, Halperin, along with John F. Harris, released their the book, The Way to Win: Clinton, Bush, Rove, and How to Take the White House in 2008.
[edit] Bias controversies
In October 2004, in the midst of the U.S. presidential election, Halperin sent a memo to ABC News staff -- made public by Matt Drudge -- directing them not to "reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable." He justified this stance by claiming that both John Kerry and George W. Bush used "distortion" in their campaign, but that Kerry's distortions were not "central to his efforts to win." This was interpreted by many conservatives as an instruction to favor Kerry in ABC News coverage [1], while others felt it was an accurate assessment of the campaign at that point. [2]
In October 2006, however, Halperin appeared on several conservative talk shows to claim that "Old Media" organizations like ABC News favor Democrats. [3] He told conservative commentator Sean Hannity that the last two weeks before the November 2006 midterm elections provided ABC News with "a chance... to prove to conservatives that we understand their grievances." [4]
Many liberal groups interpreted this as a promise to deliberately skew content in an effort to appease conservative critics. [5] [6] [7]
