George Stephanopoulos - Standing Up For The Truth

young journalists. They're in their twenties. They're all ambitious, passionate, smart kids. They don't have a lot of experience, but they're gonna go out on the campaign trail, basically a zone defense covering the country and cover all these campaigns. We're doing it for the first time for these mid term elections. Because I said it in that clip. I

think our democracies at stake in these midterms. We've never seen anything like it before, and we want to make sure we get it in as real way as we can. It feels like these mid terms are going to be different, and you know, and people often say that I've seen, you know, American news try and drum up interest, but it feels like these are going to this time. This is the first time I think in a mid term election we saw a little bit of a lot of it where the very way we debate and decide elections

is under assault. I mean, you've got of the country who still doesn't believe the last election is over, of the country who is determined, who doesn't accept facts in a in a debate, and you know, our whole system is premised on the ideas both sides can argue out based on a common set of facts. Whoever wins wins and you go on to fight another day. This is different because that has not been settled after the last election.

Let me ask you this as somebody who's been covering the news for so long and somebody who's been involved in campaigns. You've seen the tides shift, You've seen the attitude change. Did you see this coming? Is it new? And if if you did see it coming, what was the moment There's gonna be one moment where you you noticed that something had I can't say I ever saw this coming to this degree. I never believed. I mean I still well up when I think of the capital

under assault. On January six, after an election, our whole system is premised on the idea of a peaceful transfer of power. But the change that started to happen, I am. You make it sound like I'm very old. I guess I am. But when I first worked in camp long time, but it could be at when I first worked in campaigns, we used to footnote are commercials because we were so

concerned about being called out for not telling the truth. Interesting, but what has changed over time is that as each side basically just tries to get out their own voters rather than trying to persuade others, they care less about whether they're called out by the media on telling the truth.

It's interesting you say that because I've noticed on on the news shows you'll be talking to politicians, and back in the day, it felt like a politician was so afraid to to contradict themselves, to be a hypocrite, to have any moment where there was a discrepancy. And now it feels like just having the platform to come on your news show and say something is more important than whether whether or not you will you know what they love. Often you'll have someone come on and you can show

and it can be footnoted. You can go to the Dictionary. You can go to eight thousand reference books and say you're just not telling the truth, and they say, well, you're lying, and they don't care because to the group of voters they're trying to appeal to, calling us out whether we're right or wrong, works for them. So do you do you ever get to a point whereas the news organization you say we can right now? I mean, I will not put anybody on my show who will

not accept the results of the last election. Just they don't come on. Um, well you have and you have newsis coming up all the time. I had an interview with a senator a few weeks back which I still can't leave. And remember how when Hillary Clinton had her emails that were classified, have Trump said locker up? Republicans wanted investigation after investigation. This senator would not even say that Trump having all of those documents in his house

was wrong. Four questions, four times, I would not say it was wrong. So you're in an interesting position. For a long time, America had an agreed idea of what was happening on the news for the most parts, supposed right. Cable news came and then it became, you know, really positive, and you could have it this way, and you could have it that when your facts could almost be Alacotte.

Now you still occupy a position to yeah, but you still occupy this position when most people think of it as Okay, this is the middle, this is but the Overtson window of middle is shifting. How do you not respond? Do you try and do you have to cater to some of these position heres here's what you don't do. I mean, I think there is a risk when you're talking to certain politicians if if you're willing to say what you're saying is not true, and sometimes you have

to risk looking partisan by doing that. But I think we can't bow to that threat. I mean, as long as as I'm confident when I am that we're arguing about facts, undisputable facts, I have no problem saying you're not telling the truth, even if that's going to cause somebody to say, oh, you know, you're just being a political hack. You have to do that. That's what we have to stand up for as journalists, right and wrong, fact not fiction. You um, you are now sending these

journalists as m beds. You know, they on the ground, they're getting information on the ground from these people. What we see even in that clip, and I think the documentary it really gets into it is people say, well, you have fake news. Do you think we're moving towards a world where the news is what you want to hear and then what you do essentially almost falls away. It's it's the great I think it's one of the greatest dangers or democracy faces right now. I think there's

no question about that. You see it right there by different mission, There's going to be certain people who, no matter what the facts are, if I'm saying it, you're a liar, it's fake news. If they're if they're Kennedy is saying he's right, not wrong, and you're right, people just end up going to the places where they know the view that they already have is going to be reinforced, whether or not it's true. Have you found any way to break through on the ground on your show in

any of them to try to do it? With this new show, I think what we're gonna try to do is show the process of these young reporters trying to get the truth, show them doing it in the right way, showing them doing it, we hope with integrity, showing the risks they take, to do it and if I think if people have, if if we have some transparency on the process, I hope that people will trust what they're hearing. Well. I wish you the best of luck. Thank you so much.

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