Ministry of truth: ABC anchor regrets remarks

[Khoder bin Hakkin]

[Yes ABC is a nominally private entity (modulo their govt license
and use of spectrum) but note that she was speaking on her own
time.]

Friday October 26 02:16 AM EDT

By Andrew Grossman

NEW YORK (The Hollywood Reporter) --- ABC anchorwoman Carole Simpson on
Thursday said she regretted some
of the remarks she made at an Oct. 16 conference that led to her
two-week suspension from Sunday's "World News
Tonight."

The network took that action in the wake of her speech to the
International Women's Media Foundation in New York
where she revealed various details about the 7-month-old infant who
contracted anthrax and his mother, a producer at
ABC.

Simpson's comments were particularly ill-timed because network
executives had announced the illness only the night
before and were still trying to communicate information to the media and
ABC employees about the situation. In her
speech, Simpson gave away the sex of the child -- a boy -- and revealed
the producer's identity -- she was Simpson's
producer.

Executives were also upset about Simpson telling the conference that
"This Week" co-host Cokie Roberts had received a
suspicious letter postmarked Trenton, N.J., in the Washington bureau,
where Simpson also works.

But the letter proved innocent and it did not come from Trenton, leaving
officials livid that Simpson had bypassed the
network's process for disseminating anthrax information.

In her statement, Simpson said she regretted sharing the erroneous
information, saying: "When any of us in this
profession makes a mistake, it's important to say so." But she made no
mention of her revelations about the mother's
and baby's identities.

ABC News declined to comment, saying it was a personnel matter.

Chris Bury replaced Simpson on Oct. 21. Simpson is due back Nov. 4.

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"Propoganda outlets are military targets" -NATO during FRYwar