VP Debate Moderator's Husband Works at NPR

Timing still unclear on when ABC, presidential debate commission learned of Raddatz’s Obama ties

10/11/2012

Josh Peterson/Daily Caller

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Neither ABC nor the Commissionhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png on Presidential Debates would confirm Thursday to The Daily Caller whether they were aware of Martha Raddatz’s personal ties to President Barack Obama before she was chosen to moderate Thursday night’s vice presidential debate.

An investigation by The Daily Caller revealed Wednesday that Obama attended Raddatz’s 1991 wedding to Julius Genachowski, Obama’s close personal friend from the Harvard Law Review whom he later tapped to chair the Federal Communications Commissionhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png.
The episode is reminiscent of the controversy that erupted when PBS “Washington Week” host Gwen Ifill moderated the 2008 vice presidential debate despite having a book in the works that praised Obama and despite profiling him in glowing terms for Essence magazine.

On Thursday ABC published an equally glowing online profile of Raddatz titled “Getting to Know ABC News VP Debate Moderator Martha Raddatz.” It fails to mention her personal ties to the president.

“I want people to feel. I want people to question,” ABC quotes Raddatz as saying about her journalistic priorities.

Raddatz, now divorced from Genachowski, is married to NPR journalist Tom Gjetlen. NPR’s federal fundinghttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png is a target of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s economic blueprint, a fact highlighted Wednesday by the New York Observer’s Politicker blog.

Neither ABC nor the debate commission responded to TheDC’s requests for comment Wednesday about whether they believed Raddatz’s current marriage posed a conflict of interest similar to the one embodied in her previous marriage to Genachowski.
Panelists on “Morning Joe,” a morning television showhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png on the liberal MSNBC network, unanimously agreed Thursday that the information flowing from TheDC’s investigation was relevant information the public should know — a stark contrast from the debate commission’s response Wednesday through USA Today.

Read more: Unclear when ABC, commission learned of Raddatz's Obama ties | The Daily Caller