ABC NEWS APOLOGIZES FOR ANOTHER ETHICAL MISSTEP

Admitting an ethical lapse for the second time in a one-month period, ABC News said Wednesday that Elizabeth Vargas should not have interviewed Michael Douglas about his divorce during a segment on Tuesday’s Good Morning America. The Post pointed out that Vargas dated Douglas while he was still married to his wife Diandra. During the segment, Vargas commented, “A lot of people were surprised that 10 years after collecting in one of the most expensive divorces in history, taking $45 million home, that an ex-wife can come back and say: ‘I get to have more.'” On Wednesday an ABC spokesperson said, “It was a mistake. It should have been disclosed [to viewers]. Elizabeth did tell her executive producer she had dated Michael, but he made the decision she should host the segment. George [Stephanopoulos] should have done it.” Just three weeks earlier ABC apologized for presenting clips from a six-year-old British documentary about a man with astounding memory capabilities as if it had just been produced by one of its own 20/20 reporters.