The Note (ABC News)

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The Note is a summary and analysis of political news stories and trends published every weekday morning by ABCNews.com.

Begun as an internal staff e-mail by then Political Director Mark Halperin, it was first published on January 14, 2002 and quickly became a must-read daily compendium of political news and analysis for the chattering classes. The Note is now edited by Senior Political Reporter Rick Klein.

Washington Post correspondent Dana Milbank told The Washingtonian, "It's the arbiter of who is on the cutting edge." The New York Times' Adam Nagourney told the New York Sun The Note has a "certain intelligence to it," noting that "it’s often ahead of the news" and "sets out concepts for stories and ways to look at the world."

As of 2006, its online podcast counterpart, AfterNote was frequently hosted by ABC News field producer Teddy Davis.

In April 2007, Halperin left his post as editor of The Note. He was replaced by Rick Klein, who began writing a very different version of The Note starting on May 2nd, 2007. [1] The new Note is divided into several categories, spread across several different pages. It now has several pages dedicated to "must-reads", that is the most important political story of the previous day, several pages dedicated to a "sneak peak", that is, the schedules of major political events in the coming days, and one main original article, all prefaced by the title "The Note:".

[edit] Criticisms

The Note has been criticized for alleged pro-Republican bias. Journalist Eric Boehlert writes that "it never crosses over into actually being edgy. In fact, The Note doesn't mock conventional wisdom so much as idolize it." and says it "is enamored of Republican Party talking points". [2]

The Note has also been criticized for alleged anti-Republican bias. In a memo dated October 8th, 2004, Mark Halperin instructed ABC employees that while both the Kerry campaign and the Bush campaign were guilty of distorting facts, they should be willing to say that distortions coming from the Bush campaign were worse when, in Halperin's estimation, they were. [3]