IS QADDAFI the new Castro? For years, the Cuban dictator was the American media’s favorite tyrant. High-profile television reporters like ABC’s Barbara Walters and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell would travel to Havana and treat Castro to the sort of gauzy profile usually reserved for celebrities like Ben Affleck or Harrison Ford. But now Castro has some competition. Last Sunday, ABC’s “This Week” ran an interview of Muammar Qaddafi where George Stephanopoulos played reportorial softball with the man who has ruled Libya since 1969.

Qaddafi didn’t make for an easy interview subject. He interrupted Stephanopoulos when he didn’t like the questions and laughed in the anchor’s face (twice). But Stephanopoulos took the abuse. What’s more, he avoided asking Qaddafi tough questions. Stephanopoulos never asked about Libya’s abysmal human rights record. He never mentioned that Libya is still on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.