Speaking of Freedom...

Just like something inside always lifts when a bird takes wing, an oppressed breaks free, or a "little guy" takes a step up and beyond those that would be content to hold him back...

So too we cheered here at the news Christiane Amanpour no longer has to cripple herself rubbing elbows with what passes for America's current political class.

Let George Stephanopoulous -- fresh from the morning-tv fluff -- handle that trick. Her skills were surely being wasted there.

That’s why yesterday’s news — that Amanpour is leaving “This Week” for assignments at both ABC and CNN — liberates both her and her fans. In a statement on the move, Amanpour tried to cast her experience as a panel mediator as something transcendent:

It’s been an incredible experience to have had a ringside seat to democracy in action at ‘This Week.’ It’s been an incredible honor to anchor such a prestigious program and I thank all of you who have helped me on that journey.

You can almost hear the strain required to spit out those words, not a single one of which I believe. For Amanpour, an “incredible experience” is to shuffle around in the royal palaces of dictators and feeding back the results of her reporting on camera. For Amanpour, an “incredible experience” is hovering in a Baghdad courtroom to witness the proceedings against Saddam Hussein. Here’s what she reported to a CNN anchor after that moment. Feel the energy!

AMANPOUR: Well, I’ve just raced back from the courtroom to this convention center, where we’re going to get the video distributed. So let me tell you about what we just saw. We saw first of all Saddam Hussein coming from an armored bus — explosive-proof, we were told — a tan-colored bus, very heavily armored.

He was handcuffed; he had a chain around his waist. He was flanked by two Iraqi guards, and there were other guards standing on the stairs as he was coming down from the bus into the courthouse area. He walked in; he was not shackled by the feet.

For Amanpour, an “incredible experience” is to chat on the phone with Yasser Arafat while his compound is getting bombarded, and then getting hung up on by same.

It’s said that Amanpour didn’t really want to join the Washington crowd that feeds “This Week.” It’s said that her insistence on staying in New York was a reflection of such anguish. It’s said that she couldn’t manage to boost the ratings of “This Week.”

Great, great and great. All of that means this star player may move back to her position. Like the time Michael Jordan retired from baseball.

ADDED: That's a very nice description -- MJ too "failed" with the Sox, remember? -- by the WaPo's Eric Wemple.