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ABC News suspended its senior national correspondent, Terry Moran, after he called White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a “world-class hater” in a since-deleted post on X.
“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement. “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards — as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”
Moran’s post went out just after midnight on Sunday. In it, he wrote that Miller is “one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy,” and operates not on “brains” but on “bile.”
“Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred,” Moran wrote. “He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
The post, in which a veteran anchor veered into opinion rather than reportage or analysis of facts, is still seen as a breach of standards by many news organizations, despite the proliferation of opinion-led programs on cable networks such as MSNBC or Fox News Channel. Moran has been called in the past to report on politics, and secured a coveted interview with President Donald Trump in April that won plaudits. His commentary on Miller could be seen as undermining ABC News’ objectivity in coverage of White House matters.
The Disney-backed news unit has already tangled with Trump in recent months. Disney in December agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit Trump filed against ABC News after anchoor George Stephanopoulos erroneously said Trump had been found guilty of rape in a civil sexual abuse judgement brought in a case by writer E. Jean Carroll. Carroll prevailed in the case, though Trump denied wrongdoing.
Moran’s post prompted a response from Miller on X. He wrote Sunday morning, “The most important fact about Terry’s full public meltdown is what it shows about the corporate press in America. For decades, the privileged anchors and reporters narrating and gatekeeping our society have been radicals adopting a journalist’s pose. Terry pulled off his mask.”
Vice President JD Vance also weighed in, writing on X that he knows Miller “quite well,” and that he knows he is “motivated by love of country.” He added that Miller is also motivated by “fear that people like Terry Moran make rules that normal Americans have to follow, but well connected people don’t.”
“It’s why he fought so hard to get President Trump elected and why he works to hard to implement the agenda,” Vance added. “ABC should apologize to Stephen. What Terry posted is disgraceful.”
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