ABC News dropped veteran correspondent and anchor Terry Moran on Tuesday after he had posted on social media that President Trump and a senior White House official were "world-class" haters.
"We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision to not renew," the network said in a statement released by a spokesperson. "At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism." (Moran did not respond to NPR's requests for comment.)
Moran had been a foreign correspondent, chief White House correspondent and anchor of Nightline over his nearly three decades at ABC News. At one time, he was considered by executives as a potential evening news anchor in the mold of the late Peter Jennings.
Just six weeks ago, Moran had interviewed Trump, earning acclaim from many of his peers for gently pressing the president over his false claims about a man deported by the administration to El Salvador. Trump, irritated, told Moran in the middle of the exchange that he had "never heard of you."
"You're not being very nice," Trump said, suggesting Moran should not push back given the "big break" he had been given in getting the sit-down interview.
In December, the Walt Disney Co., ABC's corporate parent, agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump as a private citizen last fall over repeated assertions by anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump had been found liable for rape in a civil trial. In fact, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil trial in New York City. (Disney agreed to pay $15 million to a foundation for Trump's eventual presidential library and $1 million for legal fees incurred by his lawyers.)
Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, is in talks to settle another lawsuit filed by Trump as a private citizen over his ire at the editing of a 60 Minutes interview of then Vice President Kamala Harris during last fall's presidential campaign. Corporate officials believe that failing to strike such a deal could provoke federal regulators to hold up a sale of the company valued at $8 billion to the son of tech titan Larry Ellison, a Trump backer.
Historically, for a White House to tie up corporate transactions over personal or ideological pique would be considered a scandal. Trump often advertises the possibility: he threatened Elon Musk's government contracts during their recent falling out.
In Moran's case, White House officials including Vice President JD Vance and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced Moran and called for him to be punished or fired.
Moran took down the post but has not repudiated it.
In his post over the weekend on Musk's social media platform X, Moran said that Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller "is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred."
"[Y]ou can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment," Moran continued.
By contrast, Moran argued, Trump's hatred was "only a means to an end" — "his own glorification."
Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Moran "went on a rampage" and called his remarks "unhinged and unacceptable." She said the White House had asked ABC how it planned to hold Moran accountable.
Even as journalists acknowledged Moran's comments were inappropriate, some also cautioned that administration officials should not dictate actions by news outlets.
Margaret Sullivan, a columnist on politics and media for the left-leaning Guardian US, wrote on Substack that Moran should be suspended but not fired.
Robby Soave, senior editor of the libertarian Reason magazine, called Leavitt's actions "censorship adjacent." He wrote that the White House press secretary is "trying to pressure ABC News to censor Terry Moran over his (admittedly a bit questionable) tweet."
Moran's post and the controversy that subsequently surrounded it took colleagues by surprise. In his time at ABC, Moran was considered careful in his reporting and measured in his analysis. If anything, Moran was thought to be more conservative and more willing to outwardly acknowledge his religious faith than many peers, according to three former colleagues at ABC. (They asked for anonymity to speak given the sensitivity surrounding Moran's ouster by the network.)
ABC did suspend Moran over the weekend but by Tuesday concluded that – despite his 28 years at the network — he could not return.
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