By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 26, 2020 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 26, 2020 |
Longtime ABC journalist David Wright, whose work regularly appears on Nightline, World News Tonight, Good Morning America and 20/20, has been suspended by the network after the Right-wing activist group Project Veritas captured him on camera being … honest and frank about the current state of journalism.
Project Veritas, recall, is the organization founded by James O’Keefe. They basically capture left-leaning people on camera without their permission and “expose them,” often by using deceitful editing or taking quotes completely out of context. With David Wright, however, Project Veritas recorded him telling the truth and framed it as something sinister.
The video is below. Basically, Wright says that the media is less interested in informing voters than it is exploiting them for commercial gain; that the media does not hold Trump to account but also doesn’t credit him when he succeeds; that the media does not speak truth to power well; now that Disney owns ABC, you can’t even watch the news without seeing a Marvel character or a Disney princess.
Wright also said something unspeakable for the mainstream media. He said that he “considers himself a socialist. I think there should be national insurance. I’m totally fine with reining in the corporations. I think there are too many billionaires, and I think there is a wealth gap. That’s a problem.” THAT MONSTER. SUSPEND HIM. THROW THE BOOK AT HIM.
ABC's suspension of David Wright looks ridiculous now that the @JamesOKeefeIII video he got suspended for is out. Wright makes the same critiques of the broadcast news business that you'd hear in any journalism class. https://t.co/VP7y1SNw1J
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) February 26, 2020
So, yeah. It’s ridiculous to suspend David Wright for telling the truth about the state of the media. It’s also ridiculous to fire him for expressing a political opinion while he was unknowingly being filmed.
This is just so disgusting in every way. The journalist was fired for saying Disney has commercial motivations, inequality is a problem, and Trump coverage is sometimes not tough enough and at other times not fair to him? How is any of that a scandal? https://t.co/Gwklozmpg5
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) February 26, 2020
it's terrible that ABC News suspended David Wright for this. a) are journalists not allowed to express a political opinion even privately? b) his comments on how TV news works are basically generic conventional wisdom https://t.co/WQXS4rmIn2
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) February 26, 2020
By the way, David Wright got demoted because of this. He won't be on the air covering politics anymore for ABC because of this. You know who will be? Chris Christie and Rahm Emanuel.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) February 26, 2020
This suspension is idiotic on multiple and familiar reasons, but here's one: would "I consider myself a capitalist" be a suspendable offense at any news outlet? https://t.co/H9lpqom5SB
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) February 26, 2020