Social media meltdown costs another journalist his job
And makes every other journalist's job harder
ABC News fired long-time anchor and reporter Terry Moran yesterday following a weekend outburst on X. The late-night posts attacked President Trump and his aide Stephen Miller, calling both “world class haters.”
It should go without saying that you just can’t do that. Not when you work for a mainstream media outlet like ABC News.
Journalists are people. We have opinions and feelings and sometimes get emotional. But we’re also trained to keep those opinions out of our work. It’s a bright, white line that can never be crossed.
During 43 years as a working journalist, I stayed away from political rallies, didn’t make one campaign contribution, never put a yard sign up, and didn’t discuss my opinions with anyone other than close friends and family. My guiding principle was to stay so far away from the line that I could never be accused of crossing it.
I was lucky that I’m not a frequent social media user, so I wasn’t tempted to have a couple gin and tonics at night and fire off a snarky Tweet. (Well, the gin and tonics are quite tempting, and heaven knows I have succumbed.)
But journalists today are under pressure from their managers to post frequently on social media. You have to be in that space, or you don’t exist in today’s media world. You want to be personable. You might want to be controversial. It’s tough to post a lot and resist the temptation to let opinions leak into your posts. But you just can’t do it.
More to the story?
I suspect there’s more to the Terry Moran story than meets the eye. He’s 65 years old and had spent 28 years at ABC News as chief White House correspondent, anchor of Nightline, and had covered the Supreme Court and foreign conflicts.
He knows the rules. So why the sudden late-night flurry of political attacks? Moran described Stephen Miller as “a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred.”
He either succumbed to his drink of choice or he knew exactly what he was doing. Maybe both. In cutting him loose, ABC News said Moran’s contract ended this Friday and he would not be renewed. The timing here makes me think Moran knew he wasn’t being renewed or was getting offered a lower salary, so he decided to go out in a blaze of glory.
ABC News released a statement that said Moran’s recent post was a clear violation of ABC News policies. It continued, “…we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism.”
Sounds great, but I’d feel a lot better about ABC’s “objectivity, fairness and professionalism” if it hadn’t recently settled a bogus lawsuit by Donald Trump by agreeing to pay $15 million to his presidential library. The professional thing to do in that case was to fight like hell for your First Amendment rights.
Resist the temptation
Even if Moran’s contract wasn’t being renewed, he could have left ABC with his head held high. Instead, his screed makes him look like a chump. He hurt his long-time employer. And he handed more evidence to Trump’s barrage of criticism about biased journalists.
My advice to journalism colleagues is – resist the temptation, no matter how upset you are about something. If you want to spout off, go find a job outside the news business. Or wait until you retire. If a reporter in a newsroom I was running posted something like Moran did, I would have had no choice but to do the same thing ABC News did. Moran’s poor judgment gives himself and all journalists a black eye.
Dave, your last sentence is the best summary of the situation.
I agree with your advice to working journalists but our democracy is being ripped apart before our very eyes. 65, likely not being renewed, or retiring, working for a cowardly company that capitulated to a despot, I say, atta boy, Terry! I’ll bet that last shot across the bow felt pretty good after covering these soulless cretins. Can’t fault a man for being human.