Fired ABC Reporter Terry Moran Accuses Disney of Muzzling Network on Trump
Ex-ABC News correspondent Terry Moran accused his former network colleagues of “failing the American people” by caving to “corporate pressure” from parent company Disney to avoid coverage of President Donald Trump that could cause “a problem.”
Moran, who was dismissed by ABC in June after being accused by the network of having “blatantly breached” objectivity standards by calling White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a “world-class hater” on X, appeared on the In Good Faith with Philip DeFranco podcast Thursday to warn that the network is shackled by executives keen to avoid conflict with the president.
“I think that the business that I was in for all those years — network news, corporate media, legacy media, whatever you want to call it — is failing the American people. And they have corporate pressure on them,” he said.
He continued: “And they have kind of rules of what they can say and what they can’t say, what they can describe and what they can’t describe. The facts in front of them are eluding their coverage. And I think that they are disserving the American people.”
Moran claimed that there is “frustration” among the cable correspondents, who he said resort to hinting their outrage through “tone” but cannot explicitly condemn Trump.
“That’s corporate pressure,” he said.
He singled out Disney as eager to avoid conflict with the White House, even though ABC News represents a small portion of its portfolio.
“Look, Disney, I mean, is a multi-kabillion dollar business, right? ABC News is a little tiny speck in that giant empire. The last thing that the head of Disney or anybody in these corporate offices wants is a problem with the president of the United States because somebody in the news division tweeted something,” he said.
Despite Moran’s comments, the president certainly views ABC News coverage as unfavorable. Last week Trump took to Truth Social to blast ABC and NBC pushing “biased and untruthful” coverage of him, calling for their licenses to be revoked.
Commentators, however, continue to express concern about the potential chilling effect caused the president’s proactive moves to sue some outlets and networks.
In December, ABC News announced it had agreed to pay $16 million to settle a defamation case brought by Trump after comments made by host George Stephanopoulos. Then, in July, CBS parent company Paramount settled with Trump in his lawsuit against the company over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Watch above via YouTube.
