ABC News staffers ‘pissed' at Terry Moran over ‘stupid' verbal assault on Trump aide Stephen Miller: ‘He should be fired'

Yahoo

19 hours ago

ABC News staffers are 'pissed' at Terry Moran and some are calling for his head after he blasted Trump aide Stephen Miller as a 'world class hater,' The Post has learned.
Moran's diatribe on social media over the weekend, which he has since deleted, was condemned by ABC News executives for lacking 'objectivity and impartiality.'
The veteran newsman was suspended 'pending further evaluation' Sunday, but some colleagues felt the punishment did not go far enough.
'He should be fired,' one ABC News insider told The Post on Monday. 'People inside are pissed at Terry for screwing things up for the network.'
'Everything that Trump has said about the media — that they are haters and they are biased — Moran proved it true,' the source explained, adding that journalists are supposed to 'check your biases at the door and only deal with the facts.'
Firing Moran may serve Debra OConnell, President of ABC News Group and Networks, Disney Entertainment, who is in the throes of trimming the budget amid larger cuts at Disney.
A source with knowledge said a journalist with Moran's level of experience — namely a senior-level correspondent who has covered the White House and co-anchored 'Nightline' — likely makes between $600,000 and $900,000 a year.
'That could save the network a lot of money, and she would demonstrate to the White House that ABC takes the issue seriously,' the person said.
ABC News declined to comment.
Moran did not respond to requests seeking comment.
His early-morning screed Sunday tore into Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff.
'The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism. Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that's not what's interesting about Miller,' Moran railed on X.
'It's not brains. It's bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He's a world-class hater,' the ABC News reporter added. '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 verbal onslaught came after Moran landed an interview with Trump in April as controversy over the administration's tariff policies swirled.
Sources said Moran has close ties to ABC News vice president and Washington DC bureau chief Rick Klein.
Moran had ingratiated himself with Klein by expressing that he had some Trump-friendly views, such as the importance of networks providing unbiased coverage geared toward the entire country, which has been a White House criticism of left-leaning networks, one of the sources said.
But the interview quickly turned testy, with Trump telling Moran that he agreed sit down with the correspondent because he 'never heard' of him.
A source with knowledge said it wasn't that cut-and- dry and that Trump officials held conversations with the network about possible interviewers and that they agreed on Moran because of his national reporting and White House experience.
According to reports, the president did not want to be interviewed by Stephanopoulos or star anchor David Muir, whom he previously criticized for wrongly fact-checking him during a September presidential debate.
'I was shocked that Trump picked him,' said a second source, who had previously worked with Moran. 'Terry is a little pompous. He would weigh in on things he had nothing to do with. He always wanted to voice his opinion — even in emails that he was cc'd on.'
The source called the attack on Miller 'stupid.'
'Terry has always had a high opinion of his opinions,' the person said.
ABC News said it suspended Moran over concerns about him violating the outlet's standards on impartiality and objectivity.
'ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others. 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,' a spokesperson previously told The Post.
Staffers lamented that Moran's outburst undermined the inroads OConnell had been making with the administration in recent months.
OConnell and other network execs have taken trips to West Palm Beach, Fla. and held meetings with Trump officials, a source with knowledge said.
One such meeting took place in December, shortly after ABC parent Disney paid $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit against the network over 'This Week' anchor George Stephanopoulos for saying Trump was found guilty of raping E. Jean Carroll.
A New York court had found Trump guilty of sexual assault — not rape, a key legal difference — in the civil case.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in that case.