ABC News Suspends Journalist Terry Moran after Post Criticizing Stephen Miller

Yomiuri Shimbun

4 hours ago

Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on May 1.
ABC News on Sunday suspended senior national correspondent Terry Moran after he sharply criticized White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on the social media platform X, the latest flash point in the long-running clash between the Trump administration and the network.
'Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He's a world-class hater,' Moran wrote in the post, which was published early Sunday and later deleted. 'You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.'
Moran's post was shared widely on X by conservatives, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who wrote that it was 'unhinged and unacceptable.' The White House had contacted the network about the post, she said. Vice President JD Vance also criticized Moran for what he described as an 'absolutely vile smear' and said he should apologize to Miller.
By late Sunday morning, the network took action, suspending Moran for violating rules about neutrality in news reporting.
'ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,' a spokesperson said in a statement. 'The post does not reflect the views of others at ABC News and violated our standards – as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.'
Moran's suspension is the latest chapter in the conflict between ABC and the Trump administration. In December, the network agreed to pay Donald Trump $15 million to settle a lawsuit he had filed over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos, a decision that drew pushback from journalists and press advocacy organizations. Despite the settlement, Trump has continued to criticize ABC on his Truth Social platform and last month threatened to sue the network once again over its coverage of a luxury Boeing 747-8 jetliner that Qatar is providing for the president to use as Air Force One.
The Federal Communications Commission, which is run by Trump-backed chairman Brendan Carr, has also launched an investigation into ABC's parent company, Disney.
Moran last interviewed the president in late April to talk about his first 100 days in office. During a tense moment in the interview, Trump claimed that he had never heard of Moran. 'I picked you, Terry, but you're not being very nice,' he said. Trump also said that ABC was 'one of the worst' television networks.
'Trump is a world-class hater,' Moran wrote in his now-deleted post. But he said Trump's 'hatred' is 'only a means to an end.'
Moran joined ABC News in 1997. During his lengthy career at the network, he has served as chief White House correspondent (during George W. Bush's administration), Supreme Court correspondent, law and justice correspondent, and chief foreign correspondent, before his current role.
The Washington Post has contacted the White House for comment on Moran's suspension.
Although it is unusual for television networks to suspend correspondents, Moran's post came at a particularly tense moment in the relationship between the White House and the press.
In 2017, ABC News suspended investigative correspondent Brian Ross over what it said was a 'serious error' in his coverage of Michael Flynn, who had been picked as Trump's first national security adviser. Ross left ABC the following year.
Trump is still locked in a legal battle with one of ABC's primary competitors, CBS, over an editing decision about a '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris.