ABC News suspends David Wright for remarks made in Project Veritas video

[Valin]

Fox News

Chris Kensler, Brian Flood

Feb. 26 2020

ABC News has suspended veteran Washington correspondent David Wright for remarks he made that were captured on video by Project Veritas.

Wright was disciplined after higher-ups at ABC News reviewed footage in which Wright describes himself as a "socialist" and appears to criticize the network for the way in which it chooses to present the news.

“I feel terrible about it. I feel that the truth suffers, the voters are poorly informed, and people also have the opportunity to tune into whatever they want to hear,” Wright said in the video, which also features an ABC News producer.

“And so, it’s like there’s no upside, or our bosses don’t see an upside in doing the job we’re supposed to do, which is to speak truth to power and hold people accountable.”

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Feb. 26 2020

Exclusive updates: ExposeABC.com

BREAKING: Senior ABC Correspondent David Wright on Hidden Camera: How ‘Bosses Don’t See an Upside’ for Reporting News; ‘The Truth Suffers’; Says ABC Doesn’t ‘Give Trump Credit for What Things He Does Do’; ABC News Producer: New Yorkers Need to ‘Cross the Hudson River’ to Learn Why Voters Back Trump

David Wright, ABC News Political Correspondent: “We Also Don’t Give Him [Trump] Credit for What Things He Does do…I Feel Terrible About it, I Feel That the Truth Suffers, the Voters Are Poorly Informed…Our Bosses Don’t See an Upside in Doing the Job We’re Supposed to do.” David Wright: “In Television, We Have Lost Any Sense of Context.”

Wright: “We Don’t Hold Him [Trump] to Account. We Also Don’t Give Him Credit for What Things He Does Do.”

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[Valin]

Why Is ABC News Feeding the Project Veritas Trolls?

The network’s suspension of veteran correspondent David Wright has delighted right-wingers and alarmed journalists. “Patently absurd,” says one Times scribe.

Caleb Ecarma

February 26, 2020

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As conservative figures, like Donald Trump Jr., boosted the Project Veritas video, some journalists were alarmed. “This suspension is patently absurd,” Times reporter Sopan Deb tweeted. “Newsrooms continue to give in to bad faith efforts.” His colleague, Astead Herndon, tweeted that “you will cannot meet project veritas in the middle” because “acquiescing to their tactics only empowers them.”

ABC’s disciplinary action may have had more to do with Wright revealing his personal political perspective than his criticism of the corporate media profit model. As media figures protesting the suspension have pointed out, if the reporter had identified as a capitalist—a characterization that, by definition, is as equally charged as Wright’s self-description—and touted a “belief in markets,” he likely would not have faced backlash. Others at the network have expressed partisan leanings, including ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, a former top Bill Clinton White House aide and campaign adviser who has given $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation while reporting at ABC. Wright did go a step further than stating his political label—he divulged that he views President Donald Trump as “a dick” and suggested that Warren, if elected, would be a good president.

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[Valin]