Hey, there are folks in this episode, he criticized President Trump on a Saturday night and he was out of a job by Wednesday morning. And with that, welcome to this bonus episode of Amy and TJ. In this episode, now we'll discussed what many of you already heard. Longtime ABC News corresponding Terry Moran was initially suspended and then eventually they said just today, just hours I guess prior to this recording that he in fact is not going
to be returning to the network. We'll get into some of the details, but Robes, initially, let me get your reaction. I probably know it. As soon as we heard he was suspended. We had our thoughts. But your reaction now to just two three days after that tweet where it is Terry Moran is not returning DABC News.
Yes, well, I am not surprised.
As soon as we heard that he had been suspended and we read what his actual original tweet was, you and I both knew he was never going to come back to ABC News. There was no way that a network news division that certainly, as we hope all media outlets rely on at.
Least a.
Credibility and an attempt at being not taking sides.
It certainly is.
Objectivity is core to being a professional journalist and core to being a part of a network news organization. What we cover, when we cover it, you know, how we even cover things can certainly be.
Up for debate.
But you know, no matter what, you cannot make a public critical comment about a politician, about someone who you are supposed to remain objective about so that people at home can decide what they think. This was a clear, obvious, big no no that I have never actually really seen anything similar.
To okay, So I think neither or neither of us surprised by it. Even the timing surprise you initial suspension and then here we are just really three days later. That seems swift enough to me. It seemed like I give him enough time to dot some eyes, cross some te's and make sure everything was cool. But the timing,
There's nothing about this whole story that surprises me. I'm trying to find something in there that I go home, wait a minute, or this or that, But just what he did and what they did in response is it's tough to find issue with. I.
Yes, my only surprise would be that it took them three days, because there was really nothing to.
Work through or work out.
He wrote what he wrote, and I really couldn't And I don't think you could think of a reason why he could defend what he did or said.
Obviously I can think of a reason, because you know, I say that with a smile, because I'm always anytime I hear someone say, wait, let me hear all the details first, let me hear what was on their mind, let me hear what was going on, they would only come out as excuses. They would only be received that way. But this is the guy who's been in the business a long long time, just twenty eight years at ABC alone.
He's and he's covered. He covers big stuff. He didn't run around and cover the NBA finals.
The Preme Court of the foreign news, the Pope.
Okay, he covers the Vatican stuff like.
That, important heavy political stuff.
So him tweeting at midnight, him tweeting when he did, and what he he knows better than what he did. So my only thing he had to be out of his right, out of his mind, or he just said the hell with it and I just don't give a damn anymore and decided to do it. But he knows better than what he did.
Look, this wasn't a slip of the tongue.
This wasn't accidentally editorializing when you're on live television and something slipped out. This was a deliberate, handwritten thought that you chose to disseminate in a very public forum.
So it's done long, quick, quip correct, And so it was.
Even though there definitely were some grammatical errors, that isn't typical of Terry Moran, who again is a consummate professional and has been an incredible journalist, so he that isn't in character for him. So the only reason that I believe you and I could come up with that he did what he did was either a substance abuse problem or a mental health problem.
And either one of.
Those two things, I imagine you could take to ABC News and say, I need help, I need to recover, I want to apologize, I need to get my head on straight. And that would be the only way that I could have envisioned ABC News standing by him, or at least seeing him through getting through a tough time in his life.
And we are not, to be clear, suggesting anything of the sol interesting in that no issue, nobody suggested, and we're not that either, And just what we know of this guy for so long, you're looking for a reason for why he did what he did. And the journalist we know knows better than to do what he did, So why did he do it? We're looking for that answer and we don't have that yet from him. I don't think there's a single comment from him publicly. But why did he do it? In the timing of it?
And you talk about I mean, having some people just made mistakes just it's late, they're exhausted, a couple of glasses of wine and screwed up.
But this was just but this was yes, and it could be, but this was just so deliberate. And then when we found out today that it turns out ABC News didn't actually even have to fire Terry Moran because his contract is up at the end of this week. The timing of when he put out the tweet and the fact that this was potentially his last week the network seems perhaps that he could have The other thing is he could have done this to go out with a blazers of glory that he wanted to say what
had been on his mind for a long time. He knew perhaps after he had left the network, it might not get as much attention and maybe he knew. Hey, while I'm still working with ABC News, I'm going to go ahead and say what I've wanted to say for the last four or five months.
And two for those that don't know, you have up in front of you. Yes, I is okay, go ahead and read exactly what he said. I think the grammatical errors are in there as well, but yes, this is exactly what Terry Moran wrote at twelve eight a m. Saturday night, So into Sunday is what we're talking about. This is what you wrote.
Yes, and I'm reading this verbatim. Grammatical mistakes and all. Miller is a man who was richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He's a world class hater. You can see this just by looking at him, because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment.
He eats his hate.
Trump is a world class hater, but his hatred is Sorry I started, I tried to correct his grammatical error, but his hatred only a means to an end, and that end his own glorification. That's his spiritual nourishment. And we should point out that Terry Moran is referring to Stephen Miller, who is the deputy chief of staff President Trump.
See, yeah, and this is personal, I would even and and I hope this doesn't. It has a little bit delve into a back and forth, a conversation left and right about media bias. And there's some defending Terry Moran say, hey, why are you going to suspend or punish him for speaking truth to power, for speaking up for free speech. Shouldn't he be allowed to say what he wants to say? This is not a left right situation. This is just everything turns into that. But it's not that. This is
about the fundamentals of basic journalism. This, sweetheart, did we get out of the first week of journalism class without them teaching you about objectivity? Point blank? You can never go back and cover the White House again after this?
No, you have to. Can't you learn?
I think one of the first things you learn is do you take your personal opinions and your personal bias and what you think and what you were raised to believe, and you hang that on the code hanger along with your jacket, and you can pick it back up when you leave the newsroom. But one while you're in the newsroom, you were one of your most important jobs is to be objective. You should tell the truth, and you need
to say it without bias. You should let the people at home decide what they think based on the facts that you can provide them.
And that's a period.
They're arguing now that Okay, he left the newsroom, he was done with his job for the day. Why can't he, as a private citizen now go say whatever the hell he wants and why should he be punished for exercising a free speech right. That is not the debate here, folks. This is journalism. This is a high level journal list. We all know. So we are just on the Gavin Rossdale came into our studio. We did an interview, right imagine two days before I did that, I just got
on Twitter and said, Gavin Rossdale is an idiot. I hate his hair, his music is stupid. Yeah, okay, is he going to come in and do an interview with me? Absolutely no, you don't. You just can't do what he did and still be claimed to be objective. And this wasn't about policy. This was personal. He's a hater. He's nourished by his hate.
He eats his hate.
Come on.
That's that's throwing a massive barb at somebody, and it is I think that's a good way to put it. It's deeply personal. He wasn't discussing politics. He discussing discussing their ethics, their morality, and he had issue with that, and that's something you can't recover from. That's not something that you can say, whoopsie or oopsie, I shouldn't have done that, or I shouldn't have said that.
And that's not truth to power, right, it's not truth to power. It's not correcting a politician who let out of falsehood. That's objective. And your point is that you don't like this guy. You think he's a hater. That's not a fact.
That's a personal opinion.
Personal opinion. So I think even if he had criticized the administration in some way policy wise, maybe a suspension, maybe he could come back from it. This was just outright personal attack, personally attacking the why, and.
In doing so, unfortunately, it fuels this narrative that every journalist in mainstream media at the big networks all feel the same way Terry Moran feels, and they're just hiding it and pretending that they don't while they're on the job, and yet they actually ask questions and go about their job with that bias, with that hatred, with that personal negative opinion about the people in power, and that's shaping and affecting news coverage, and so that now of course
people are saying, see that he took his mask off, this is the mask that all journalists are wearing at the networks, and that's simply not true at all. So it's unfortunate that now because of the decision of Terry, a lot of other journalists are now being viewed through that same lens.
And they have been for a while.
It's not like this is a new thing, but now of course, but now it's like proof. Aha. See they all think that. See they all act with that in their minds as they report the news.
And that's unfortunate.
Well, it just feeds that storyline. And now now we're helping it along, like we've you know that stuff y'all just railed about and y'all suspicious of Boom. We just gave you some evidence of it. Yes it's only one case, but we give you evidence. Look, and people, everybody, no trust. Every single journalist has an opinion. Every single journalist has an opinion about Trump and policies and every other politician you can think of, and everything going on in the world.
But the point is you're not supposed to let that influence your work, So don't. We're not sitting here at all thinking no journalists to have an opinion about something in our personal lives, but you can't let that out, and then you can't let it get into your work.
Every journalist is different, and I think you and I are very similar, Babe. That when and I heard people and it wasn't that often that people sometimes would express their opinions, and I would actually say it was rare in a new Zoom because it was understood you don't discuss your personal opinions about specific politicians or their policies. You can talk about how they handled it or perhaps how we're covering it. But it was very rare, and I always removed myself from any of that, and I.
Always try to.
I really did try to put on blinders when it came to reporting, especially when it comes to the Trump administration. It is a very delicate dance. Everyone is dancing, truly in the newsroom, trying not to express their opinion and trying to remain objective. And there's been a big debate with Trump because it's taken it to a whole other level as he goes out and goes after the press,
and so it's already tricky. It's already a very troubled relationship between mainstream media and the Trump administration.
I don't mind us having more scrutiny. I don't mind somebody forcing us to check ourselves a little more. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. If it keeps us from doing our job and has us running scared, that's a different thing. Because it seems right now, yeah, it's Trump to ABC News zero in his administration right now, because he already wiped the floor with the whole George Dephanopolis thing. Right, they already pay this due sixteen million dollars.
And then look at what's happening over at CBS and.
Yeah, oh that he's still what he's holding them hostage almost with them trying to do a sale of CBS. At this point, he's still how much is that lossuit billions?
It's billions. And now you have a major, seasoned, reputable journalists and executives stepping down because they feel that there's an overcorrection now over at CBS that they're trying so hard not to upset Trump that they're avoiding or they're absolutely changing how they would have normally covered stories.
So there are some points where you can already point to and say networks are caving. He's just handing him a win. This is too easy. He didn't have to go search for this one. I mean, I can't even Trump is right on this. It's hard to make any argument that Trump did something wrong in this scenario. He was attacked, his White House was attacked by a guy who has been covering and yes, remember Tara Moran is the guy who just interviewed and went in April on
his first one hundred days. Why Because ABC News is really running out of people who can interview the President of the United State.
George Sephanoppolis cannot interview the president. Robin Roberts isn't going to interview the president. And I don't know how they would feel about having her, because I just think that they are looking at certain journalists as oh, okay, well she interviewed Barack Obama, so we're not going to have her interview President Trump. They're very picky as well as to
who they would choose. They went out, They went after David Mure because of how they felt he handled along with Lindsay Davis, who would be another one possible, how they handled the debate. So he was upset with them. So that's not going to happen.
That's why it fell to Terry Moran. He was the one that the White House picked. They gave him a hey, which one of these for the interview? He picked Moran. He told Moran during the interview, I picked you because I never heard of you. So he was almost saying, congratulations on this opportunity. I'm giving you.
Correct one hundred percent. That's what he did.
They're running out of people who can interview the President of the United.
States now, you know.
And it really is puzzling to me because Terry, look, look, anyone who's had a long career, and he certainly has. He sixty five years old, has had a long and storied career, twenty eight years at ABC News alone, and you have ups and downs in your career. And he at one point was visible all the time covering the White House, the Supreme Court, he went over to the London bureau and was a foreign correspondent, and then you know, you start to go. You don't get on as much.
But there has been a recent resurgence in his career where he yes, he got the Trump interview. They put him out front and center in Rome to cover the Pope. So his career seemed to be on the upswing.
Supreme Court and the election were two things they needed his expertise. Car he's a veteran. Rome needed his expertise.
He's a veteran, and so clearly with what's happening at ABC News, you would think they'd hold on to someone like that.
His contract was coming up.
That's why I can't get my head around that, because you and I both know when your contract's coming up. Six months before your contracts up, sometimes even a year before your contracts up. If they want to keep you, the network will come to you or to your agents and try to work something out. A week before your
contract's up and you haven't worked anything out. That seems a little suspect as well, but that is what ABC News said that his contract was up on Friday, and so this has certainly created a situation in which they can officially say they will not be renewing his contract, therefore they didn't have to fire him, and they didn't have to actually do anything.
Well, was it. I'm looking at their statement here in part of it says we have made the decision to not renew, as if that decision had yet to be made, or had they made the decision he was going to stay. I don't think they were planning on getting rid of them, it's the point.
Well, I wouldn't so either, But then it's curious to me, because you and I. I guess I can only speak for myself when several times in my career my contract has come up and I wanted to stay. Anytime I was on my not that I was ever on bad behavior, but I was on my uber best behavior. I said
yes to everything. I jumped on every plane they asked me to, because you know, if they're considering whether or not they want to keep you, and they're considering how much they would like to pay you, you usually put your best foot forward in those months and weeks leading up to your contract ending. So it seems extra suspect that he would go on this rant and make this choice given the timing of his contract.
That's insane.
To me, you described like an NFL player playing on the last year of his contract and he has just like a record year because what you want to happen, So he might have Hey, maybe he just said to hell with it, he's over it. He's sixty five, I'm done with this anyway, and just let it go. We don't know. Last thing for me to you is, do you see any way he could have state? No.
The only way he could have stayed is if there was some sort of a mental health crisis of some kind that he could say, Hey, I got to go get help. I'm going to come back bigger and better than ever. I'm gonna apologize. I'm going to talk about what journalists should do and why I completely made the wrong call. And perhaps in that context he could have stayed, but it would have the bar would be really, really high.
How about you.
I have to talk to him, I really would. These are things that it's hard to just what's best for the news organization is what I'm supposed to do. If I was the head of ABC News, right, you got to think about that first. But then you're a human being, and we have learned so much more in the past two three years of our lives, about human beings, about
mistakes that are made, about just listening, being compassionate. I would like to hear and if he had a good enough reason, I would force him to come out there, get on screen, explain it to everybody. If it was a health crisis, you have to explain it to everybody. You're gonna have to call and get on the phone to apologized, to Stephen Miller, to the White House Press Secretary,
to the President himself. You're going to come out and do everything you can to say I'm sorry and that you made a mistake, and here is why you made the mistake. If that hurts your news organization, maybe, but also sends a message something about forgiveness, something about mistake, something in But if it's but I'd have to hear his story. And if I didn't buy it and he was just you know, popping off of the mouth and
not really apologetic, that would be different. But I just wonder, and I just wish things like that didn't have to be the end for people who have contributed so much to an organization, to a field of journalism that one tweet at midnight and it's over.
Yeah, that's sad.
That's sad after a very long and storied and respectable and impressive career. The Terry Moran that you and I both know was passionate about journalism, passionate about the truth. So we wish him well. We hope that he is doing okay. This is not an easy time when the world turns against you. We know what that feels like, and we wish nothing but the best for him, and we hope if he does choose to speak, he is able to explain for folks to understand where he was and why he did what he did.
But if he doesn't want to, that's okay as well, that's okay as well.
So thank you for listening to us, and we hope that we gave you a little bit more perspective about what goes on behind the scenes in newsrooms and just trying to figure out where this is headed and maybe why we even got here. But hope that everyone just gives folks a little bit of a break sometimes when you hear the headlines