MSNBC’s Chris Matthews remains on the air as ABC capitulates to another James O’Keefe stunt by suspending a reporter for expressing their personal political views in private.
ABC News suspended veteran correspondent David Wright on Wednesday, after he was secretly recorded by the right-wing group Project Veritas calling himself a socialist and criticizing both President Trump and his own network.
Filmed last month in New Hampshire, the video consists of choppy, hidden-camera footage in which Wright calls Trump a “dick” and compares him to a “nightmare spouse you can’t win an argument with.” While Wright said the network doesn’t “hold [Trump] to account,” he also said it doesn’t give Trump “credit for the things he does do.”
Asked about his personal politics by the Project Veritas operative, whom CNN reports presented himself as a documentarian, Wright said he considers himself a “socialist.” He added: “I think there should be national health insurance. I’m totally fine with reining in corporations, I think there are too many billionaires, and I think there’s a wealth gap — that’s a problem.”
<
p class=”is-empty-p”>
“If it’s a suspendable offense for journalists to privately gripe about their media company’s news coverage of whatever, then nobody in this business would have a job,” tweeted Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce.“Wright’s comments aren’t damning at all,” Washington Post opinion writer Radley Balko tweeted. “And the notion that journalists should never express opinions in private is absurd.”
