ABC News suspended one of its veteran correspondents after he was secretly recorded discussing the downsides of the network.
David Wright, 56, who has reported for ABC’s signature news programs, including World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and Nightline, was suspended late Tuesday night, the Washington Post reported.
The suspension came the day before Project Veritas, a conservative muckraking organization known for secretly recording targets in the media, released a video of Wright identifying as a “socialist” and trashing network executives.
“Our bosses don’t see an upside in doing the job that we’re supposed to do, which is to speak truth to power and hold people to account,” Wright said, later accusing the network of becoming “a profit center, a promotion center.”
“Any action that damages our reputation for fairness and impartiality or gives the appearance of compromising it harms ABC News and the individuals involved,” an ABC News spokesman told the Washington Examiner. “David Wright has been suspended, and to avoid any possible appearance of bias, he will be reassigned away from political coverage when he returns.”
Wright has been with the network for nearly two decades, reporting overseas and covering the White House and the 2016 presidential campaign.
Project Veritas previously released a video from ABC News that revealed the network didn’t run a report on Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sexual assault and trafficking crimes years before he was charged in the summer of 2019. In that video, one of the network’s reporters, Amy Robach, was caught criticizing network executives for refusing to air her interview with an Epstein accuser years prior.
