Hi there,

The job of a journalist is to go to where the silence is — especially when those in power seek to silence voices that question or challenge power. That is what we do at Democracy Now! day in and day out, and we're able to do it because of financial support from people like you — people who trust and depend on our independent reporting. If you believe that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential to the functioning of a democratic society, please donate today. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

ABC Suspends David Wright over Remarks Secretly Recorded by Far-Right Group

HeadlineFeb 27, 2020

In media news, ABC has suspended veteran correspondent David Wright, after a far-right activist published secretly recorded video in which Wright complains about President Trump and corporate control of the mass media. In the seven-minute, highly edited video posted online by the group Project Veritas, Wright is overheard calling himself a socialist who favors national health insurance, and stating there are too many billionaires and too big a wealth gap. Wright goes on to say the “commercial imperative is incompatible with news,” and blasts ABC’s parent company Disney for cross-promoting its entertainment brands on shows like “Good Morning America.”

Project Veritas is a right-wing group that often sets up sting operations targeting Planned Parenthood, journalists and activists by recording covert videos — and releasing deceptively edited footage. The group’s founder, James O’Keefe, was convicted on a misdemeanor charge after he attempted to wiretap the phones of then-U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu in 2010. In response to its latest sting operation, media critic Dan Froomkin called Project Veritas “loathsome” but said in this case the group had done the U.S. a favor. Froomkin wrote, “The group’s sneaky surveillance has uncovered someone speaking profound truths about how commercial pressures have skewed corporate media’s political-news values — not toward making things up, but toward turning it all into shallow, value-neutral entertainment.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top