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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.”

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