Jon Stewart

Matt Wilson

John Stewart is taking aim at ABC News for firing veteran news reporter Terry Moran after 28 years. Moran used X to speak out against Donald Trump’s chief of staff Stephen Miller and called him a “world-class hater.” Stewart lambasted ABC News’ decision on the “Weekly Show” podcast (via The Daily Beast) and called it “so stupid.”

“For God’s sake. They shouldn’t have fired him,” Stewart said in response to a listener asking whether or not the network made the right call in firing Moran. “The entire thing is because ABC clings to this facade that they somehow exist in a bubble outside all of this. It’s a joke. They’re a fucking joke.”

Moran was initially suspended because of his anti-Miller X post, but ABC News announced two days into the suspension that the anchor’s contract would not be renewed.

“We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision to not renew,” ABC News said in a statement. “At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism.”

Moran was one of ABC News’ top national correspondents. In his criticism of Miller, the reporter wrote that Trump’s chief of staff is “one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy” and operates not on “brains” but on “bile.” He added that Miller was “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.”

 

Stewart said Moran didn’t write anything about Miller that was inaccurate and noted Moran’s firing was the latest ABC News blunder when it comes to the network bending the knee to Trump.

“They shouldn’t have paid the $15 million,” Stewart said, referring to ABC News settling with Trump over George Stephanopoulos’ comments. “Literally, every day on Fox News, they’re taking stuff out of context or their people are saying utterly vicious things about Democratic politicians and all kinds of other things.”

Since his exit from ABC News, Moran has announced he will launch his own Substack channel