RUTHFULLY YOURS

ABC News has suspended correspondent David Wright, Valerie Richardson of the Washington Times reports, after a Project Veritas video caught him referring to President Trump as “this f–king president” and declaring himself a socialist.

The video, to be released today, was taken at a New Hampshire event on February 11. When asked if he is a socialist, Wright said, “Oh, yeah. More than that, I consider myself a socialist.” Wright added that “there should be national health insurance,” and “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.”

According to CNN, Wright had been suspended “to avoid possible appearance of bias,” and would be “reassigned away from political coverage when he returns.” ABC did not indicate when that would be, or how long Wright has been suspended.

“David Wright is an Emmy Award-winning ABC News correspondent who has traveled the world, covering major news events in the U.S. and overseas,” ABC explains. “His work can be seen on ‘World News Tonight, ‘Nightline,’ ‘Good Morning America’ and other ABC News platforms. Although based in New York, Wright travels frequently to Washington, D.C., to help out with the network’s coverage of the Trump White House.”

Wright joined ABC News in November 2000 and began his career in public radio as a reporter and anchor at WBUR-Boston and KQED-San Francisco. The Harvard and Oxford grad was also “a frequent contributor to NPR nationally.”

Last December, Wright co-authored “Scandal-plagued Buffalo Bishop resigns following Vatican review of his diocese,” and several of his stories cover religious themes. His encounter with Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe was not the first for the ABC network.

In 2015, ABC had an extensively documented story on Jeffrey Epstein’s elite global pedophilia and sex-trafficking organization including information that appeared to implicate a former U.S. president. As Colin Kalmbacher of  Law and Crime reported, ABC “decided to bury the story” declaring it “unfit to broadcast.”

As Fox News reported, ABC anchor Amy Robach was caught on a hot mike saying “It was unbelievable what we had, Clinton, we had everything.” That would be former president Bill Clinton, and Robach’s lamentations were captured on a video by James O’Keefe of Project Veritas, which Amy Robach authenticated.

On the forthcoming Project Veritas video, Fox News reports, David Wright says “And so, it’s like there’s no upside, or our bosses don’t see an upside in doing the job we’re supposed to do, which is to speak truth to power and hold people accountable.”

As the Huffington Post reported, “journalists were quick to defend Wright, tweeting that he is entitled to voice his political beliefs in a private setting. Many slammed ABC News for capitulating to Project Veritas’ ‘bad faith’ crusade.” Randy Balko of the Washington Post tweeted “Wright’s comments aren’t damning at all, and the notion that journalists should never express opinions in private is absurd.”

For his part, James O’Keefe tweeted that his Project Veritas video “will expose ABC News’ agenda to mislead voters and push their own narratives.” In Wright’s case, the narrative has a lot in common with the political agenda of surging socialist Bernie Sanders, a Rip Van Winkle communist and outspoken supporter of Fidel Castro’s Stalinist dictatorship. On government monopoly health care, Wright would be at home with Democrat contenders such as Elizabeth Warren.

Like other establishment journalists, Wright claims to “speak the truth to power” but is being suspended for speaking the truth about himself to Project Veritas. Cases of journalists being suspended for peddling false narratives to the public are harder to find. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC had been shaping up as the “fall guy” for those who had retailed the Russia hoax. Maddow also retailed the Ukraine hoax and remains a high-profile mouthpiece on MSNBC.

The deep state capers of Andrew McCabe, the FBI boss who “lacked candor,” landed him a job with CNN, which also employs former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Former CIA boss John Brennan, a Gus Hall voter in 1976, hired on with NBC News. None is known for speaking the truth, to power or otherwise. Much of what appears on establishment media requires viewers to suspend their disbelief.

On the video front, meanwhile, California has banned so-called “deepfake” videos, altered to injure a candidate’s reputation or sway voters. The candidate can seek damages if they prove the video was shared with malice up to 60 days before an election. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure despite protests from the ACLU that the ban would result in voter confusion, malicious litigation and repression of free speech.