Terry Moran’s Midnight “World‑Class Hater” Hat Trick Backfires — ABC Puts Him in the Penalty Box
Poppy In what’s quickly shaping up to be one of the year’s silliest newsroom blunders, seasoned ABC reporter Terry Moran found himself in hot water for venting on X (formerly Twitter) at an ungodly hour and addressing President Trump and his longtime associate Stephen Miller as “world‑class haters.” But for a clean sweep, instead he received a suspension—evidence that sometimes a clever quip strikes an unfortunate note.
It all started around 12:06 a.m. ET Sunday, when Moran tweeted:
Miller is a man richly endowed with the capacity for hatred…he eats his hate.
He didn’t let it end there. He included Trump in the mixture:
Trump is a world‑class hater. But his hatred is only a means to an end…his spiritual nourishment.
Sweet dreams material, anyone? It seems like ABC News didn’t so much see the poetry in it.
Within hours of the posting—now deleted, one suspects, after a perfunctory swing through the office HR manual—ABC News had this to say: “We don’t tolerate subjective personal attacks, even if they’re masked as lyrical wit. Terry’s late-night indulgence broke our standards of neutrality.” And in an instant, unfortunate Moran was on the bench, “suspended pending further evaluation.
Cue the inevitable chorus of right-wing outrage. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt labeled the tweet “unhinged and unacceptable,” citing it as further evidence of the legacy media’s bias. Vice President J.D. Vance joined in with a tweet calling Moran’s tweets a “vile smear.” One can almost imagine the clacking of keyboards as they typed those incendiary replies.
This suspension adds to the ABC “Hall of Suspension” pretty nicely—remember Brian Ross in 2017? Yeah, remember the Michael Flynn flap. Now add to that list Moran’s sour note at midnight. Coincidence? Most likely. Cosmic comedy of journalistic mistakes? Absolutely.
What makes this so truly a panoti—a mass embarrassment—for Moran is his background. Here is a fellow who’s interviewed nine presidents, reported on the Supreme Court, Nightline, war zones—you name it. And yet he runs into his match on X at 2 a.m., with nothing but opinionated alliteration and poetic disdain to defend himself. He gobbles his wake-up call, too.
But for all the theatrics, no one’s actually harmed—except maybe Moran’s pride (and timing). It’s a classic example of “don’t tweet when sleep-deprived.” The tweet has been removed, Moran is in silent suspension, and ABC is walking around its social media guidelines like they are handling a bomb.
So what have we learned? Stay classy, Terry. If you’re going to call someone a “world‑class hater,” perhaps after a latte. And reporters—mix your poetic expression with professional filters. X is a public sphere, but it seems even the pros lose sight of the referee’s eye. Keep Reading Panoti News for more news.
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