It Wasn’t Just a Firing. It Was a Ritual Sacrifice.

That’s how Jon Stewart described ABC News’s abrupt termination of veteran correspondent Terry Moran—a man who spent nearly three decades at the network—after a single tweet scorched Trump advisor Stephen Miller.

For Stewart, this wasn’t an overreaction. It was a betrayal.

The Tweet That Lit the Fuse

On June 8, 2025, Moran posted a now-deleted message on X, calling Miller “a man richly endowed with the capacity for hatred” and declaring Trump and his inner circle “world-class haters.” He didn’t stop there: Miller, Moran wrote, fed on hate “as spiritual nourishment.”

Trump-world erupted. VP JD Vance called it “a vile smear.” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded consequences. Within 48 hours, Moran was gone—no investigation, no defense, just silence.

Stewart’s Detonation

On his podcast, Stewart didn’t mince words.

“They shouldn’t have fired him,” he fumed. “This isn’t journalism—it’s a f***ing protection racket.”

According to Stewart, Moran’s dismissal wasn’t about professionalism. It was about ABC buying peace with Trump. He pointed to the network’s $15 million settlement after George Stephanopoulos’s lawsuit with Trump—money Stewart framed as hush cash.

“This is extortion,” Stewart said. “Corporations aren’t defending journalism. They’re paying tribute.”

The Façade of Neutrality

What enraged Stewart most wasn’t Moran’s firing—it was ABC’s pose of neutrality.

“Fox spews venom every day. Nobody gets fired. But ABC fires Terry to prove they’re above it all? That’s a joke. A f***ing joke.”

For Stewart, ABC wasn’t operating like a newsroom. It was behaving like a corporation terrified of losing market share—and willing to silence its own journalists to keep power happy.

The Dangerous Precedent

Independent journalists piled on. Glenn Greenwald called it “anticipatory compliance”—censorship the government doesn’t even have to demand. Krystal Ball blasted it as “complicity.” Matt Taibbi said it marked “collapse” for legacy media.

The fear isn’t just about one man losing his job. It’s the signal it sends: speak too plainly, and you’re next.

Moran Speaks

“It wasn’t a drunk tweet,” Moran later said. “I thought about it. I believed it. And if telling the truth gets you fired, then what are we even doing?”

He’s now launching his own Substack.

But Stewart left the audience with the haunting truth:

“If our biggest media organizations are this afraid of power,” he asked, “then who’s left to tell the truth?”

No one answered.

And maybe that silence was the real story.