George Stephanopoulos may be OUT at ABC News after CEO Bob Iger decided to pay out a $15 million defamation settlement, plus $1 million to cover Trump’s attorneys fees.
Trump’s defamation case against ABC News was related to statements made by “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos.
Trump sued ABC News earlier this year after Stephanopoulos claimed Trump was “found liable for rape” by a Manhattan jury in the E. Jean Carroll case.
In 2019, E. Jean Carroll alleged Donald Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.
Trump has denied the allegations and called E. Jean Carroll a “whack job” who’s “not my type.”
President Trump doesn’t even know who this woman is.
The jury found Trump ‘sexually abused’ E. Jean Carroll but they did not find he raped her.
Stephanopoulos defamed Trump during an interview with Nancy Mace earlier this year:
President Trump is suing George Stephanopoulos for defaming him and saying he was found liable for rape here in this shameful interview with Nancy Mace. pic.twitter.com/ANon5X5qoI
— JKash MAGA Queen (@JKash000) March 19, 2024
Stephanopoulos may leave the network after being forced to apologize as part of the Trump defamation settlement.
Excerpt from Variety:
In a move that floored ABC News’ rank-and-file journalists inside the network and in the broader journalistic community, Disney CEO Bob Iger authorized a $15 million settlement and an additional $1 million to cover Trump’s legal fees as well as a quasi-apology on Dec. 13. According to sources, Stephanopoulos was blindsided, unaware that Disney would back down in such a public manner until a few hours before the news broke. (Disney and Stephanopoulos declined comment.)
As CEO, Iger had long been a champion of Stephanopoulos, despite the anchor’s wonkier tendencies as “GMA” has needed to lean more heavily on pop culture and celebrity for ratings. (The morning show averaged 2.69 million viewers last week, behind “Today’s” 2.83 million average.) When Stephanopoulos started to float the idea in 2020 that he might leave ABC as his four-year contract was about to expire, Iger directly helped steer the negotiations to keep him in the fold — giving the anchor a new lucrative deal that also allowed him to produce documentaries for Hulu such as “Pretty Baby.”
But with Stephanopoulos’ current deal up in early 2025, insiders at ABC aren’t sure if he will stay at the network given the recent turn of events. Sources say Stephanopoulos has been vocal about how unhappy he has been with the settlement and apology. For ABC, the economics of paying an anchor $18 million a year may not make sense as “GMA” isn’t the advertising cash cow it once was. (Hoda Kotb recently announced her departure as a full-time anchor on “Today” after NBC tried to slash her salary.)
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