Janice R. Andrews
A new rumour going around social media sites says that David Muir and Linsey Davis were fired by ABC News after the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on September 10. People have shared the post over 2,000 times, but it’s not true that the censors were fired because they were a “disgrace to their profession.”
But this claim is not true at all. It came from the satirical website Esspots, but it was later shared on social media without the warning that it was comedy, which led many people to think it was real news.
Even though former President Trump has said bad things about ABC and wants the network to lose its license to air, both Muir and Davis are still working for ABC. On September 12, hours after the false report started to spread, Muir was seen hosting “ABC World News Tonight.”
This event shows “stolen satire,” which is when material that was meant to be satire is shared as real news, tricking people who don’t know the original context.
USA TODAY and Lead Stories both said that the firing story was false and that the editors have not been fired. Because of this moment, ABC News has not said anything about Muir or Davis’s jobs.
Check the source of the news before sharing it to keep false information from getting around.
