ABC New Anchor David Muir should be relegated to journalism infamy after his disgusting efforts to drag Kamala Harris to the Presidency when he moderated the Trump-Harris debate last September. He and co-moderator Lindsay Davis, as I wrote at the time, “made the Harris-Trump debate a three-against-one affair,” showing their unethical alliance with Harris at every turn and in every way possible, including facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. Muir elevated his Ethics Villain status by “factchecking” Trump with false facts, and never challenging Harris at all even when she was lying outright.
An ethical news organization would have fired Muir, but ABC (Disney) employs George Stephanopoulos too, so obviously conflicts of interest and fair journalism don’t interest them. Muir would symbolize the Axis media‘s desperate and anti-democratic (they are the enemy of the people, after all) efforts to topple Trump in 2024, except that there was so much competition.
But the conservative media has him on its hit list just as Trump was on his. if Muir “so much as spits on the sidewalk” as Dirty Harry would promise when he was determined to bag a bad guy, it is waiting to pounce. In this case, the metaphorical spit was two clothespins Muir had fastened to the back of his jacket when he was on camera reporting on the California wildfires.
This is a common (and ancient) device used by male models in clothes ads to eliminate sags and wrinkles and making a garment look like it fits like a glove. To read the reaction of online pundits, one would think Muir had been caught setting fires. Here’s “Victory Girls”:
Mr. Muir, debate moderator and fact-checker extraordinaire, couldn’t possibly don a jacket that was too baggy whilst reporting an utter tragedy…
He points at the rubble of what was once a street where residents met for coffee, dined out at restaurants and strolled the promenade…“As you can see here behind me”, he says. Yeah. We see behind you, dude. We see a big, fat, wooden clothespin that cinches your jacket. This is real journalism, everybody. Not a hair out of place in the blowing Santa Ana winds. The dude’s makeup is not even melting…Now, I understand this is something news anchors do on the set. In fact, David Muir was most likely wearing a clothespin during the infamous debate, too. But, to do so in a fire-retardant jacket, AWAY from the danger and the flames and to inadvertently or intentionally display this shot on TV is the making of an anchor and a production staff who may have a total combination of a 20 IQ troglodyte between them all… This is a perfect example of talking bobbleheads not reading the freaking room. I was honestly waiting for a “Stay Classy, Pacific Palisades”.
No, this is a perfect example of the conservative news media doing what it complains that the left-leaning news media does: identifying ideological targets and deliberately looking for opportunities to embarrass, denigrate, and if possible, destroy them.
As the writer even indicates that she knows, news anchors are in their positions as much for their attractive looks as for their journalism skills, and often more so: just look at the Fox News blondes. The character Ted Knight played on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was funny because he was only slightly more ridiculous than his real life counterparts. That Muir is concerned about his appearance even when reporting on wildfires is neither unusual nor unprofessional: that is the profession, like it or not.
The days where a mug like Walter Cronkite’s could be part of broadcast news stardom are long gone except at MSNBC, where a fire-breathing talking head can be mirror-shattering homely as long as he or she advances the cause of The Great Stupid while attacking Donald Trump. So Muir takes measures to make sure he looks as good as possible for the camera: so what? He routinely wears make-up. He may have contact lenses; maybe he even wears a hairpiece and gets Botoxed: what matters is whether he’s a competent reporter.
I once met Chris Matthews in an airport: he looked about thirty years older than he looked on TV. Should that have made me trust him less as a news analyst? I stopped trusting Chris when he sold his integrity and stopped being a courageous commentator. What’s Muir’s real crime here? It was making the mistake of revealing the clothespins by turning sideways. Yes, Marlon?
What “Victory Girls” is arguing in its “read the room” diatribe is that a reporter should calibrate his or her appearance according to what they are covering. That’s as manipulative and inauthentic as the clothespins! I guess Muir should have smeared his face with soot before going on camera, tussled his hair and coughed periodically. Or pretended to get choked up over the tragedy. Or ad libbed, “Oh, the humanity!”
David Muir is an untrustworthy reporter, but the fact that he may use an old trick to make himself look better on camera isn’t the reason. Criticism of his work should be based on substance, not bias, and certainly not the desire to get back at the guy because he tried to rig the Presidential debate.
Ethics Alarms 
Yeah, it’s not worthy of frothing at the mouth rage.
But really, what are the priorities for reporting on a devastating tragedy striking the heart of peoples homes in America?
Making sure you look fashionable on screen?
The point is, you can do both. One shouldn’t affect the other.
I think it hints at not being fully focused on the job. That’s unethical.
The fact that he turned, exposing his trick, suggests the opposite, no?
So instead- his overactive concern with appearance has gotten in the way of his job and now creates a distraction for people relying on his reporting. Calling into question now, the thoroughness and attentiveness of his reporting.
(which yes, a minimum of professional appearance is part of the job)
I agree, Michael. In the midst of it all, that the question “how do I look” even occurred to him – and further, apparently not nipped at the waist enough – is mind boggling to me.
Glad to know I’m not the only one.
(I hope the last comment is supposed to be funny because it is)
Alicia and Michael are correct. I know our intrepid Ethicist thinks this is a non-issue but, as Michael and Alicia point out, Muir has allowed his narcissism and lack of self-awareness to get in the way of reporting on a real tragedy involving real people. Think of the steps that had to take place to get those stupid clothes pins on that idiot’s jacket:
Yeah, his job is to look good, but nobody – and I mean NOBODY – cares if he looks good when homes and businesses are devoured in flame while he is reporting from a safe distance away. He is an idiot and cannot be trusted to give proper reporting. Jerk.
Oh, and recent reports indicate that some of these fires were intentional and not caused by Climate Change.
jvb
The Kenneth fire, for one.
What is the frequency, Kenneth? (hits you) 😀
Ha!
If looking good on camera is a priority, then isn’t the failing that the clips were seen? My thoughts are that showing the clips would be incompetence, and thus perhaps more of an issue than actually wearing them.
Victory Girls is wrong in picking at a minor issue. I hesitate to say that looking like you are actually helping at the fire when you are wearing a fire hazard is a good look, but if staging such falsehoods is important (lowers reporters further on my cognitive dissonance scale) and if looking good while doing so is also important, then having your clothespins visible seems to be a flaw.
This is so trivially stupid. Why can’t the Right stick to outrage-worthy things? After all, the news media and current administration, along with innumerable Leftist mayors and governors provide a target-rich environment for justifiable outrage.
This is yet another case of becoming what they purport to hate.
Are we assuming it wasn’t someone else’s job to decide he needed the clothespin and to put it on him? That might explain why he forgot it was there. “That jacket’s too baggy and wrinkly. One second…. there, now you look great.” This here is a textbook example of a genuine nothingburger.
He used a clothespin to, gasp, pin his clothes!
This is exactly right. A mobile TV news team normally consists of a cameraman, a reporter and a producer. The producer’s job, among other things, is to make sure that the reporter looks good on the air. It is almost certain that the producer, not Muir, is the person who picked the jacket and decided to use the clothespins because it was too baggy.
100%. Just about anyone who has had to be on TV more than once deals with a producer or handler who makes sure the person on camera looks good and makes sure their outfit isn’t too distracting, from the front angle at least. If Muir was wearing his coat all super baggy, there probably would have been someone who was like “wow he looks fat in that coat.” I find it sillier that other people on TV who know better are calling him out for this. Now that’s unethical.
Bingo.
Further note, he is reporting within a disaster zone, even if outside the active fire. Everybody on his crew must be wearing at least high visibility vests as a safety precaution, if not outright fire-retardant clothing.
If he didn’t look like a guy on the front cover of a 1970s bodice ripper with that hair and movie star face, I doubt any of this would have occurred, never mind become an issue. What’s the line when singers get out of their lane? “Shut up and sing?” “Get in front of the camera and report!” Stop with the dreamboat shtick already.