ABC World Information Tonight anchor David Muir plunged the night information program into controversy final week when viewers observed he was utilizing a clothespin to make his jacket look slimmer whereas reporting from the scene of the Southern California wildfires.
On X, folks referred to as Muir useless and narcissistic for seemingly caring about his look throughout protection of a wide-reaching tragedy.
Different folks, in the meantime, didn’t take into account the clothespin that massive of a gaffe:
Omg. Go away David Muir alone. His svelte determine and Miss America palms often is the solely sliver of happiness folks see amongst the horrific devastation of this disaster. Soften the blow, folks, soften the blow pic.twitter.com/dT7VI6aa4a
— Tatiana Ryann (@tatianaryann18) January 9, 2025
And now Muir’s former ABC Information colleagues Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes have come to his protection.
Robach and Holmes — who misplaced their jobs internet hosting ABC’s GMA3: What You Have to Know after their romantic relationship was uncovered — sounded off concerning the Muir backlash in a brand new episode of their podcast, Amy & T.J.
“He’s a consummate skilled,” Robach mentioned of Muir. “He takes his job very severely, and he works very arduous, not simply to get the knowledge proper however to current it in the easiest way doable. And, look, he was masking the wildfires, and there have been hurricane-force winds described as nearly tornadic. So he cinched his jacket, as many people have finished within the subject and on the set, to create a cleaner line.”
Robach mentioned she understands the outrage: “Simply the thought that went into the look of one thing when you will have an enormous tragedy unfolding behind you with flames, folks’s properties, belongings, lives being misplaced… to even be involved about the way you look looks as if a slap within the face to people who find themselves coping with the worst doable scenario. So I perceive the anger and the truth that they’re hurling it at him as a result of they, by seeing that clothespin, it appears like his focus was on himself as a substitute of on the story he was masking.”
Holmes added what he referred to as “the angle that is perhaps lacking,” saying the clothespin might need been the choice of a producer or a wardrobe assistant touring with Muir. “Persons are pulling and plugging issues onto you, the mic and the [interruptible foldback device] and all these items. You don’t even know what’s taking place to you. And somebody might have made the choice to simply, let me do that with the jacket. We simply don’t know. However just a bit context, the man works his butt off.”
Robach then gave Muir a ringing endorsement. “I simply wished to say that it’s a disgrace as a result of I do suppose that he’s a superb reporter and places himself on the market, places himself in loads of and has put himself in loads of conditions, [and works] tirelessly to guarantee that folks perceive what’s occurring, to deliver folks the newest and biggest and necessary data,” she mentioned. “So I simply, I’d hate for him to one way or the other seem as if he has no worth, no journalistic integrity. That’s not truthful.”
ABC World Information Tonight, Each day, 6:30/5:30c, ABC