News broke on Wednesday that ABC News journalist David Wright had been caught in a new Project Veritas video, exposing the reporter as a self-admitted “socialist” who hates his own network. He has since been suspended. A look back at the socialist reporter's coverage of the socialist Bernie Sanders finds that Wright fawned over the candidate as “on fire” and fighting a political revolution.”
In the James O’Keefe sting video, Wright is asked if considers himself a “Democrat socialist.” The journalist embraced the label: “Oh yeah. More than that I would consider myself a socialist. Like, I think there should be national health insurance. I’m totally fine with reigning in corporations, I think they’re too many billionaires, and I think there’s a wealth gap–that’s a problem.”
Anyone who watched Wright cover Sanders shouldn’t be surprised. On February 3, 2016, he covered the socialist for Nightline. Wright enthused, “Bernie Sanders' campaign is on fire right now, front-runner to win the new Hampshire primary.” Without any sense of analysis, the reporter hyped, “He rails against the one percent and the politicians they keep in their pocket. His platform, straight out of Occupy Wall Street. College education free-for-all Americans. College education free-for-all Americans.”
According to Wright in the segment, the socialist is “raising fundamental questions about the American political system.” As though he were narrating a campaign commercial, he thrilled,“Bernie Sanders has given them a voice.”
On the February 22, 2015 edition of This Week, Wright cheered how Sanders is “as unabashedly progressive as Ben & Jerry's.” The journalist enthused, “He stands for economic justice…He's not just for raising the minimum wage, he wants to double it.”
How did the journalist cover Donald Trump, a candidate who, unlike Wright, is not a fellow socialist? On May 4, 2018, he spent seven minutes hyping the far-left drama Handmaid’s tale, stating this about the dystopian series: “The new American regime is a theocracy that oppresses women in particular. They're not allowed to read or write or think for themselves.”
Before describing who this future society is supposed to remind viewers of, Wright compared: “It’s as if the Puritans borrowed a few ideas from the Taliban and developed their own uniquely American caliphate.” With that setup, he made the connection clear: “The TV show debuted against the backdrop of Donald Trump's America.”
So, in retrospect, the revelation that David Wright is a socialist shouldn’t come as a major shock. He just made the mistake of getting caught on video saying it.
