ABC News has announced that investigative journalist Brian Ross and chief investigative producer Rhonda Schwartz will be leaving the company.
- The announcement of Ross’s and Schwartz’s departure was announced by ABC News President James Goldston.
- In that statement, Goldston wrote, “After more than two decades at ABC News, Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz have decided to leave the company … Please join me in thanking Brian and Rhonda for their tireless work at ABC News. They asked me to share the note below with all of you. We wish them well in their next chapter.”
- Meanwhile, Ross and Schwartz said in a statement of their own, “The time has come to say good-bye. After a great run of 24 years, we have decided to pack up and move on from ABC News, an organization that has meant so much to us.”
- Ross’s departure comes eight months after he was suspended by the network for a month following a botched report regarding Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
- That report drew the ire of President Trump, who later tweeted, “Congratulations to @ABC News for suspending Brian Ross for his horrendously inaccurate and dishonest report on the Russia, Russia, Russia Witch Hunt.”
- The President also tweeted that those who lost money after the stock market “went down 350 points” following the report should consider suing ABC.
- Schwartz is Ross’s long-time executive producer and served as Chief of Investigative Projects, ABC News Investigative Team
What They’re Saying:
- James Goldston, ABC News President James Goldston: “In their long careers here, Brian, Rhonda and their team have been recognized with nearly every prestigious award in our business – an impressive tally of four George Polk awards, four Peabody awards, four duPonts, five Murrows, 17 News and Documentary Emmys and the Harvard Goldsmith Prize, in 2014, for the single best investigative report in print or broadcast. They’ve exposed government corruption at every level, international human rights abuses and fraud, uncovered dangerous working conditions, sexual abuse cover-ups and dishonest business practices. Their work has led repeatedly to real changes in policy in the U.S. and around the world. They broke numerous stories following 9/11 about the government investigation of the attacks, from the identification of the terrorists to secret CIA prisons. Over the years they have built a team of the best investigative journalists in our industry, and they leave behind an outstanding group that will continue to break stories for many years to come.”
- Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz: “We leave with enormous gratitude for all those who supported us and helped build the industry’s most robust and honored investigative unit. It is a point of great pride to see the soaring careers of so many of the talented and dedicated people who worked with us in producing hundreds of ground-breaking investigative reports that empowered the disenfranchised, exposed corruption and helped make our society a better place. While we are signing off from ABC News, we are hardly leaving investigative journalism. There is much more to do.”