Uneasy as ABC

On Wednesday morning, shortly after sending an all-staff memo announcing layoffs at ABC News, network president Almin Karamehmedovic joined a virtual meeting with the FiveThirtyEight team. The 15 staffers at the political analysis site owned by ABC News had learned the previous evening—via a Wall Street Journal report—that they were being let go. Now, they were hearing it from Karamehmedovic himself.

But Karamehmedovic, like other managers carrying out mass layoffs at ABC News that day, had little to say about it. I’m told he appeared to be reading from a script as he delivered the devastating news. He offered no explanation for why the Disney-owned network had decided to shutter FiveThirtyEight, which it acquired in 2018 along with data whiz and then-editor Nate Silver. He took no questions. He simply thanked the employees for their work, told them a human resources staffer would follow up, and ended the meeting. The entire affair, I'm told, lasted about 15 minutes. Soon after, employees had their access to ABC News’ systems shut off and the FiveThirtyEight website was pulled offline. Just like that, it was over.