The ABC logo. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
On Wednesday afternoon, as a skeleton staff manned down ABC News ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the network's workforce was greeted with a surprise email from Derek Medina, a longtime top executive at the Disney-owned property. Medina, as we first reported, announced that after 26 years at ABC News, he will depart at the year’s end.
In a self-aggrandizing memo, Medina wrote, "It has been an honor to dedicate a significant part of my career to our news division, serving under every president dating back to Roone Arledge and witnessing, firsthand, the events that shaped our world from 9/11 to the election of Barack Obama to the global pandemic."
Medina wasn't a well-known face to the general public, but he did fill an important role at ABC News. As an executive vice president, he managed the network's business affairs and talent relations departments, among his many responsibilities. In his managerial role, if an anchor, correspondent, top producer, or any other senior staffer was negotiating a contract, he ultimately oversaw the process. And with the 2023 departures of talent head Galen Gordon and his deputy, Mary Noonan, Medina became an even more important figure at the network. When television agents had an issue, they often phoned him up.
"Now there is nobody," one agent confided in me upon learning the news.
Indeed, Medina's exit once again highlighted an important vacancy at ABC News: a head of talent relations. The position has been vacant since Gordon was pushed out in 2023 by then-president Kim Godwin, who was ousted herself earlier this year. Typically, the head of talent is one of the most important roles at a television news organization. In addition to luring in on-air journalists and key personnel from other outlets, the person also works to develop those already in-house and manage their often extravagantly sized television egos.
But at ABC News, such a person has been missing for quite some time. Frankly, it’s unheard of for a head of talent position to remain empty for so long.
Not only did it astonish people in the media industry that Godwin never moved to fill the role after dismissing Gordon, but it has also surprised people that Debra OConnell, the Disney executive who was appointed to a new position overseeing ABC News earlier this year, has not swiftly hired someone to fill it. However, with Medina out of the way, there is newfound hope that the situation may soon change.
While ABC News officially framed Medina's exit as his choice (network president Almin Karamehmedovic sent out a separate note to staff saying he "will be greatly missed"), the truth is…
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The Information Wars
Mark Zuckerberg. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Mark Goes to Mar-a-Lago: Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday for a meeting with Donald Trump. What was specifically discussed during the secretive meeting was not immediately clear. Obviously Zuckerberg and Trump have a complicated history, with the Meta chief having suspended the president-elect from the company’s platforms after the January 6 insurrection and Trump having threatened to toss the tech billionaire in jail during the course of the campaign. A representative for Meta confirmed the meeting, but didn’t get into granular detail. The representative simply told me, “It’s an important time for the future of American Innovation. Mark was grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of his team about the incoming administration.”
🔍 Zooming in: Zuckerberg over the last several months has warmed up to Trump and his allies. He, of course, praised Trump’s post-assassination attempt fist pumping as “badass.” And, over the summer, he wrote a letter to Jim Jordan giving some credence to a handful of right-wing narratives.
Rogan's Rebuttal: Joe Rogan reacted on his self-eponymous podcast this week to all the talk inside the Democratic Party about needing a lefty version of his popular show. "I think that in the future, I’m sure they’re scrambling to try to create their own version of this show. This is one thing that keeps coming up," Rogan said, in conversation with Marc Andreessen. Rogan went on to say that the Democrats did have him "on their side" at one point in time. "They had you, and they drove you away," Andreessen responded. Which is sort of, kinda, true? Mediaite's David Gilmour has more here.
COMBAT ZONE
A judge dismissed Ray Epps' defamation lawsuit against Fox News, which was filed over the conspiracy theories former host Tucker Carlson floated about him, Liam Reilly reported. [CNN]
Natalie Korach reported on how White House reporters are preparing for the chaos a second Donald Trump presidency will bring. "If Trump kicks us out of the White House briefing room, we'll still cover from the outside," Peter Baker told her. [Vanity Fair]
The NYT defended Maggie Haberman after Trump's unhinged rant against the her: "As an independent news organization the New York Times doesn’t produce stories that are 'good' or 'bad,' only reporting that is true." [Mediaite]
Elon Musk’s bullying of a few federal workers on X is alarming others in the government workforce, Hadas Gold and Rene Marsh reported. [CNN]
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