ABC News president: Trump’s comments on Black voters ‘as racist as they come’

The Scoop

Kimberly Godwin, the president of ABC News, said privately that recent comments by President Donald Trump about Black people were “as racist as they come.”

At the Black Conservative Federation Gala in Columbia, South Carolina last week, the current Republican presidential frontrunner suggested that Black Americans relate to him more because of his mugshot and recent indictments.

In an email to some ABC News staff on Saturday obtained by Semafor, Godwin wrote that “No matter one’s politics, the fact that a person running for President of the United States made these remarks period — but also to a public crowd — and with so many black people present — and that they stand with him — is mind blowing. Shocking.”

She added: “These remarks are as racist as they come.”

Max’s view

Trump’s re-emergence as a political force poised for a potential return to the White House have reignited some years-old internal debates inside news organizations over how to cover his lies, misleading statements, and inflammatory and offensive remarks about race.

Since jumping into the presidential race in 2015 with a speech calling Mexican immigrants rapists, many liberals and media critics have called for news organizations to explicitly label Trump’s rhetoric as racist. Most major mainstream news organizations have only occasionally affixed the label to Trump directly, instead quoting critics calling him racist or describing his rhetoric with phrases like “racially-charged” or “dogwhistles.”

The coverage of Trump’s comments last week largely mirrored this: Reuters wrote that the Biden White House said Trump “trafficked in racist stereotypes,” while the AP quoted critics calling Trump racist and said his comments indicated “challenges in GOP Black voter outreach.” Some news organizations were more comfortable with the label: In its writeup of his comments, CNN said Trump “has a history of using racist language.”

Godwin’s private comments about Trump’s statements last week are more critical than ABC News has been willing to go in its coverage of Trump thus far. In one online story about the incident, the news network quoted Trump’s political opponents calling the former president racist, but did not label the comments themselves as such. Another described them as “controversial” in its headline.

An ABC spokesperson told Semafor that Godwin’s email was “part of a larger editorial conversation” about how to cover Trump’s statement. When the network discussed the incident on air, ABC described Trump’s comments as being “widely criticized as racist.”

It remains to be seen whether her private views about Trump will have an impact on ABC News’ coverage of the election. Godwin is one of the highest ranking Black leaders in the news business, and likely will remain at the helm through the election: Disney, ABC’s parent company, recently renewed her contract.

Notable

• The Wall Street Journal profiled Kimberly Godwin this month, quoting supporters who praised her “crazy workaholic” ethic and dedication to building a friendlier office culture. But she remains a polarizing figure within ABC, which Disney seemed to acknowledge in a recent corporate restructuring move which installed a new leader overseeing her division, effectively layering the network news chief.