At the moment beneath hearth following a shocking defamation settlement with President-elect Donald Trump, ABC Information star George Stephanopoulos has reached a brand new multi-year take care of the community, ending hypothesis that the Good Morning America host could possibly be on his means out.

The Los Angeles Occasions was the first to report on the Disney-owned community’s deal to retain Stephanopoulos.

Whereas the timing of the settlement comes as ABC Information faces intense blowback for settling Trump’s lawsuit, Stephanopoulos has been in negotiations with the community for not less than final month over a renewal that may preserve him round for a number of extra years.

In his Standing e-newsletter final month, Oliver Darcy reported that Stephanopoulos, who was making over $20 million a yr, had “been provided a deal that may see his wage, like everybody else within the declining tv information business, get a major haircut.” With the opportunity of a decrease wage on the desk, Darcy additionally reported that Stephanopoulos was probably a lowered workload on the community. For a while now, the 63-year-old anchor has solely hosted the Sunday public affairs present This Week as soon as a month, regardless of the present bearing his title as lead anchor.

An ABC Information spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.

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Whereas the phrases of the deal haven’t been launched, a supply informed Selection that the “size of the extension was shorter than a typical on-air expertise pact — which is one other signal of the occasions for the TV information enterprise.” Different high-priced expertise throughout the cable and broadcast information panorama have additionally seen their salaries slashed.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, for example, agreed final month to a brand new contract extension that pays her $5 million much less a yr.

Though the contract extension could have been within the works for a while, it was finalized after ABC Information drew important backlash for agreeing to pay the president-elect $15 million to settle his defamation lawsuit over Stephanopoulos’s feedback final March. Journalists have blasted the community’s “capitulation” to Trump as “bending the knee,” whereas authorized specialists have warned it may have a “chilling impact” on the media and press freedoms.

Making issues worse for Stephanopoulos, who had vowed after Trump filed his libel declare that he wouldn’t be “cowed out of doing my job,” was the community agreeing to difficulty a press release of “remorse” over the anchor claiming Trump was discovered “chargeable for rape” within the E. Jean Carroll case. (A jury discovered that the incoming president was chargeable for sexual abuse of the author, however his actions didn’t meet New York’s stringent authorized definition of rape.) ABC additionally agreed to pay Trump’s authorized staff $1 million.

Florida federal Decide Cecilia M. Altonaga denied the corporate’s movement to dismiss the lawsuit, saying “an affordable jury may interpret Stephanopoulos’s statements as defamatory.” She adopted that up final week by rejecting Disney’s request to delay the case, ordering the speedy depositions of Trump and Stephanopoulos and demanding the corporate flip over “all remaining paperwork” associated to the case.

Disney reacted to the latest setback by coming into into settlement talks with Trump, reaching a deal inside a day. In keeping with The New York Occasions, Disney executives’ considerations “concerned a number of issues,” and the settlement was accepted by Disney CEO Bob Iger and basic counsel Horacio Gutierrez.

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“The corporate was involved {that a} jury in Florida — a deep-red state that Mr. Trump carried by 13 factors within the election final month — would facet with the president-elect and probably award him a large sum exceeding what it might price to settle,” the Occasions reported. “Disney may have appealed, in fact, and executives felt the legislation was on their facet. However the appeals course of additionally carried substantial threat, Disney legal professionals concluded.”

The New York Put up later reported that Stephanopoulos had been repeatedly informed by an govt producer to not use the phrase rape through the March interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), a revelation that may have come out in discovery and presumably explains why Iger determined to settle.

Stephanopoulos, in the meantime, felt blindsided and “apoplectic” over his community capitulating to Trump and issuing a quasi-apology, ABC Information insiders and staffers stated. After the settlement was introduced on Saturday, the anchor deleted his account on X, which boasted 2.3 million followers.

Whatever the the explanation why Disney felt the necessity to settle with Trump, First Modification specialists are sounding the alarm over the precedent this might set. Particularly for the reason that incoming president ramps up his authorized threats in opposition to information retailers he feels have given him unfair protection, all whereas billionaire media moguls have signaled that they’re prepared to play good with him.

“Many in free press circles are holding their breath,” Roy Gutterman, director of the Newhouse Faculty’s Tully Middle for Free Speech, informed The Unbiased. “There may be concern that we’re embarking on some scary occasions.”