ABC News boss Kim Godwin 'badmouthing' new boss was 'last straw': sources

Published

1 year ago

May 7, 2024

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Embattled ABC News president Kim Godwin stepped down after she was caught “badmouthing” her new boss — the “last straw” in a “confluence” of bad decisions that included the bungled firing of weatherman Rob Marciano last week, The Post has learned.

Godwin — the first black person to lead a major network news division — resigned Sunday to end a chaotic three-year tenure marked by a slew of public missteps that led corporate overlord Disney to bring in veteran executive Debra OConnell in February.

“She was badmouthing Debra. It was the last straw,” an ABC source told The Post on Monday.

The elevation of OConnell was effectively a demotion for Godwin, who was still given a three-year extension by Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Disney is scheduled to report its earnings on Tuesday, and Iger did not want to get bogged down in questions about Godwin, another source close to the situation told The Post.

Her sudden exit followed a blistering report last Friday by the news outlet Puck that claimed Godwin was trashing OConnell to “an associate” over a recent dinner in New York.

A day earlier, CNN reported that Godwin was “in hot water” and “under a leadership review” by OConnell, who was said to be astonished by Godwin’s mismanagement of a division that includes top-rated shows “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight.

“They decided to pull the trigger on her Friday night,” the second source said. “They negotiated a settlement.”

Financial terms of her three-year deal or her payout were not made public.

ABC News declined to comment. Godwin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The source told The Post that a “confluence” of events that included the Marciano saga and negative feedback from fellow black employees about their boss played a role in Disney sharpening the ax.

“Debra already knew about Kim was trashing her,” the source said, adding that what upset top brass was learning that nobody in the building supported Godwin.

The source cited Puck’s report, which included interviews with black journalists at the network who were worried that Godwin would “use the race issue to insulate herself from criticism or frame the narrative around her seemingly inevitable departure.”

Race in the workplace is so nuanced that it can be easily weaponized by all sides and bad actors of any race, a black ABC News veteran told the outlet.

Disney fell into the trap of the soft bigotry of low expectations and appointed someone everyone knows is unqualified to do the job Now [they] are worried that firing the first black woman would be an act of racism, when she is simply bad at her job.

The National Association of Black Journalists came out with a full-throated defense of Godwin on Saturday. The organization claimed Godwin’s supporters inside the network had been silenced.

“Those supporters have told NABJ that they see the attacks, perpetrated through media reports, as ‘racially motivated’ or in reaction to her not being in what some in the industry call the ‘good old boy network’ of players,” the organization wrote in its press release.

A source with knowledge said the press release rankled top brass, who expedited the date of Godwin’s exit.

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Godwin also allegedly said in several staff meetings that “black people don’t watch the news,” and complained that in the wake of George Floyds murder at the hands of cops, news networks had “overcompensated for a lack of diversity in the leadership ranks.”

“It’s quite the opposite,” the second source told The Post. “It shows a fundamental lack of knowledge in the audience and that’s troubling.”

“On the bright side, the long national nightmare is over.”

Employees are now bracing for more restructuring after Godwin’s departure, with one source adding “the worst of it is yet to come.”

As previously reported by The Post, some sources are pointing at the former president’s top lieutenants, Jose Andino, the vice president of the office of the president & process management, executive editor and senior vice president Stacia Deshishku and executive vice president Derek Medina.

“As we talk about the decline of news, watching these three for the past three years is like watching ‘The Lion King’ and the three hyenas picking up the carcass of Mufasa,” a source said of the three lieutenants.

“Mediocrity hides in the shadows of ambiguity and in this case, it not only hides, it thrives in the ABC News C-suite,” the source added.

In recent days, the source said, Godwin’s bad decision-making returned to haunt her. Marciano, a former “Good Morning America” weatherman, was ousted amid alleged anger issues.

A year earlier, Marciano was “banned” from “GMA’s” set after he allegedly made a colleague feel uncomfortable. Instead of firing Marciano then, Godwin moved him to “World News Tonight” and had him send in reports to “GMA,” a move that prolonged the problem, sources said.

The move was reminiscent of Godwin’s mishandling of the relationship between GMA3 hosts TJ Holmes and Amy Robach, who were allowed to remain on the air even after news of their romance became public.

OConnell has also reportedly been shocked that Godwin has failed to replace the networks head of talent, Galen Gordon, more than a year after she had fired him. She also was not happy to see ABC News lose its Washington bureau chief, Jonathan Greenberger, to Politico just months before a historic presidential election.

UK

Starmer will be breathing a sigh of relief after clinching shock victory over SNP and Reform UK

Published

1 hour ago

June 6, 2025

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Starmer will be breathing a sigh of relief after clinching shock victory over SNP and Reform UK

Anything other than a win for Labour would have been a humiliation in this contest.

It wasn’t any old local by-election – this was a contest where Labour knew it could act as a mini barometer of Sir Keir Starmer’s recent U-turn on winter fuel payments and become a test of how popular the politics of Nigel Farage are in Scotland.

Labour are power hungry and have, for a long time, set their sights on forming the next Scottish government.

The prime minister will this morning be breathing a sigh of relief after clinching this shock victory over the SNP and Reform UK.

This contest on the outskirts of Glasgow came at a time where Labour had been firefighting and grappling with polling suggesting they had blown their chances of ousting the SNP from power in Edinburgh after almost 20 years.

The SNP had a spring in their step during this campaign after a chaotic couple of years.

First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney had apparently stemmed the bleeding after the infamous police fraud investigation, endless fallout over gender identity reforms, and last year’s general election where they were almost wiped out.

This result leaves them no further forward than 12 months ago with questions over the party’s strategy.

Reform UK is very much in the Scottish picture now, finishing a few hundred votes behind the nationalists.

This is a party led by a man who barely registered any support north of the border for many years. A remarkable transformation.

The surge in support has spooked many because they know fine well Nigel Farage is only just getting started.

One poll had Reform UK forming the next official opposition at Holyrood. After tonight, that might be a tall order but Mr Farage is shaking things up at the expense of the Conservatives.

The unpredictable nature of this contest may give us a taste of what is to come.

UK

EuroMillions: Single ticket-holder could win UK’s biggest lottery prize tonight

Published

1 hour ago

June 6, 2025

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EuroMillions: Single ticket-holder could win UK's biggest lottery prize tonight

A single ticket-holder could win the biggest lottery prize the UK has ever seen if they match the right numbers in tonight’s EuroMillions draw.

The jackpot has rolled over to an estimated £208m, after Tuesday’s £199m draw – which also would have been a record-breaking amount – had no winners.

The winner would instantly become richer than Adele and Harry Styles, while also bagging the top spot on the National Lottery’s biggest wins list.

Housing raffles take UK by storm – how likely are you to win?

Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at Allwyn, said: “We are now on the verge of potentially creating the biggest National Lottery winner this country has ever seen.”

The previous largest prize pot was won by an anonymous UK ticket-holder, who took home £195m on 19 July 2022.

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Just two months earlier, Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, won £184,262,899 with a Lucky Dip ticket. At the time, Joe was a communications sales engineer, and Jess ran a hairdressing salon with her sister.

Mr Thwaite said he woke up at 5am as usual, and checked his phone to see an email saying, “Good news, you have won a prize”.

But he did not immediately wake his wife, choosing to let her sleep in.

“I saw how much and I didn’t know what to do,” Mr Thwaite said.

“I couldn’t go back to sleep, I didn’t want to wake Jess up, so I just laid there for what seemed like forever. I spent some time searching for property with no budget limit, which was a novelty!”

When his wife woke up, she assumed the National Lottery app was wrong.

In February last year, Richard and Debbie Nuttall were revealed as the UK winners of a £61m EuroMillions jackpot – who at first thought they had only won £2.60.

The couple from Lancashire split the £123m prize with a winner in Spain.

This year’s biggest prize, of £83m went to a UK winner in January.

Science

Japanese Private Lunar Lander Resilience Fails Mission, Crashes on Moon

Published

3 hours ago

June 6, 2025

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Japanese Private Lunar Lander Resilience Fails Mission, Crashes on Moon

A Japanese spacecraft attempting to achieve the country’s first private moon landing instead crashed on the lunar surface, according to mission officials. The Resilience lander, developed by Tokyo-based ispace, lost communication one minute and 45 seconds before its scheduled soft touchdown on June 5 at 3:17 p.m. EDT. The descent was targeted for the Mare Frigoris region on the Moon’s near side. ispace had its second problem on the moon when its laser rangefinder broke, which is a big improvement over its prior failure in April 2023.

Japan’s Resilience Lunar Lander Crashes in Hard Landing, ispace Vows to Learn and Rebuild

As per an official statement from ispace, telemetry from Resilience revealed that the rangefinder’s delayed data caused a failure in adjusting landing speed. This likely led to a “hard landing”, suggesting the spacecraft hit the moon’s surface too fast to survive or complete its mission. The lander, carrying five payloads, such as a Tenacious rover and scientific instruments, crashed with no survivors. The firm’s CEO, Takeshi Hakamada, apologised and remarked that the company would use the mission to learn about future missions.

The Hakuto-R Mission 2 team launched a 7.5-foot-tall, 2,200-pound Resilience lander into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in early May. But with a perfect orbit, the lander smashed into the lunar surface at 192 metres – an echo of Mission 1’s mission failure in 2023, which crashed because a fault in one of its altitude sensors was not corrected.

The Resilience crash adds to private attempts to explore the moon, including the unsuccessful Beresheet and Peregrine missions. Crewed landings such as Odysseus and Blue Ghost prove that dreams of commercial space are possible. The second Hakuto-R mission was a private attempt and a blow to Japan’s space ambitions. Failure has not stopped ispace development for Mission 3 and Mission 4 with its larger Apex 1.0 lander.

Hakamada mentioned that the priority for the team was now to find out what caused the crash. “Supporters are disappointed,” CFO Nozaki says, “but ispace has yet to cover the moon, and the road does not end, even if Mission 2 didn’t go as planned.”