Interviewing the creator and writers of Andor revealed how different parts of Disney’s media universe handle criticizing power
There are times. I swear, when it seems Andor creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy must have had a crystal ball in his hip pocket.
Consider that one storyline from the Disney+ series’ second and final season depicts how a deliberate, massive buildup of government troops provokes a clash with protestors, allowing officials to justify a military takeover of their area.
Sound anything like recent news events?
I had the great fortune to quiz Gilroy and Andor’s writers, Dan Gilroy, Tom Bissell and Beau Willimon, for the Writers Guild Foundation on the amazing feat they pulled off – reinventing and reinvigorating the world of Star Wars with a story focused on the mostly forgotten, average people who came together in a rebellion to fight a brutally repressive Empire.
(Emmy voting begins Thursday, which helps explain why so many stars from your favorite TV shows are doing panels and interviews about their big projects now.)
Tony Gilroy swears that — even though Andor features undocumented immigrants fleeing oppression, marginalized groups fighting for their rights, a militarized government cracking down and a sophisticated media campaign to spread messages which distract the public — he didn’t craft the storylines specifically to comment on real-life, MAGA-fueled politics.
“I don’t know when immigration hasn’t been an issue,” Gilroy says in our discussion. “Go back and look at what the Irish went through New York City…What happened to indigenous people in Mexico when the Spanish arrived?…Having papers, having legitimacy?…I think it goes back to the very first campfire.”
True enough. But given how other areas of the Disney empire have reacted to limit criticism of Donald Trump and his administration, I also don’t blame Gilroy for treading lightly. There are reports Disney executives asked hosts of The View to tone down criticism of Trump. And there’s Terry Moran.
News surfaced yesterday that ABC News cut ties with Moran, an ABC News correspondent and sometimes anchor, after 28 years at the network. He had been suspended after posting, then deleting, highly critical comments about Trump and his aide Stephen Miller, using the phrase “world-class hater” to describe them.
As journalism experts will point out, this really isn’t something that a staffer in a traditional correspondent’s job, mostly focused on reporting facts, should say publicly. The issue gets a little murkier with someone like Moran, who served for years as an anchor on Nightline, and probably has been asked to provide analysis on politics, international affairs and the Supreme Court, due to his extensive reporting experience.
Still, the insult from someone whose job doesn’t focus on delivering opinions is a stretch. And Moran’s post put ABC News owners Disney in a bind – they had already cut a settlement with Trump over a lawsuit centered on an errant remark by anchor George Stephanopoulos. Would they risk another lawsuit by allowing Moran to keep covering politics?
I think Moran got caught up in a tension most traditional journalists face – made worse in the era of shoot-from-the-hip influencers – between the traditional confines of reporting jobs and a desire by the audience to see reporters reveal seemingly obvious conclusions they have reached after years of covering politics, culture and the news.
The distinctions traditional journalists try to draw between expressing opinions and providing analysis can feel like arbitrary nitpicking, especially to people outside the industry. This is a line many TV anchors, pundits and opinion journalists cross — and in a moment of extreme tension over the unrest in Los Angeles, popping off on social media is not unheard of.
All this considered, I agree with columnists like Margaret Sullivan — Moran should have been suspended, not let go. It is, as a character from The West Wing once said, “$5,000 worth of punishment for a 50 buck crime.” And the message it sends – to fellow journalists and to the audience – about whether reporters can actually speak their minds about what they are covering, harms everyone’s confidence in mainstream journalism institutions, just as they are under attack.
In the face of a White House which pushes back against criticism so aggressively, quality journalism and news outlets should expand conversations and increase the scope of public debate. Not reinforce the notion that one mistake can bring the most negative consequences.
Perhaps Disney’s news executives can take a lesson from Andor, which makes heroes of average people fighting to expand their freedoms.