ABC News had no choice but to take the action it took in firing veteran journalist Terry Moran who let his bias get in the way of his doing his job.

The network had suspended Moran over a social media message he posted declaring that Donald Trump and chief White House aide Stephen Miller were conveyers of hate. He said they both drew their “nourishment” from the hate they spew regularly.

That was a seriously bad call. On Moran’s part!

ABC’s decision to not review Moran’s contract became quite obvious immediately after the network suspended him. Moran had been with the network for 28 years and had drawn high praise for the work he did in covering politics, government and public policy. For him to reveal his contempt for Trump and for Miller betrayed every single tenet of fair-minded journalism imaginable. He took the message down immediately, but the damage was done. As a former colleague of mine used to observe: You cannot unhonk a horn.

Whether one agrees with Moran’s assessment of these two men is absolutely not the issue. The issue is that Moran can never be trusted to tell news viewers the objective, unvarnished truth about what he is reporting on issues involving the Trump administration.

I applaud ABC News for the decision it made regading Terry Moran. His job was to keep his personal feelings about the people he covers to himself. He failed miserably to uphold that commitment.