ABC News presidential debate under the spotlight after Disney co-chairwoman's friendship with Kamala Harris revealed
Dana Walden, co-chair of the entertainment giant, has maintained close ties with the vice president since 1994. The executive made significant donations to the Democrat between 2003 and 2022.
The friendship between Kamala Harris and Disney executive Dana Walden began in 1994.
The debate to take place on ABC News between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is in the spotlight. The reason? The "close friendship" that exists between one of the co-chairs of the Walt Disney Corporation, Dana Walden, and the Democrat has been revealed weeks before the debate is set to take place.
Walden is not just another co-chairwoman. She's in charge of ABC News and the company's other TV channels as well as its streaming platform and is one of the leading names to replace Bob Iger when the CEO is ready to retire.
That is the reason for the problem. She controls the news division of the company, and it has been discovered that there could be a conflict of interest, as their friendship dates back to 1994.
It was The New York Times that revealed the existence of this relationship. It also reported that relationship between the two's respective husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, dates back even further, as long ago as the 1980s.
In fact, the newspaper began an extensive investigation and uncovered that Walden had collaborated in several Harris campaigns between 2003 and 2022, even helping to organize them.
After that, Walden stopped collaborating so actively in the vice president's fundraisers, although last year, she donated $20,000 to support President Biden and the Democratic Party in the upcoming presidential election, as can be seen in documents published by The New York Times.
But the relationship goes even further. According to Harris, the Waldens were among the architects of her marriage to Doug Emhoff:
"In many ways, Dana and Matt are responsible for my marriage."
All this has cast doubt on the position ABC News will take during the debate that, moderated by anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis, will take place on Sept. 10 in prime time.
But the TV network assured that there will be no conflict of interest during the debate. On the contrary, it assured that the event will be organized by journalists and not by Dana Walden, who will have no editorial authority of any kind.
"ABC News has built its longstanding reputation on journalistic integrity. All editorial decisions are in the hands of ABC News management and the seasoned journalists and producers of ABC, who hold themselves to the highest journalistic standards," the network detailed in a statement.
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