ABC News veteran Sam Donaldson told the Huffington Post that fired Yahoo News Washington bureau chief David Chalian is “not damaged goods.”
Chalian, who used to work at ABC News as a political director, earlier this week said the Romenys were happy to celebrate at the Republican National Convention while black storm victims suffer through Tropical Storm Isaac. Yahoo swiftly fired Chalian for the remark, which was caught by the conservative news site Newsbusters.
“We’ve all been in situations where we say things we that think are private,” Donaldson told HuffPost’s Michael Calderone. “We kid. We jape. I’ve said things that are just, ugh, beyond the pale in a sense. I’m not making an excuse for him. Understand that. He properly, in his statement, issued an apology that I believe was heartfelt and he should have. But life will go on. He’s not damaged goods, in my estimation, to the extent that he’ll never work again in the business.”
