Short answers, pulled from the story.
ABC News traces its origins to 1943, when the NBC Blue Network was spun off from NBC as a separate company following a 1942 Federal Communications Commission order. The FCC required the split to expand competition in radio news and political broadcasting. Regular ABC television news broadcasts began in August 1948 after the network launched its first owned-and-operated station, WJZ-TV in New York City.
Roone Arledge was appointed president of ABC News in 1977 while simultaneously serving as president of ABC Sports. He is credited with creating or developing several of the network's most enduring programs, including 20/20, World News Tonight, This Week, Nightline, and Primetime Live. Arledge was known for experimenting with the broadcast model and investing resources that made ABC News a major competitor to CBS and NBC.
On the 7th of October 1985, Roone Arledge killed a 13-minute 20/20 report about Marilyn Monroe that documented alleged relationships between Monroe and both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. The segment included on-camera testimony from a detective named Fred Otash, who identified himself as the chief wiretapper of Monroe's home, and accounts of Robert F. Kennedy visiting Monroe on the day of her death. The decision drew public criticism from co-anchor Hugh Downs and executive producer Av Westin, and led correspondent Geraldo Rivera to leave ABC entirely.
In December 2024, ABC News settled the defamation lawsuit Trump filed against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos by agreeing to pay fifteen million dollars to Trump's presidential library and one million dollars in legal fees. ABC and Stephanopoulos also published a statement expressing regret for Stephanopoulos's inaccurate statements. The settlement came a day after a judge ruled that both Trump and Stephanopoulos were required to sit for depositions.
ABC News Live is a 24/7 streaming news channel operated by ABC News that launched on Roku in May 2019. It carries breaking news, live events, newscasts, and longer-form documentaries. The channel is available on more than a dozen platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, YouTube TV, Prime Video Live TV, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel.
In an October 2018 Simmons Research survey of 38 news organizations, ABC News ranked as the second most trusted news organization among Americans, behind The Wall Street Journal.