After nearly 15 years of building a career in journalism, Disney-owned ABC News has decided to part ways with its Good Morning America anchor, Janai Norman. Now months after her contract was not renewed, she is not staying quiet about her journalism ethos. In a series of pointed videos, she is accusing former colleague Michael Strahan of something far more damning than bad journalism.

Calling out Strahan and the mainstream media through her YouTube channel, Janai Norman has pointed fingers at Michael Strahan for grilling 18-year-old college football player Nolan Wells’ grieving family during the coverage of Wells’ mysterious death on ABC News. Norman accused Strahan of being “insensitive” and violating his journalism ethos. 

“Media Literacy 101. Let’s look at Nolan Wells’ parents’ first interview. Bless Michael, cuz he had it right the first time. The question should have been, ‘Do you believe that?’ Not asking these grieving parents to defend a decision that we don’t even know for certain their deceased son made. That was not an objective question. Subjectively, I would say that it was insensitive. It also absolves authorities because, as I showed you before, that’s not just the friend’s version of what happened. That’s now the authorities’ official version.” 

Norman went behind Strahan when he asked, “Friends, um, say that Nolan traveled to Horn Island, and they say that he stayed behind voluntarily. Do you think he would stay behind?” instead of asking if they really believe what the law enforcement officials said.

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“That we cannot answer,” Nolan Wells’ parents responded. “I can’t fathom why he would. Like, I don’t know why he would. Um, we always taught him if you go with a group, you stay with a group. Any parent would fight for their kids to find out if anything happened, what did happen. So, we just want honesty and transparency. We want a thorough investigation. We want that same respect that would be given to anybody else. And that’s it. We just want answers.”

According to the reports from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the agency found the teen footballer’s body two days later near Horn Island, Mississippi, on the fourth of July after he went on a boating trip with friends and did not return. Based on the investigations and the autopsy, the federal agencies concluded that there was no foul play involved in Nolan’s death and labeled it as a death by accidental drowning. 

But an independent autopsy commissioned by Wells’ family, conducted by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell, concluded that the angle of foul play cannot be ruled out. 

Following the discovery of his body and findings of the independent autopsy, the family rejected the initial theories of an accidental drowning and took several steps to find answers. 

To back her statements, she cited the historical stats of “lynchings” in the Mississippi region and moved on to more skepticism against the federal agencies.  While recalling the events mentioned by Nolan Well’s parents of “deleted messages” and later discovery of his body, she called for further investigation. 

“These parents deserve more than what they’ve gotten so far from local law enforcement and from national media, who should, at this point, be looking at law enforcement with more skepticism,” Janai Norman said. “Tag your favorite independent journalists and information-based content creators because the more people talk about this and understand how media can be used for manipulation, the better we can all consume information.”

Norman’s criticism ultimately goes beyond one question from Strahan. She believes that the media should continue pressing for answers rather than treating the initial findings as the end of the story.