ABC News' David Muir's On-Air Fashion Fail Is Causing A Stir

Should we care what we look like in the midst of tragedy? ABC News' David Muir has managed to make that question quite the litmus test after going live to report on the wildfires that have engulfed Southern California. Muir reported from areas of devastation for "ABC World News Tonight with David Muir," where he wore a high-visibility yellow jacket emblazoned with the ABC News logo as he spoke with first responders and walked through scorched residential areas. But eagle-eyed viewers noticed an untold truth about Muir and his outfit, as one user posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had seemingly cinched his jacket into a more form-fitting look via clothespins along the back. In the video accompanying the post, the clothespins can be seen when Muir turns away from camera, revealing his impromptu tailoring.

David Muir appears to be using clothespins to keep his jacket fitted while reporting on the devastating LA fires

Video via @JackOsbourne pic.twitter.com/EnaD1YFW8o

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 9, 2025

Viewers instinctively lashed out at what many perceived to be vanity in the face of disaster. One user posted on X, "The vanity of @DavidMuir is OFF the charts!" Another user posted a GIF of famously vain fictional celebrity Derek Zoolander with the caption, "David Muir while hundreds of thousands are fleeing the inferno of the apocalypse in the Hollywood Hills." And Jack Osbourne, son of legendary singer Ozzy Osbourne, posted, "Nice Jacket Bro. Glad you look nice and svelte with those clothes line pegs, while our city burns to the ground," which opened the floodgates for his 474,000 followers to pile on. But the real hit came from Megyn Kelly when she went off on Muir on SiriusXM's "The Megyn Kelly Show," saying, "This is not dress up time. That's something that my little boys did when they were still in the single digits... Not on the news when people are dying!"

Others have come to David Muir's defense, even offering practical reasons why he may have opted to cinch his coat. One user on X said, "In all fairness, in those winds that jacket flapping would have given his sound tech an aneurysm." Another user chimed in with technical reasons for the skinny look, saying, "It's probably holding the wire for his microphone so it doesn't swing around to his front. Probably plugs into the battery pack and transmitter." And some didn't even need a good reason for the fashionable decision, with Us Weekly reporting that one user came to the handsome reporter's defense by saying, "Y'all leave David Muir and his clothespin fire jacket alone. A little waist snatchin' ain't hurt nobody."

What we do know is that Muir is sadly aware of some of his more narcissistic tendencies. In an interview with Vanity Fair, he acknowledged that he knows he busts out a certain pouty look for fans wanting pictures and always believes his head looks three times bigger than everyone around him. We're happy to chalk the wardrobe misstep up to the self-centered job requirements of being on camera all the time. And as for Megyn Kelly's on-show claim that he was "pretending to be a fireman," at least he's playing pretend while also doing his job from the middle of an evacuation zone and not sitting in a studio firing off critiques with their makeup perfectly done.