Last week, after ABC News effectively fired veteran correspondent Terry Moran over his late-night fit of pique against President Trump and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller—“It wasn’t a drunk tweet,” he told the Times, unsolicited—the longtime broadcaster followed a familiar routine: He announced that he would be joining Substack. Moran is the latest in a string of veteran political journalists who have sought refuge on the D.I.Y. digital publishing platform after being defenestrated, or delicately nudged toward the exits, by mainstream institutions. Others include CNN vets Don Lemon and Jim Acosta, NBC alumni Chuck Todd and Joy Reid, and former Politico scribe Ryan Lizza, whose defection, which he marketed as a truth-to-power move, was in fact forced by his former employer.