Posted on 12/04/2017 9:08:38 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
ABC News’ Brian Ross stepped on a rake with that botched Flynn-Russia story—and there are whisperings that his future might not be bright at the network. It all began when Ross reported that Donald Trump had ordered Michael Flynn, the ex-national security adviser, to make contact with the Russians during the 2016 election. Well, as it turns out, the timeline was off. It was after Trump had won the election, so President-elect Trump ordered Flynn to make contact with the Russians per the usual actions of any transition team laying the groundwork for an incoming administration. After several hours, ABC issued a correction:
Correction: During a live Special Report, ABC News reported that a confidant of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said Flynn was prepared to testify that then-candidate Donald Trump instructed him to contact Russian officials during the campaign. That source later clarified that during the campaign, Trump assigned Flynn and a small circle of other senior advisers to find ways to repair relations with Russia and other hot spots. It was shortly after the election, that President-elect Trump directed Flynn to contact Russian officials on topics that included working jointly against ISIS. Now, there’s audio of ABC News’ President James Goldston torching the news staff for allowing this shoddy story to get through and being reported on live television; Ross used a single, anonymous source for his report. Goldston noted how the whole news division, especially those in D.C., have to bear the brunt of this, how it makes everyone’ s job harder, and how it’s more important to be right than first. Yet, how this information was able to slip through the cracks is another issue altogether (via CNN):
During ABC News' morning editorial call Monday, audio of which was obtained by CNN, Goldston excoriated his staff for the error. "I don't think ever in my career have I felt more rage and disappointment and frustration that I felt through this weekend and through the last half of Friday," Goldston said. "I don't even know how many times we've talked about this, how many times we have talked about the need to get it right," he added. "That how we have to be right and not first. About how in this particular moment, with the stakes as high as these stakes are right now, we cannot afford to get it wrong." […] Goldston also said, "If it isn't obvious to everyone in this news division, we have taken a huge hit and we have made the job of every single person in this news division harder as a result. It's much, much harder. We have people in Washington who are going to bear the brunt of this today and in the days forward. Very, very, very, very unfortunate. Really, really angry about it." The ABC News chief said that Ross reported information that was "just plain wrong," and did so without anyone "having ever made a decision that we were going to go to air with that information." […] Goldston expressed additional frustration at the fact that it took more than seven hours for ABC News to clarify the story on ABC's "World News Tonight." Later, Friday evening, the network issued a full blown correction in a written statement. "The thing that compounded our mistake is that not only did we make a mistake, if we had then corrected ourselves right away, again -- we wouldn't be in this position. It would have been a very different story," he said. "But we ended up in the impossible situation where we had actually conflicting information that we said on air, which conflicted with the information that was online. And then it took us seven hours, eight hours to get our story straight. This is not acceptable. It's not acceptable. And we will all pay the price for a long time." […] "No one wants to work with him [Ross]," said one ABC News employee. "The future doesn't seem bright for him," added another. Goldston added that Ross would no longer be covering Trump either. He was recently given a four-week, no-pay suspension for this trip up. This isn’t the first time Ross has got a face full of buckshot for reporting shoddy leads. In 2012, after the tragic Aurora shooting, Ross reported that the shooter, James Holmes, might be a member of the Tea Party Movement. ABC News was forced to apologize for that story as well.
Can you say Schadenfreude?
‘Stakes as high as stakes are now’
What exactly does that mean???
Media has not been in this position before. They have gotten lazy and mean.
Being first only had anything to do with the fact they wanted to set a narrative firestorm or drive by as Rush always says. They cannot do that anymore because Trump won’t just let them drive by and the internet holds them accountable.
All in all a good way for ABC to spend the weekend.
Who knows how to do a video or cartoon?
Brian Ross stepping on a rake with MAGA written on the handle.
NBC: Matt Lauer fired in disgrace
CBS: Charlie Rose fired in disgrace
ABC: Lyin’ Brian Ross suspended in disgrace
Hatrick!
Remember when Reagan got shot, and Frank Reynolds, through no fault of his own, erroneously reported James Brady had been shot dead? He didn’t waste ANY time correcting himself.
http://roblang.wbal.com/2011/01/lets-get-it-nailed-down-lets-get-it.html
Good riddance smug, elite Brian Ross. Looks like you truly are going to “be held accountable”!
>>>ABC: Lyin’ Brian Ross suspended in disgrace<<<
This makes ABC look good in my eyes. It has the appearance that management isn’t going to let individual biases run amok at the expense of their reputation. Sadly that doesn’t seem to be the reaction for many other news outfits.
Brian Ross needs to go. He should have gone back in 1992 when he rigged that fake story about the GM Trucks.
If Goldston has any balls, he’ll fire Ross and never let him on the ABC air again. Anything less is a win for Ross.
Consider the source! This is probably fake news about fake news.
Exactly. This is just for public consumption.
They used to get away with this kind of stuff all the time. You’re right: no longer!
I wonder how CNN got hold of the tape? I think the lying press is so backed into a corner with Trump fighting back and exposing their total corruption they are now working with each other to create these "leaks" to make it look as if they are not biased.
If they can somehow make people believe they have been competitors instead of the lockstep Democrats lackeys they truly are then they think they can pass this stuff off to change perceptions.
PS I read two AP articles on tax reform in the local newspaper (I cancelled a few years ago) while waiting on my sweetie in the dentist office this morning.
One gave the Democrat side, the other the GOP.
I had to stop myself from swearing out loud.
When the Democrats are in power, and that power is threatened (Clinton impeachment, Tea Party), the media steps up it’s attacks on Conservatives.
When the Republicans are in power, it’s a constant drumbeat of attacks.
With Trump as POTUS, we’re in uncharted territory. The media reminds me of when Rhonda Rousey got her butt kicked.
As soon as Rousey took some good hits, she started flailing desperately, like she couldn’t believe she might actually get beat, and was trying to overcompensate for having been staggered.
The media never met a Republican they hated more than Trump the politician (they had no problem with Trump the celebrity billionaire). And they never met a Republican who fights back.
They are completely flustered. What’s sad is that they were always this easy to beat, if anyone on our side had ever tried.
-PJ
The use of “anonymous sources” gives the impression that they are gathering stories by meeting men in trench coats and sunglasses behind the columns of a parking garage at night, when in actuality they are meeting under the fluorescent lights of a conference room around Starbucks coffee fetched by interns, with slackened neckties fabricating stories from whole cloth.
The implication from Goldston’s statement is that ABC objectively reports the news. If he believes that, he hasn’t been objectively listening to or reading what his reporters say. This wasn’t something that “snuck through the crack.” Every “news” person is desperately trying to take down Trump. They want to be the next Woodward and Bernstein. The reporters believe if they can only find the one smoking gun, out of the dozens of smoking guns they believe are out there smoking someplace, then they will be carried through the rest of their lives on the shoulders of lesser reporters. They will be invited to state dinners. They will get Nobel Peace prizes.
Ross reported the way he did, based on one source, because he KNEW the report HAD to be correct. He knew what he was looking for, a Trump takedown. It is entirely likely that the source told Ross one thing, and Ross HEARD something else, because Ross KNEW what the TRUTH was. Ross was just waiting for a “source” to give him the truth Ross already knew was there.
There is no cure for bias this deep. The only people fooled by protestations of neutral, unbiased reporting are the people making those assertions.
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