Posted on 12/06/2017 6:37:13 AM PST by Kaslin
When you're the source for "breaking news" but it turns out to be "faking news," you're in trouble. ABC News "chief investigative correspondent" Brian Ross reported on retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn's plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller by claiming that Flynn is "prepared to testify that President Trump, as a candidate, Donald Trump, ordered him, directed him to make contact with the Russians which contradicts all that Donald Trump has said to this point."
It was a nuclear explosion. Within minutes, the stock market plunged 350 points.
It quickly became clear that was flat-out wrong. Later, ABC News added on the evening news what it disingenuously called a "clarification" -- actually, it said, Trump directed Flynn to contact the Russians after the election. Not only is that not scandalous but it is also completely expected for a new president. After more uproar, ABC finally found the reporting to be a "serious error" and suspended Ross for four weeks without pay.
It's a classic journalistic mistake to try and be first to report something before it's verified. But in the Trump era, when liberals believe the president is a uniquely dangerous threat to America -- and even the world -- any news that could lead to speculation about Trump's impeachment or resignation is like catnip. Journalists are prone to overhype anything that could spell "The End."
This suspension might have been an adequate punishment ... if Ross hadn't already made a long line of whoppers. Conservatives remember the 2012 movie theater mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, by James Holmes and how Ross came on in breaking-news mode to announce that there was a "Jim Holmes" on a Colorado Tea Party Patriots website ... as if that were a perfect starting point to identifying a mass shooter. It wasn't.
But there are more.
In 2001, Ross claimed that the anthrax used in deadly attacks after 9/11 in Washington, D.C., and New York was coated with bentonite, a chemical compound found only in biological weapons made by then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's henchmen. Former President George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer remembers the event. He tweeted: "I explicitly told ABC News not to go with the anthrax story because it was wrong. Brian Ross went with it anyway -- and one week later issued a murky, hard to understand correction."
In the first month of the Iraq War in 2003, Ross reported that Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid (or "Chemical Ali"), an Iraqi general, had been killed. Several media outlets forwarded that report. Six months later, U.S. officials announced that they had him in custody.
In 2006, Ross claimed that Pakistani officials had arrested al-Qaida explosives expert Matiur Rehman, who had an "official" list of terrorist recruits and could lead to then-al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. A Pakistani official denounced the report as "fictitious." Then-ABC consultant Alexis Debat warned ABC that the report was not true a day after it was initially broadcast.
In that same year, Ross breathlessly relayed that the FBI was investigating then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert for bribery in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. "Justice Department officials describe the 64-year-old Illinois Republican as very much in the mix of the corruption investigation," he said. This prompted the Justice Department to deny that there was any federal probe of Hastert, and Hastert demanded a retraction of the statement and threatened to sue ABC.
None of these whoppers ever led to any suspension of Ross, who's been at ABC since 1994. His liberal colleagues have given him six Peabody awards and six George Polk awards, so his reputation inside the network was apparently unscathed by his large errors.
It's a little bizarre that these days, alleged sexual harassers like Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer are dumped abruptly, while Brian Williams has an hourlong nightly show on MSNBC, and Brian Ross gets a slap on the wrist. These supposed guardians against "fake news" make it look like fact mangling isn't really a serious offense. Brian Ross should be fired.
You can say for the guy is that for every three ‘big’ stories he broke open...at least one of them was a fake story. It’s curious how the network kept seeing this trend and just never said to the guy that your days are numbered.
I would like to see a complete list of all of his fake news/screw ups...
Flynn Report
Tea Party Mass Shooter
He shouldn’t be fired. He is now an undeniably proven partisan. Leave him there. Why give ABC the chance to put a new reporter in place and pretend he is a real journalist?
Brian Ross is no more than a partisan hack.
No true news organization has a place for people like that whether conservative or liberal. Fire the guy not because he is partisan but because he is a liar and his stories are untrue.
He should just be the evening anchor at ABC or the Today show host at NBC.
You might want to read the article to see that.
Brian Ross was also involved in fake news stories when he was a reporter on the NBC show “Dateline”. In 1993 NBC had to apologize for two Brian Ross investigative segments involving a North Carolina eye clinic:
http://variety.com/1993/biz/news/n-c-eye-clinic-sues-dateline-nbc-109962/
and a story about alleged defects in GMC pickup trucks in which NBC staged the explosion of a GMC pickup truck
https://web.archive.org/web/20120122072414/http://www.exponent.com:80/nbc-dateline/
The failure of the journalism profession to demand Ross be fired is more evidence of complete corruption of the media and the total lack of standards.
Fired years ago by NBC..
I could never stand Brian Ross.
But the entire news media has gotten so prejudiced that I simply no longer watch TV news, national news OR local news.
I record the local news segment, and fast-forward to the local weather segment. That, at least, has not yet succumbed to political correctness.
Of course he should be fired. He has no credibility. His name is now associated with FAKE NEWS.
Brian Ross only does what his bosses instruct. When caught in fake news ABC (allegedly) “suspends” him (LOL!)... the entire alphabet “news” organizations should be “suspended”... they’re ALL partisan hacks!
What mazin is they continue to report as if they still have a monopoly... that their lies don’t get exposed. How outta touch and tone deaf can they be?!?
MSM motto: When your lies don’t work... lie harder, LIE LOUDER!!!
Should be fired? For what? He was doing the job ABC wanted him to do. Look at Joy Behar.
He got suspended for being to blarant
Because Brian Ross didn't DO this in a vacuum.
NONE of these talking heads go out and find these stories and do the investigation. All they do is sit in front of the camera and read the script. They are there because of their 'personality'.
The 'network' never told him his days were numbered because he was doing EXACTLY what they instructed him to do, every SECOND he was on the air.
I realize you meant a typo and meant blatant.
Brian Ross would screw up a report of a kitten stuck in a tree.
I haven’t watched ABC News in ages, and neither CBS, CNN, NBC and PMSNBC
Dan Rather redux: “fake but accurate”.
Ugh. Thanks. am the worst at letting typos or autocorrect go through
Brent Bozell God bless him, is so naive. His headline suggests ABC should be shocked, shocked!
Or that we should
We are happy when we see this overreach.
Mainstream Media can do nothing but suspend its way into oblivion.
BTW ABC is done. On their way out. The snowflakes people make fun of, the ones poised to take over this country, leaving us in their path, they don’t watch this crap. They hate hillary - she underestimated them as well
Any of us would have been after this many high-profile screw-ups.
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