for the same reason he'll prolly get a pay raise, he promoted the left's agenda...
Posted on 07/21/2012 6:58:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
ABC News reporter Brian Ross committed what used to be a fatal mistake to a journalist’s career: He blurted out a wild, unsubstantiated, speculative observation that hadn’t been vetted by anyone and was explosively political at the same time.
Via Breitbart:
Here is the exchange between ABC News chief investigator Brian Ross and host George Stephanopoulos about apparent suspect James Holmes:
Stephanolpoulos: I’m going to go to Brian Ross. You’ve been investigating the background of Jim Holmes here. You found something that might be significant.
Ross: There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.
Stephanolpoulos: Okay, we’ll keep looking at that. Brian Ross, thanks very much.
Thanks for what? Ross just tried to connect the Tea Party to the murder of 12 innocents based on the thinnest of speculation: that the name on the website almost matched the name of the suspect.
The political implications of the attempted smear were dynamite. And yet, the casual manner in which Ross reported this “fact” — even with a fig leaf caveat — was shocking. No attempt was made to confirm anything.
ABC News has now issued a correction and Ross has included an apology.
ABC News and Brian Ross are apologizing for an “incorrect” report that James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting, may have had connections to the Tea Party.
“An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect,” ABC News said in a statement. “ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.”
In a similar statement released minutes earlier, ABC News said the report was “incorrect” but did not include the apology. “Several other local residents with similar names were also contacted via social media by members of the public who mistook them for the suspect,” the initial statement read.
Several other residents may have been contacted but how many of their employers, associations, or political affiliations were broadcast live on air?
And what made Ross make a beeline straight for the Tea Party website in the first place? Did he also check the Occupy Denver page? Somehow, I doubt whether it even crossed his mind.
There used to be a time when journalists had a rough integrity about what they said over the air and took pride in striving for accuracy. Who could ever forget ABC’s Frank Reynolds, ABC News anchorman, who, after receiving and announcing word that James Brady had been killed in the Reagan assassination attempt only to discover the press secretary was still alive, got visibly angry and to no one in particular barked on air, “Let’s get this right. Let’s nail this down.”
Today, Stephanopoulos thanked Brian Ross for smearing the Tea Party by reporting a lie. Ross should be suspended or lose his job for this attempt to inject politics into a national tragedy.
Also read: Colorado Shooter Was Dressed as ‘The Joker’
Thanks. You’re right. I forgot he ‘won’ the award after 8 days. He ‘received’ the award after 8 months. The whole episode was dumbfounding. ;o)
To gather statistics on the viewing habits of the public, ratings companies such as Nielsen employ several systems such as "Set Meters" which are small devices connected to TV sets in selected homes to record viewer preferences.
"Diaries" kept by the home owner for a specified period of time is another method to gauge and garner statistics for ratings.
Leni
I knew Brian at U of Iowa J school back in 1970-71. Despite all his years in the reporting biz, he hasn’t changed a whit from undergrad days.
The Tea Party man received death threats yesterday (allegedly and understandably) until he reportedly had to have his phone number disconnected. - Now, I have to wonder, is Brian Ross going to be the big hero if anything happens to this man or his family; and is the tv network going to report it if it does?
Also, will the network report it if the shooter turns out to be an OWS operative and an Obama voter, a registered Democrat? Will the Justice Dept. report the truth about what is found in the guy’s apartment on his computer or otherwise?
The media no longer care about serving the public, or even being held accountable by the public. They only care about serving their fellow media elites and advancing the liberal agenda. As such it is a completely corrupt system, the type of corrupt and obviously biased system which the media themselves love to get on their high horses about and say “this organization must diversify!” But themselves? Oh no. They are above having to answer to the public anymore and they know it. Occasionally they may have to sacrifice someone, somehow who became too blatant about their agenda, but no worries, that someone will later be picked up by MSNBC or some other safety net for disgraced journalists.
I can remember back in the 80’s on CNN how they would occasionally have discussions about whether the media were biased on not. Every single time that I can recall it was a CNN anchor asking this of a journalist, instead of someone outside of journalism, and invariable the journalist would laugh and brush aside the charges. And they’ve been laughing ever since, knowing full well that for decades the overwhelming majority of the media vote democrat and that there is a culture of disdain, if not outright hatred, in elite media circles against a large portion of the public. No attempt has been made to fix this bias. If anything, just the opposite.
For when you collectively have the power to control the narrative, to always get in the last word, why worry about integrity and fairness yourself? Defeating conservatives is more important than trying to adhere to such old-fashioned concepts. Such things only get in the way of the type of “progress” that liberals want to make.
Has he denied this accusation yet?
If you're asking that question you really need to get a clue.
Ross will receive kudos, a bonus and a promotion from ABC for his outstanding journalistic effort.
Brian Ross had an air of credibility .
Not any more.
Just another liberal hack pushing an agenda.
I hope Jim Holmes sues Brian’s pants off.
Unsubstantiated, speculative observation.Par for ABC and other networks.
Anything to save the socialist agenda.
LLS
At the risk of being a little off topic, ABC Radio News is disgustingly biased. Its “reporting” is outright left wing propaganda.
for the same reason he'll prolly get a pay raise, he promoted the left's agenda...
Thank you for writing to the ABC TV Network headquarters. Your request and/or comments should be made to your LOCAL STATION directly.
I had not seen the comments until it was posted here. There is no difference between that statement and the early claim that he was Iranian, next he was a Muslim, next he’s a registered Democrat, next he’s an Occupier.......Moral of the story is keep your mouth shut until you know what you are talikng about.
Unfortunately there is a culture in journalism that wants to have a story first and they get caught up with getting it out there before it is confirmed. Both sides do it and it weakens the reputations of both sides. The internet makes it easy to spread false informmation.
Am I the only one who is bothered that Politico repeatedly put the word incorrect in quotes in that piece? It looks to me that they still don’t want to fully admit it’s incorrect.
“It was what Ross hoped for when he googled Jim Holmes Aurora Colorado Tea Party”
Excellent post. This is the MSM’s modus operandi in general: look for what you want to find; and ignore all other possibilities that might lead to different insights and interpretations.
“brian ross perfectly represents the agenda and attitude of abc and their corporate owners.”
I cannot speak from being there during the 18th and 19th centuries or the early 20th Century but I remember TV network news from the very beginning. Our first TV was 1949.
In 1953 (1954?) Edward R. Murrow (See it Now) gave the OK on his TV show to destroy Senator Joe McCarthy.
Here's the way it's always been: Daniel Schorr of CBS reported on Walter "North Viet Nam Communists' most trusted man in America" Cronkite that after the Republican convention (1964) Barry Goldwater was off to Germany to start his campaign for president of the U.S. with a visit to the center of Germany's right wing and "Hitler's one-time stomping ground."
That's how CBS "news" reported on Air Force Reserve Brig. Gen. and Senator Barry Goldwater's visit to a U.S. military site in Germany. How to lie by telling the truth -- or simply lying either way it matters not to Obama SCUM (servile, complaisant undistinguished media).
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