ABC News’ “bombshell” report concerning former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s willingness to testify then-“candidate” Trump instructed him to contact Russian officials contained one crucial error.
Donald Trump was “President-Elect” at the time.
This is a crucial difference, since all transition teams for incoming administrations engage in initial foreign affairs contacts before taking presidential office.
The initial report sparked uproar around the country and even caused the DOW Jones to take a 300 point dive before eventually recovering most of the deficit at the end of the day, according to Fox News.
The error lingered all day until around 6 p.m., when ABC’s unnamed source “clarified” the information to say that Flynn was instructed to contact Russia after, not before, the election to “repair relations” and work “jointly against ISIS.”
CORRECTION of ABC News Special Report: Flynn prepared to testify that President-elect Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians *during the transition* — initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria, confidant now says. https://t.co/ewrkVZTu2K pic.twitter.com/URLiHf3uSm
— ABC News (@ABC) December 2, 2017
At first, ABC called the update a “clarification” via Twitter, but then deleted the post and issued a formal correction, according to CNBC.
Political observers were dismayed by the correction, since it fueled an avalanche of claims that this legitimated the “Russia collusion” narrative the mainstream media has been pushing since President Trump stepped into then Oval Office:
ABC News and Brian Ross did more to help Trump today with their irresponsible Flynn plea deal reporting than Trump could've ever asked for.
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) December 2, 2017
ORIGINAL REPORTING: Proof of Russian collusion, treason & intent to rig an election.
CORRECTION: Commonplace, completely legal diplomatic relationship establishment by an incoming administration. https://t.co/hpeRAqOrMm
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 2, 2017
Congratulations, ABC, you just served up fodder for Trump to scream #fakenews. https://t.co/Yfm7olM5SN
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) December 2, 2017
Twitter RIPS ABC News For Misleading Public And Markets Over Flynn, Trump!
This was nothing but journalistic malpractice! https://t.co/DdBJM74e4T via @WayneDupreeShow
— Wayne Dupree Media, LLC (@WayneDupreeShow) December 2, 2017
ABC News faces criticism after correcting bombshell Flynn-Trump report https://t.co/CQRuhNOQWV pic.twitter.com/JXvZT88gOq
— The Hill (@thehill) December 2, 2017
The pressure to get the story first results in mistakes like this -this abc blunder even may have impacted the market where you have retirement funds https://t.co/5cHVbBeaQP
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) December 2, 2017
The rush to be first causes mistakes. But ABC waited hours before “clarifying”. That seems to be the wrong order of things. https://t.co/DtBjPoP9c6
— 🇺🇸ERIC BOLLING🇺🇸 (@ericbolling) December 2, 2017
On Friday, Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, and has agreed to “cooperate fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly” with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.
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Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BizPac Review.
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