# ABC News shit the bed by publishing fake news on Friday. They know it too. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 5, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598 "2017-12-05T02:55:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/1 "2017-12-05T02:55:33Z")
I thought this was interesting, given all the drama over the Trump administration, Russia, #FakeNews, and everything else: > [@](#): > > [[ABC News president James] Goldston noted that ABC News “spent this weekend getting absolutely pilloried as a news division for reporting fake news.” > > “250,000 tweets. One percent positive, 99 percent negative about this news division. Two tweets from the president,” he told staff. > > 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.” > > … > > “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.”]([ABC News president excoriates staff over Brian Ross' Michael Flynn error](http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/04/media/abc-news-president-brian-ross-flynn-correction/index.html)) ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/2 "2017-12-05T02:59:54Z")
I read one of your other posts, and would appreciate some of your thoughts, not just a bunch of links. After all that’s what spammers (and Russians?) do 😉 ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/3 "2017-12-05T03:07:25Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > I read one of your other posts, and would appreciate some of your thoughts, not just a bunch of links. > After all that’s what spammers (and Russians?) do 😉 I think they shot themselves in the foot. They (the media generally) had this great juicy story about how they were finally going to nail Trump for Russian collusion with Flynn’s plea bargain, and the wind kind of got sucked out of those sails between this ABC News #FakeNews drama and the news that one of Mueller’s top investigators had to be let go for political bias. ABC dragged their feet in acknowledging their error and correcting it, but it is heartening to see that they seem to really want to get it right the next time. And FWIW, I also think it’s a good sign for Mueller’s investigation that he fired (or was it re-assigned?) the anti-Trump guy. At least he’s trying to appear non-partisan. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/4 "2017-12-05T03:09:40Z")
So, um, what was the mistaken story, what was the truth, and what was the fallout? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/5 "2017-12-05T03:13:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > So, um, what was the mistaken story, From the CNN story: > [@](#): > > Ross had initially reported Friday morning that Flynn was prepared to testify that Donald Trump as a candidate had instructed him to reach out to the Russians. > [@Chronos](#): > > what was the truth, > [@](#): > > his information was actually that Flynn was prepared to testify Trump made the request as president-elect. > [@Chronos](#): > > and what was the fallout? > [@](#): > > ABC News said Ross had been suspended for four weeks without pay for what it termed the “serious error.” > [@](#): > > Goldston noted that ABC News “spent this weekend getting absolutely pilloried as a news division for reporting fake news.” > [@](#): > > “It’s a major embarrassment,” one ABC News employee said. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/6 "2017-12-05T03:15:13Z")
Okay, so Ross screwed up, ABC suspended him for the screw up. Isn’t that the way a legit news organization works? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/7 "2017-12-05T03:16:10Z")
Fake news is deliberate. A mistake is not. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/8 "2017-12-05T03:17:47Z")
You know what’s frustrating (I’m not saying you’re doing this, but I have seen it online)? ABC News fucks up and posts something false: Oh shit, we fucked up. Here’s what we’re doing to punish those who spread falsehood. Trump, the president of the United fucking States, publishes a video that was outright false: It shouldn’t matter if it was fake. The point stands. Which one is getting Conservatives in a tizzy? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/9 "2017-12-05T03:17:55Z")
> [@galen\_ubal](#): > > Okay, so Ross screwed up, ABC suspended him for the screw up. Isn’t that the way a legit news organization works? Well, ideally a legit news organization would double-check their information before going on the air with bad info (I believe WaPo was quite proud - and rightfully so - of a recent example of this). Once that ship has sailed though, suspending / firing the screw-up is probably a reasonable step. The belated [del]clarification[/del] correction did them no favors either, as their president acknowledged. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/10 "2017-12-05T03:19:57Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Fake news is deliberate. A mistake is not. The ABC News President didn’t seem to make this distinction. He said they: > [@](#): > > spent this weekend getting absolutely pilloried as a news division for reporting fake news. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/11 "2017-12-05T03:21:50Z")
No, he is saying 250,000 other jackasses don’t know the difference between fake news (meant to decieve) and mistaken news (which is later corrected). ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/12 "2017-12-05T03:23:43Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > The ABC News President didn’t seem to make this distinction. He said they: They got pilloried _by others_ for publishing fake news. It was a mistake, not deliberate. And while you feed the frenzy on this, Trump spreads fake news, _deliberate_ fake news, every time he opens his mouth or tweets. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/13 "2017-12-05T03:24:16Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > No, he is saying 250,000 other jackasses don’t know the difference between fake news (meant to decieve) and mistaken news (which is later corrected). My cite was a direct quote from him. Your cite was … your mind-reading powers? Some inferences? A guess? ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/14 "2017-12-05T03:27:23Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > My cite was a direct quote from him. Your cite was … your mind-reading powers? Some inferences? A guess? It is based on reading comprehension of the exact quote you used. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/15 "2017-12-05T03:28:10Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > … It was a mistake, not deliberate. … How would a non-partisan person objectively reach this conclusion? It’s perhaps not an unreasonable guess, but I don’t know what was going on in Brian Ross’ mind when he went on the air. Do you? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/16 "2017-12-05T03:29:54Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > How would a non-partisan person objectively reach this conclusion? It’s perhaps not an unreasonable guess,\*\* but I don’t know what was going on Brian Ross’ mind\*\* when he went on the air. Do you? Then why are you insisting it’s fake news? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/17 "2017-12-05T03:32:09Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Then why are you insisting it’s fake news? I’m quoting the president of the company. He called it “fake news”. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/18 "2017-12-05T03:37:42Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I’m quoting the president of the company. He called it “fake news”. He said the network was being accused of reporting fake news _by other people_. That’s what “being pilloried for” means. He did not say that ABC reported fake news. Inaccurate news, mistaken news, careless reporting of news, yes. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/19 "2017-12-05T04:15:17Z")
Knowing what we know now, this is awfully funny too: [The View hosts and audience react to Ross’ inaccurate / mistaken / careless reporting of news](https://twitter.com/BasedMonitored/status/936743186399145984/video/1). ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2017, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598/20 "2017-12-05T04:31:44Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Fake news is deliberate. A mistake is not. Fake news is news that you don’t like. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abc-news-shit-the-bed-by-publishing-fake-news-on-friday-they-know-it-too/803598.md?page=2)