A news agency with an axe to grind is already a problematic thing. When they allow their petty grudge f**ks to harm Americans, they need to pay.
April Oliver supposedly got a story wrong on CNN -- and she got fired.
Brian Ross needs to be fired.
ABC NEWS needs to explain to the American people how they will ensure in the future that false stories are not aired that destroy the stock market and deplete the funds of Americans.
I'm not joking.
I'm fine money wise. But I'm not someone putting money into a 401K for my retirement. A lot of people are and, thanks to ABC irresponsible and unprofessional behavior yesterday, they lost money because Brian Ross couldn't nail down the facts.
At MEDIAITE, John Ziegler explains that Ross went on the air at ABC and stated (wrongly) that, during the presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump told Larry Flynn to open contact with Russian officials. This was not correct. It was after the election. Ross was wrong. ABC was wrong to air his report. Joy Behar looks like an idiot -- and this time it's not her fault. Ross's 'report' was then echoed on THE VIEW with Joy reading it.
Joy didn't pass it off as her own. She has nothing to be ashamed with regards to this. She is an entertainment personality for ABC. The news division of the network issued a report, she was in the midst of a live show and certainly had every right to expect that a news report would be accurate -- as did Americans. A correction needs to be issued first thing on Monday's broadcast of THE VIEW but it does not need to include an "I'm sorry" from Joy who did nothing wrong. THE VIEW does "hot topics" already but they may need to decide -- this goes beyond Joy to the producers -- whether they will tackle breaking news during their broadcasts.
ABC NEWS owes the American people an apology. They broadcast false news and then they were way too slow to correct it.
Since the false news made one of their 'enemies' look worse, it's easy to believe that malice factored into it.
Those are my opinions, not Ziegler's. Here's Ziegler:
However, last night ABC News had to issue an embarrassing “clarification,” indicating that Trump’s directive to Flynn came AFTER his election, not before. This is roughly akin to finding out that your spouse’s romantic relationship with another person started BEFORE you began dating them, as opposed to after.
That’s obviously a huge freaking difference. It is also inexplicable that Ross could make such a massive mistake, and yet another damning indictment of how incredibly broken modern journalism has become.
Since expectations dictate nearly everything in life, this debacle was a pure gift to Trump. The events of yesterday, while still potentially incredibly important and ominous for the president, now seem rather diminished and maybe not that significant at all.
On top of that, since Trump has been constantly calling this story “Fake News!” (an absurd concept which even some of those on his favorite cable TV network rightly pushed back on yesterday), ABC’s botched report plays right into the president’s attempt to sell that canard to his cult. The conservative media has been, understandably, jumping all over ABC’s mistake, and you can be sure that the chances of Trump’s base ever accepting his potential guilt in this matter, which were already very low, have now just reached “the Cleveland Browns make the NFL playoffs” proportions.
The statement's in bold are Ziegler's.
1) I would not call Donald's supporters a "cult." I'm sure there are supporters that the description applies to -- probably 28% judging by the cult around Barack and Bully Boy Bush when they were in office. So if 44% support him (an estimate of the 2016 vote), 28% of that 44% may reflect a "cult.'' The bulk are not cult members.
2) Fake news exists. Fake news sold the Iraq War. Fake news sold it before it started and has kept it going. Fake news allowed Samantha Power to be seen as a humanitarian (and as a journalist!) when she was nothing of the sort. Fake news was Charlie Rose bowing and scraping before those 'good' rich people giving money away to charity. Fake news is non-stop and never ends.
We could go on and on.
Matt Egan (CNN MONEY) reports:
At one point the Dow plunged 350 points after ABC News reported that Flynn is prepared to testify that President Trump "as a candidate" directed him to make contact with Russians. ABC later clarified the report, saying that Trump did not tell Flynn to reach out to Russia during the campaign.
ABC owes the American people an apology. ABC should immediately fire Brian Ross. This is not the first major error by the 69-year-old reporter.
They need to tighten control in the news department with regards to all claims presented as facts -- this especially should be true when it comes to Donald Trump who they have made clear that they dislike.
It's okay to dislike him.
I dislike him and I've done so since the 80s. (That's based on personal encounters -- not news or 'news' coverage.)
I also make sure that here -- and at THIRD -- I'm not just calling him out because I dislike him.
Over the holiday, I called him out on Iraq.
That was after ten months of him being president.
Many things in months prior bothered me with regards to Iraq.
But, knowing I dislike him, I tried to be fair. And ten months is long enough for Donald to institute his own policies. He's now responsible for what the US does in Iraq.
It would be really great if ABC NEWS -- which presents itself as a news network -- had a little more restraint than the "loud bitch on the internet" (as one sweet e-mailer dubbed me this morning in an e-mail entitled "No one cares about Iraq so shut up already!").
Brian Ross needs to be fired.
Joy Behar did nothing wrong. That's true of any other Joys out there who depended upon ABC's 'report'. They don't owe anyone an apology. If they relied on that report, they should issue some sort of correction (not an apology, they did nothing wrong).
ABC NEWS, in their personal hostility to Donald Trump, aired a Brian Ross 'report' that has harmed many Americans. Brian Ross needs to go. 69 is old enough to retire. He needs to be shown the door immediately. ABC NEWS needs to apologize to the American people.
Words won't replace what many lost in their 401Ks as a result of ABC's nonsense. But an apology is owed.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
