Brian Ross Suspended by ABC for Fake News

Brian Ross Suspended by ABC for Fake News
by Temerity Forthright

ABC News suspended Brian Ross, their Chief Investigative Correspondent, for what they called a “serious error” in his report on Michael Flynn and then-candidate Donald Trump.

This is what the rest of us call “fake news.”

Brian Ross said during a live report Friday morning that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would testify that Donald Trump ordered him to make contact with the Russians about foreign policy during the presidential campaign. This actually happened after Donald Trump had been elected president, when it was well within Trump’s purview.

ABC had to issue a clarification the same day, later calling it a correction. Ross then appeared on World News Tonight to clarify his mistake in reporting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLlo-WtXczQ

ABC also issued a statement that the Brian Ross report “had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process.”

I was unaware that ABC even had an editorial standards process.

The network’s fake news tweet was shared 25,000 times before ABC deleted it. No word on how many times the correction was tweeted.

Brian Ross has been suspended for four weeks without pay. Ross has worked at ABC News for 23 years, and at NBC News for 20 years prior to that.

Ross has been the recipient of dozens of awards, including Emmy awards, Peabody awards, DuPont-Columbia awards, and Overseas Press Club awards.

This is not, however, the first time Brian Ross’s investigative reporting has come under scrutiny. As early as 2009, Gawker.com called Ross “America’s Wrongest Reporter.”

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