Read: Media Mistakes in the Trump Era here
63. 2019-2024
There are too many offending news organizations to list, but they frequently claimed that reports of President Biden’s diminished mental capacity, and videos seeming to show his confusion and odd demeanor, were faked or untrue.
62. March 20, 2024
At a hearing with a former Biden family business partner, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) bordered on hysterical in her defense of the Bidens shouting that RICO or the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act “is not a crime, it’s a cat-a-gor-y.”
Many media outlets and commentators lampooned her and claimed RICO “is” a crime.
In fact, RICO is not a “crime,” it’s a statute that sets forth the conditions and penalties for charging a defendant with racketeering.
Claiming that RICO itself is “a crime” is akin to calling the hate crime statute “a crime.” Instead, the hate crime statute defines hate crimes and penalties.
61. March 16, 2024
Numerous media outlets, commentators, and President Biden falsely claimed Donald Trump was “threatening political violence” if he loses in November, when Trump used the term “bloodbath” at a rally in Ohio.
In fact, Trump was addressing the Biden administration’s policies and claiming they are allowing China to undercut America’s auto industry by manufacturing cars in Mexico.
Trump said, “We’re gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not gonna be able to sell those guys, if I get elected! Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna to be the least of it — it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they’re not gonna sell those cars.”
The Hill, ABC, MSNBC, The View, President Biden, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many others claimed to know what was in Trump’s mind and insisted, without evidence, that he was issuing a broad warning or threat of violence.
Trump said he was referring to the auto industry. Even an inference that Trump was speaking more generally would have to come with a fair admission that he wasn’t issuing a threat, but was rather making a prediction, and that there is no reason to infer he was speaking in any literal sense.
Elon Musk on “X” (formerly Twitter) circulated the remarks in context and drew criticism from left-leaning media and commentators for doing so.
60. December 17, 2023
NBC and numerous media outlets falsely reported that Trump said “immigrants” or “migrants” are “poisoning the blood of our country.” In fact, Trump was clearly speaking of illegal aliens. This is now year 8 of many in the media inaccurately conflating illegal immigration and/or immigrants with legal immigrants or migrants.
59. November 27, 2023
The left-leaning website Deadspin publishes an article by writer Carron Phillips featuring a photo of a 9-year-old boy, wearing face paint in his team’s colors and an Indian headdress. The article was titled, “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress.”
In fact, the boy wasn’t wearing blackface, and his family says they are of Native American heritage.
Deadspin didn’t correct its article but issued an “update” that read, in part, “We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan or his family.”
The family later filed a lawsuit against Deadspin saying the website “maliciously and wantonly attack[ed] a nine-year-old boy and his parents for Phillips’ own race-drenched political agenda.”
58. April 28, 2023
ABC News unethically edited an interview with presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to exclude Kennedy’s response to false statements that claimed he has spread anti-vaccine “misinformation.”
57. March 15, 2023
CNN and multiple outlets reported, without attribution, that Russia had “shot down” a US drone. However, it appears as though there was no weapons fire involved. As of this publication, the false reports remained posted on the web uncorrected.
56. Dec. 22, 2022
A “study” that blamed Trump as a main driver of Covid vaccine disinformation was retracted after a Reddit user drew attention to major flaws.
55. Nov. 16, 2022
Many in the media breathlessly reported, as if a fact, that Russian missiles had landed in Poland killing two people. A day later, officials said they were actually Ukrainian missiles that accidentally hit Poland. Some claimed it was “still Russia’s fault.”
54. Oct. 28, 2022
Numerous media outlets were duped into falsely reporting that, upon Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, Musk fired engineers “Rahul Ligma” and “Daniel Johnson.” In fact, the two men simply posed as fired engineers and the reporters apparently did nothing to confirm the men were who they said they were, or that the events the men described had actually happened.
“Ligma” is a reference to a popular Internet gaming reference.
The duped included ABC7 Bay Area reporter Suzanne Phan. Bloomberg, the Daily Mail and NBC were among those reported layoffs were underway after the pranksters spoke.
CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa tweeted Friday that an “entire team of data engineers” was let go after Elon Musk officially took the helm at Twitter. She later apologized for not checking her facts.
53. Sept. 9, 2022
Duke University female volleyball player Rachel Richardson alleged that observers repeatedly used racial slurs against her during a Brigham Young University-Duke volleyball match on Aug. 26 but that she had bravely played on. (BYU beat her team.)
Many in media, including People and ESPN, reported the allegation as if it were corroborated. Jason Duaine Hahn of People stated that “Rachel Richardson, a 19-year old student at Duke University, was called the ‘N-word’ by a Brigham Young University fan as she competed in a volleyball match.”
Mike Freeman in USA Today also declared, though he could not not possibly known, that Richardson was telling the truth. He likened the skepticism of her claims to “QAnon. Or mass voter fraud. It’s another conspiracy theory.”
But like many “conspiracy theories,” this one also apparently turned out to be true.
Brigham Young University says it “reached out to more than 50 individuals who attended the event” as part of its investigation, and reviewed all available video and audio recordings, and found no evidence to corroborate Richardson’s claims.
No word on whether Richardson will face discipline, or apologize to Brigham Young fans.
Meantime, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley reportedly cancelled her team’s basketball series with Brigham Young based on Richardson’s allegations. After the results of the investigation were made public, Staley reportedly says she stands by her decision, anyway.
52. Aug. 16, 2022
CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell tweeted a false claim from a Dept. of Justice official that contradicted Trump after the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home. The claim was that the FBI did not have Trump’s passports, as he had publicly stated. However, the passports had, in fact, been confiscated, and were eventually returned to Trump.
51. Aug. 10, 2022
After four Muslim men were killed over a 9 month period in Albuquerque, NM, many in the news media joined political advocates and analysts in the unfounded conclusion, without evidence, that the murders were “anti-Muslim hate crimes.”
That appears not to be the case, according to police. The ‘primary suspect’ arrested for the crime, 51-year-old Muhammad Syed, is also a Muslim, and the crimes were allegedly committed over inter-personal conflicts.
The strange and unjournalistic practice of assuming racism or “hate” involving crimes committed against a victim who is or was part of a minority group, but never making the assumption when crimes are committed against whites, is widespread.
Of the murders, prior to the Muslim suspect being arrested, President Biden tweeted, “These hateful attacks have no place in America,” that he was “angered and saddened” by the killings, and that his administration “stands strongly with the Muslim community.”
As of this publication, he has not corrected the record publicly to acknowledge the apparently mistaken, and racist assumption.
50. July 29, 2022
Medscape’s Cheryl Clark incorrectly reported that Dr. Simone Gold had lost her medical license after she was convicted of trespassing in the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In fact, her license had been placed on inactive status.
49. June 30, 2022
Good Morning America wrongly tweeted that Ketanji Jackson is the first black US Supreme Court justice. Clarence Thomas (1991) and Thurgood Marshall (1967) beg to differ.
48. June 25, 2022
USA Today removed more than two dozen articles, including “Anti-vaxxer pushes urine therapy as ‘COVID antidote’ without scientific evidence” after reporter Gabriela Miranda was allegedly found to have committed many fabrications.
47. June 1, 2022
After a jury ruled the Washington Post op-ed by Amber Heard (drafted by the American Civil Liberties Union) contained multiple false and defamatory statements against Johnny Depp. The Post issued an amendment but allowed the defamatory headline to remain in place.
46. May 31, 2022
Politico reported the opposite of what the Supreme Court ruled in the case of a Texas law banning social media companies from moderating based on people’s political views. Politico originally stated the court had allowed the law to continue. In fact, the Court temporarily blocked the law.
45. May 21, 2022
The New York Times’ Apoorva Mandivilli falsely reported that 4,000 children ages 5-11 had died with Covid-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome. In fact, that was the number of children diagnosed, not dead.
Days earlier, a NYT article had noted fewer than 400 Covid deaths in that age group in the last 2 years even using the all-encompassing definition.
Mandivilli’s previous errors have been responsible distributing for other Covid misinformation.
Up there in the same league as gems like this.
Anyone spy a pattern? pic.twitter.com/Q0alfPK8Rm
— Shamik Dasgupta (@ShamikDasgupta1) May 19, 2022
44. March 29, 2022
The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Robert Costa break the “news” making much out of a supposedly suspicious 7 hour gap in Trump White House phone records on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the Trump rally and Capitol riots. The Atlantic CBS News, Rolling Stone, NPR, the BBC, Forbes, USA Today, the New York Post and many others follow up, writing articles nearly identical in content. Democrat Jamie Raskin told reporters that Congressional investigators were very interested in the gap.
Days later, observers point out an obvious detail that had eluded the some of the supposedly best journalists in the business: there were many ways Trump likely would have communicated during the “gap” period while he was not physically at the White House, without committing crimes, such as on cell phone calls not routed through the White House switchboard.
43. Wed. Jan. 19, 2022
NPR’s Nina Totenberg reported that Supreme Court Justice John Roberts had instructed all Justices to mask, (despite being fully vaccinated and boosted), and that Neil Gorsuch refused. “His continued refusal since then has also meant that Sotomayor has not attended the justices’ weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone,” reported Totenberg.
Thousands of news stories and commentators accepted and amplified the anonymously-sourced allegations– which included no comments from those involved– as if they were proven true, disparaging and smearing Gorsuch.
However, on January 19, all of those mentioned said, in official statements on the record, that Totenberg’s story is false.
Just in: Statement by Justice Sotomayor and Justice Gorsuch:
Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us. It is false. While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends.
— Robert Barnes (@scotusreporter) January 19, 2022
42. January 2022
The fact checker for the Washington Post, Glenn Kessler, gave Sen. Tom Cotton a rating indicating Cotton wasn’t telling the truth in March of 2021 when Cotton accurately tweeted that under the Biden administration’s Covid relief initiative, murderers like convicted Islamic extremist terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from the Boston Marathon bombings would receive a Covid stimulus check.
It turns out Cotton was spot on; it was the fact checker Kessler who was mistaken. A local news reporter recently turned up information that, just as Cotton had predicted, Tsarnaev received a Covid stimulus check in prison.
The Washington Post didn’t discover and revisit its error on its own: Cotton’s representative reportedly asked the newspaper to correct its false information. Still, the Post couldn’t bear to honestly state that its fact check was embarrassingly wrong. Instead, Kessler reduced his “Pinocchio” rating of Cotton’s accurate statement from two Pinocchio’s to one, still claiming that Cotton’s prediction “lacks some context.”
41. Fri. Jan. 7, 2022
The Huffington Post published a headline to an obituary mistakenly saying that Sidney Potier was the first black actor to win an Academy Award. Actually, that distinction went to Hattie McDaniel 24 years earlier. McDaniel was the first black actor to win an Academy in Award in 1940 for her supporting role in “Gone With The Wind.”
The Huffington Post later fixed the headline but did not note it had made a mistake or a correction.
40. Thurs. Dec. 2, 2021
Philip Bump of The Washington Post repeats Media Matters false claim, stating that the forensically-proven government intrusion of Sharyl Attkisson’s CBS computers never happened.
39. Fri. Nov. 19, 2021
Countless media outlets defamed and otherwise published false information about Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty of all charges by a jury.
After the verdict, The Independent published an article that falsely claimed Rittenhouse “shot three black men.”
None of the people who were shot were black; they were all white.
38. Fri. Nov. 12, 2021
Testimony, even from the opposing side, in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse proved the falsity of hundreds of media reports.
Rittenhouse, who went to Wisconsin in August 2020 to protect storefronts and businesses being looted and burned by rioters, shot and killed two attackers during violent protests, and shot a third man.
Media reports widely declared Rittenhouse, then 17-years old, to be a murderous white supremacist (although all three of the men shot were white and, according to evidence, had been attacking or pointing a loaded gun at Rittenhouse at the time).
37. Fri. Nov. 12, 2021
The Washington Post belatedly “corrected two articles [one from 2017 and one from 2019] and altered a dozen others” regarding its false reporting about the anti-Trump opposition research compiled by Democratic operative and ex-British spy Christopher Steele to use against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
As Epoch Times explains, “The Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, had long insisted that Sergei Millian, a Belrusian-American businessman, was one of Steele’s sources. But its stories, which relied on two sources it did not name publicly, were increasingly undermined as time went on, most recently a grand jury indictment against Igor Danchenko, who has been described as Steele’s ‘primary sub-source’.”
36. Fri. Nov. 12, 2021
Tommy Christopher of Mediaite falsely declared that “No, Joe Biden Did Not Refer to Satchel Paige as a ‘Negro’ During Veterans Day Speech.”
In fact, Biden had done just that.
BIDEN: “I’ve adopted the attitude of the great negro at the time… his name was Satchel Paige.” pic.twitter.com/NOi6c09tBd
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 11, 2021
35. Mon. Oct. 25, 2021
The Washington Post corrects an article by Ashley Parker and Carissa Wolf. It falsely claimed that a pro-Trump crowd broke into a chant of “Let’s Go, Brandon!” during a speech by Donald Trump, Jr. in Georgia.
The Post says the editor is responsible for the fabricated claim. The crowd was actually chanting an expletive: “F– Joe Biden!”
In fact, the chant, “Let’s Go, Brandon!” was not first created until after the speech as a result of a sports reporter mistaking or misrepresenting the “F– Joe Biden!” chants from a crowd during a live television interview as if they were congratulating the winner of the car race she was interviewing, who’s named Brandon.
Now, the chant “Let’s Go, Brandon!” is understood to be a less profane version of the same slur against Biden.
The Post correction reads:
“Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly said a crowd broke into a ‘Let’s go Brandon’ chant during a Donald Trump Jr. speech in Georgia. The crowd broke into a ‘F— Joe Biden!’ chant at that speech in September. The error, which was inserted by an editor, has been corrected.”
34. Sat. Oct. 23, 2021
An article in Medscape states that myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation reported in some people– particularly in young people and children– after Covid-19 vaccination is “rare and temporary.
However, scientists say the disorder can have permanent impacts and even be fatal.
It’s unclear why Medscape misstates the potential outcome.
33. Tues. Oct. 19, 2021
These media mistakes took place over a period of time, but came to widespread attention as a result of a Joe Rogan podcast with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, in which Gupta acknowledged his network’s misreporting.
CNN falsely reported that Rogan had taken a “horse” medicine for Covid-19.
In fact, as many Americans have, Rogan says he took the doctor-prescribed human version of ivermectin, which some medical experts say has proven safe and effective for some patients as off-label treatment for Covid-19.
Many other news outlets, such as NBC/CNBC’s Doha Madani, falsely reported that Rogan and others were taking “horse dewormer” or veterinary medicine.
32. Thurs. Oct. 7, 2021
The New York Times makes several corrections to an article by Apoorva Mandavilli.
First, it incorrectly stated that Sweden and Denmark had begin offering single doses of Moderna vaccine in children after safety issues were raised. Both countries actually halted use of the vaccine in children.
Second, the article wildly overstated the number of U.S. children hospitalized with Covid-19 from August 2020 to October 2021. (It’s unclear whether that number includes children hospitalized for other causes who happen to test positive and are asymptomatic.)
The article stated the number was 900,000. It was actually 63,000.
Also, the article had the wrong date for an FDA meeting about approving the Pfizer shot for children.
31. Thurs. Oct. 7, 2021
Business Insider publishes an allegation in a book by former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. In the book, Grisham reportedly claimed that First Lady Melania Trump dissed the family of Rep. Steve Scalise during a White House visit after he was shot by a radical Bernie Sanders supporter at a Congressional ball game.
After the article was published, Scalise disputed the claim. Business Insider apparently did not interview him for the original story. The publication updated its story to reflect Scalise’s challenge, which included photos of Melania Trump meeting with the Scalise family at the White House.
According to the updated story, Grisham said there was a different incident Scalise may not have known about. The updated story did not carry a notification pointing to the corrections or amendments.
30. Mon. Sept. 27, 2021
Some media, such as Axios, began deleting their unsupported reporting that claimed Border Patrol agents were whipping Haitian immigrants who had illegally crossed the border.
We deleted a previous tweet that referred to Border Patrol agents as whipping at Haitian migrants.
The story has been updated to include comments from some journalists on the border who did not see whipping occur.
— Axios (@axios) September 26, 2021
29. Thurs. Sept. 9, 2021
Washington Post reporter Jacob Bogage broke the news that U.S. Postal Service (USPS) workers were not included in President Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
“That’s a massive chunk of the federal workforce — 644k & growing — that’s not required to be vaccinated,” tweeted Bogage.
However, Bogage and the Post later corrected the story to say that USPS workers are part of the mandate, after all.
28. Monday Sept. 6, 2021
On August 25, Associated Press corrects a false report it published, that was widely distributed, on August 23.
The report falsely stated that 70% of recent calls to the Mississippi Poison Control Center were from people who had ingested the medicine ivermectin to try to treat COVID-19.
The actual number was reportedly 1.4%, not 70%.
27. Sunday Sept. 5, 2021
Rolling Stone had to retract a false story it published claiming an Oklahoma hospital had been overrun by people who poisoned themselves with the Covid-19 treatment ivermectin, and that had resulted in gunshot victims and others being turned away or were left waiting for emergency care.
After the story was published, the hospital issued a statement that prompted a correction.
It turns out the one doctor quoted in the story hadn’t worked in the hospital in months, and the hospital had treated no patients related to ivermectin. Additionally, the hospital said, it has not turned away or delayed any patients in the ER.
KFOR News in Oklahoma reported the story but had an uncorrected version still published as of this publication.
Rolling Stone called its correction, which admitted it could not verify the allegations in the original story, and that the hospital had denied them, an “update.”
Many in media and online (including MSNBC, a podcast entitled “No Lie,” Daily Mail, Newsweek, NY Daily News, The Hill, Journalism professor Jason Johnson, Daily Kos and medical professionals) passed along the false report, as detailed in this thread by commentator Drew Holden.
26. Thursday Sept. 2, 2021
Slate and other media falsely labelled a complaint about a man in the women’s spa locker room a “transphobic hoax.”
According to the complaint by women at the spa, one of whom recorded some of the aftermath and posted the video on social media, the man allegedly exposed his penis to a group of women in the locker room.
But some in the media chalked it up to a tale fabricated by the women as part of an anti-transgender hoax.
However, on Aug. 30, police actually filed charges of indecent exposure against the man, Darren Agee Merager. Meranger is reported to be a “serial sex offender.”
According to the New York Post, Merager is also facing multiple felony charges of indecent exposure over a separate incident in Los Angeles. He reportedly denied the allegations to the Post and said he is the one who is the victim of harassment.
25. Thursday Sept. 2, 2021
USA Today corrects a fact check that had bad facts.
A fact check article by David Funke had falsely claimed that President Biden only checked his watch after a ceremony in which the bodies of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan were returned.
In the false article, Funke made liars of the family members of fallen soldiers who saw Biden check his watch and said so to news reporters.
In correcting the article, USA Today continued to cling onto its narrative that there was something inaccurate about the watch-checking claim by changing the ratings from “partly false” to “missing context,” even though there was no relevant content missing.
24. Monday Aug. 30, 2021
Scientific findings effectively debunked reporting by media outlets such as Wired, which reported that social media videos showing Covid-19 vaccine injuries in January were “dangerous” misinformation.
In fact, the videos garnered the attention of scientists who investigated and concluded the videos depicted a Covid-19 vaccine adverse event called Functional Neurological Disorder (FND).
Researchers in the United Kingdom recently identified for study two additional cases of (FND) in women in their 30s after receiving Covid-19 vaccines. Read more here.
FND is a neurological disorder involving malfunctioning of the nervous system and how the brain and body transmit signals. Symptoms can include limb weakness, paralysis, tremor, spasms, problems walking, speech problems, tingling, vision loss, seizures, fatigue, anxiety, chronic pain, memory symptoms, and blackouts.
An analysis of Covid-19 vaccine adverse events showed hundreds of thousands of reports of such symptoms.
23. Saturday Aug. 28, 2021
Writing about a major study in Israel that finds, like many others, natural immunity is far superior to vaccination for Covid-19, Meredith Wadman falsely writes in the journal Science that those who were infected with Covid-19 and gained natural immunity still benefitted from vaccination afterwards.
When the false information was flagged by a reader, Science deleted the false information and posted a clarification.
No word on how the fabricated science could have appeared in the article.
However, the mistake mirrors the same disinformation the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) got caught distributing in late 2020 and early 2021. The agency also falsely claimed studies at the time showed there was a benefit for previously-infected people if they got vaccinated. The studies showed the opposite. (More below the photos.)
When Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) flagged CDC’s false information, signed off by their entire top team of immunization advisers, CDC top officials and scientists promised to correct it. However, the CDC scientists and officials continued to make the false claims to doctors and the public.
When Massie flagged it again, CDC’s ultimate correction was so obtuse, it continued to give the same wrong impression.
CDC continues to recommend that people with natural immunity get vaccinated, despite studies showing no benefit.
22. Saturday Aug. 28, 2021
PBS’ Hari Sreenivasan and others wrote that video of a violent passenger at Miami International Airport showed a “tantrum…like a 5 year old” against mask rules. Sreenivasan used the hash tag #COVIDIOTS.
However, according to news reports the incident involving a mentally troubled military veteran had nothing to do with masks.
21. Thursday Aug. 12, 2021
The Texas Tribune “overstates” the number of children hospitalized in Texas with Covid-19 by a factor of more than 40 times. The article initially claimed more than 5,800 children had been hospitalized during a seven-day period in August. However, the true number was about 142 children in a week.
When the Texas Tribune corrected the story, it did not provide the correct number for the seven-day August time period during which it initially claimed 5,800 child Covid-19 hospitalizations. Instead, the newspaper gave a corrected total that spanned a period of five-and-a-half weeks: 783 children between July 1 and Aug. 9.
As an aside, while Covid-19 is grabbing the headlines, it was actually a different virus that was filling up more of those Texas ICU beds, according to the article: an unseasonable outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV: “a highly contagious virus that can require hospitalization mostly among children… Within Texas Children’s, more than 45 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday, and hospital staff members have diagnosed over 1,600 cases of RSV.”
20. Thursday Aug. 12, 2021
Web MD, USA Today, and others falsely call the 2020 Sturgis, South Dakota Motorcycle Rally a Covid “Super Spreader” event. Dr. Anthony Fauci had furthered the false narrative on Meet the Press. But the “Super Spreader” claims about the event were false. Data analysis showed the rally wasn’t associated with anywhere near the national average of cases, and especially not the quarter million that some original claimed. Additionally, it was shown that many media reports used photos of a previous year’s rally, misrepresenting and misdating those photos as if they were taken during the pandemic.
19. Sunday August 8, 2021
USA Today‘s Gabe Lacques, ESPN, The Denver Post, The Washington Post, Associated Press (AP), the New York Post, and other publications report, as if true without attribution, that a fan shouted a racial slur at a Miami Marlins player. However, an investigation revealed what many had said from the start: the fan was yelling the name of the Rockies team mascot, and that racist-minded observers mistook that for “the N-word.”
As of a week later, uncorrected headlines and/or with the false information remained accessible online (see below).
18. Monday July 26, 2021
The Associated Press corrects a story that falsely claimed CDC had released guidance in May stating that unvaccinated people don’t have to wear masks indoors. “The story should have said the CDC guidance released in May was that those who are vaccinated don’t have to wear masks indoors.”
17. Saturday July 24, 2021
The Associated Press corrects a story published July 24, 2021 that falsely claimed Florida had changed to weekly reporting on Covid-19 cases earlier in the month. Florida actually implemented the change a month before, in early June.
16. Monday July 19, 2021
The Associated Press corrects a story that falsely claimed a supposed decision not to prosecute former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was made by the Department of Justice under the Biden administration. AP later said it was under the Trump administration.
15. Wednesday June 2, 2021
The Washington Post joins a cacophony of other media in finally correcting their false reporting that incorrectly claimed, early and often, that the Covid-19 “lab theory” was a “debunked” “conspiracy theory.”
Read and watch my Covid-19 origins investigation here.
14. Tuesday May 17, 2021
The Poynter Institute retracts a September 2020 Politifact fact check about a statement by Li-Meng Yan that falsely claimed, among other assertions: The genetic structure of the novel coronavirus rules out laboratory manipulation.
Many authorities have said that is not now and has never been the case. In light of growing recognition of that fact, Politifact added the following Editor’s Note to the original fact check:
When this fact-check was first published in September 2020, PolitiFact’s sources included researchers who asserted the SARS-CoV-2 virus could not have been manipulated. That assertion is now more widely disputed. For that reason, we are removing this fact-check from our database pending a more thorough review. Currently, we consider the claim to be unsupported by evidence and in dispute. The original fact-check in its entirety is preserved below for transparency and archival purposes.
13. Wednesday May 11, 2021
As people wait in long lines for gas, and even as the New York Times showed images of long lines in its news coverage, the newspaper claims in a Tweet that “there have been no long lines.”
Additionally, the same day the Tweet claims no “major price hikes,” consumers documented major price hikes up to $9.99/gallon, prompting President Biden to warn against gouging.
12. Saturday May 1, 2021
The New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News correct their false reporting about Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. The articles all claimed Giuliani and/or One America News had received a “former warning from the FBI about Russian disinformation” prior to 2019 political scandals involving the U.S., Russia and Ukraine. Giuliani and One America News did not receive such so-called “defensive briefings,” after all.
The false New York Times article was written by William K. Rashbaum, Ben Protess, Maggie Haberman and Kenneth P. Vogel. Haberman and Vogel are repeat offenders on anti-Trump media mistake lists.
The false Washington Post article was written by Ellen Nakashima, Shane Harris, and Tom Hamburger.
And Ken Dilanian is on the error list again, at NBC News.
11. Friday April 30, 2021
NPR, like many in the media, reports (as if it as somehow confirmed firsthand) that “President Donald Trump’s… allegations of election rigging and widespread voter fraud” are “false.” Instead, the reports should or could accurately say that NPR and other news outlets have not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud; yet, there is no indication any outlets conducted a widespread firsthand investigation to find or eliminate fraud.
NPR also calls the media outlet “Newsmax” “far right”– when it is not. If NPR inserts such opinions and attacks in its news reporting, it should label them as opinions, or attribute them to a source, rather than claiming them to be fact.
10. Friday April 30, 2021
Newsmax corrects its 2020 election fraud reporting and apologized to Eric Coomer, director of product strategy and security for Dominion Voting Systems.
“Newsmax has found no evidence that Dr. Coomer interfered with Dominion voting machines or voting software in any way, nor that Dr. Coomer ever claimed to have done so…Nor has Newsmax found any evidence that Dr. Coomer ever participated in any conversation with members of ‘Antifa,’ nor that he was directly involved with any partisan political organization,” said Newsmax in a statement.
9. Tuesday April 27, 2021
A Politico article by with three bylines, EUGENE DANIELS, KRYSTAL CAMPOS and MICHAEL CADENHEAD, wrongly stated that Rep. Byron Donalds was “Florida’s first-ever Black Republican in Congress.”
In fact, he is third.
A correction added to the article didn’t explain how the basic research impacting the very premise of the article wasn’t done prior to publication.
8. Tuesday April 27, 2021
New York Post reporter Laura Italiano resigns after saying she was pressed to write an incorrect article claiming a book written by Vice President Kamala Harris was being distributed to children who illegally crossed the border into the U.S.
A correction to the Post article noted: “The original version of this article said migrant kids were getting Harris’ book in a welcome kit but has been updated to note that only one known copy of the book was given to a child.”
7. Monday April 26, 2021
Fox News corrects an earlier report that “incorrectly implied” a calculus involving Americans eating less red meat was part of “Biden’s plan for dealing with climate change.”
“That is not the case,” says Fox News.
https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1386757567750230019?s=20
6. Sunday, April 4, 2021
CBS’ 60 Minutes is accused of selectively editing a segment with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, in a story that implied he is guilty of “pay-for-play,” linking a campaign donation from Publix grocery stores to the selection of Publix as a major Covid-19 vaccine distribution center. Numerous media outlets picked up the narrative.
After the segment, numerous Democrat political figures in Florida confirmed that, contrary to the implication in the report, Publix was recommended by other state agencies rather than the governor’s office.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, tweeted, “I said this before and I’ll say it again. [Publix] was recommended by [Florida Division of Emergency Management] and [Florida Department of Public Health]. Period! Full stop!…No one from the Governors office suggested Publix…It’s just absolute malarkey.”
In remarks edited out of the 60 Minutes story, DeSantis also had explained that other stores were actually chosen for earlier vaccine distribution jobs before Publix.
Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, a Democrat, accused 60 Minutes of reporting “intentionally false” information, saying that the TV program knew the county– not the governor’s office– had been the one to request “to expand the state’s partnership with Publix” to help get more of the county’s elderly vaccinated.
5. Thursday, April 1, 2021
NPR corrects its book review by senior editor and correspondent on the Washington Desk Ron Elving that falsely claimed U.S. intelligence had discredited the story of the FBI obtaining and investigating material on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
4. Wednesday, March 31, 2021
The Atlanta Journal Constitution falsely reports that Georgia’s new voting integrity law would “limit voting hours.”
A later correction acknowledged “nothing in the law changes” the hours: 7am to 7pm. It also pointed out that “experts say the net effect was to expand the opportunities to vote for most Georgians, not limit them.”
3. Monday, Jan. 18, 2021
AP incorrectly reports that 200,000 small flags were placed on the National Mall to honor Americans killed by Covid-19.
But the flags represented people who couldn’t come to the inauguration, not COVID deaths.
2. Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021
The Washington Post‘s Amy Gardner, AP, CNBC, Rolling Stone, and others falsely report that President Trump pressed a lead Georgia elections investigator to “find the fraud,” and told the investigator it would make them a national hero.
However, the actual recording of the call later made public revealed that Trump did not say either of those things.
1. Friday, Jan. 8, 2021
The New York Times reporters Marc Santora, Megan Specia and Mike Baker report Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by “pro-Trump supporters” who “overpowered” him and “struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher.”
But other reports the same day referenced Sicknick dying from a stroke.
The Times waited until mid-February to issue a correction, but still claimed– citing no evidence and no autopsy report– that Sicknick had died “from injuries in pro-Trump rampage.”
There was no explanation as to who fabricated the fire extinguisher story.
Read: Media Mistakes in the Trump Era: The Definitive List.
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Thank you for reporting truth! God bless you. Americans love you! I always watch full measure. Thank you ❤️.
Hear! Hear!
Susan (( and Sharyl )),
And HEAR the U.S.
Constitution being
shredded !
See Number 29.
Equality before the law
protects those refusing
the GeneJection.
Interloper Biden is loving
his dictatorship !
-reminds of Congress
passing laws to which
they are not subject.
-Rick
P.S.
Words mean things, which
fact CONSERVATIVES need
to learn—as they keep using
Leftism’s propaganda terms, e.g. :
“Abortion” instead of B A B Y C I D E.
“Rich” instead of UBER P R O D U C T I V E.
“Poor” instead of LESS P R O D U C T I V E.
“Vaccine” instead of, say, GENE-JECTION.
“President Biden” instead of I N T E R L O P E R
(( Mr. Trump is our PRESIDENT—our lawful
LEADER )).
Ditto, Sheryl is amazing. I just wish the so called reporters were fined Big so they might think twice spreading lies. As far as 60 Minutes, they should be fined and should have to spend their 60 minute time public service announcement of letting the American people know every lie they have spread. That should take care of their shows for several years. Thanks to Full Measure for actually reporting facts.
Thank you for your real and rate journalism, Ms. Attkisson!
You could get whiplash comparing the “mistakes” in your definitive list from the Biden administration to those in the Trump administration. Everything was anti Trump over the last 4 years and now they are pro Biden in the current year. Of course when compared to their anti-Trump narrative previously they are at least consistent in that respect.
Sharyls book Slanted is a fascinating compilation of the most egregious press events during trump but more importantly going back 20 years or so. Well worth reading or listening to it!
Fox News lies 24/7. Report on that.
You are the one who is lied to.
UPDATED 4:30 PM PT – Sunday, April 4, 2021
A major Australian T.V. channel has continued to expose the weakness and corruption of the Biden administration. In a recent segment of his show, Alan Jones of Sky News Australia said Biden’s declining mental and physical health have raised increasing alert among U.S. allies.
“This is the President of the United States of America who is illiterate, incoherent, cognitively deficient,” Jones said. “And a leader of the Western world, it is an insult to those who fought for democracy.”
Jones said the purported leader of the free world has to be propped up for every public appearance. He added, Democrat-controlled media has lied and covered up for Biden to make him look good, but it’s failing at its task.
“After the stumble, the websites of MSNBC, CBS News, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and the New York Times all had no mention of Biden’s stumbling incident,” Jones noted. “To prove the Trump point when it came to airtime on television, CNN devoted 15 seconds to the incident. But when Trump walked slowly down a ramp after he delivered a graduation address last June, CNN devoted 22 minutes to Trump’s walk, the media pushing the line that Trump, at 74, was facing serious health questions.”
Jones also said Biden has made statements that didn’t make sense, which stirred further confusion among U.S. allies.
Australia’s Sky News errantly avoided the more accurate title for the Bribe’n guy: “Resident” in office. Aussies still have to deal with their own Deep Swamp.
Yellow journalism used to be illegal.
Msnbc, cnn, cbs, etc. Made it ok to lie to the public. Do YOU know how to read?
What makes you think that? Why couldn’t it be that the main stream media is lying? They tell you what they want you to know. If you listen or read their and politicians contributions, the wording/terminology is all the same, etc. It’s as though they are trying to get it to stick in your mind. Do you think you hear ALL the news? Don’t you think you might be hearing more news by listening/reading/watching other outlets?
Cudos to you! If more people would really go outside of the comfort zone in search of real news they would be better informed and see what their NOT being told by the MSM.
How would you know , since you don’t watch Fox. You hear lies on CNN and think it’s true because, it fits your bias.
Absolutely! Fox was included above for some inaccurate reporting. But watch the Project Veritas footage where CNN admits to their entire focus being propaganda. The last two areas he admitted to constant propaganda were – getting Trump out of office, and covid 19/spreading fear/focus on death count/suppressing available treatments. He said the next area of propaganda will be climate change and using fear again, because “Fear sells.” That has already started.
The difference between Fox News “mistakes” and the rest of the false narratives by other outlets, is it appears that Fox News didn’t wait to correct theirs.
Spot on.
Seems to me NY Times, Wash Post, ABC, NPR does ALL the lying. DID YOU even read the article????
‘Liars for Hire’ is just ‘Biz as Usual.’ Read Mark Crispin Miller’s recent post and critique of the NY Times coverage of B.O. and the hecklers for more clues. The NY Times are a DNC asset. It’s a wag-the-dog world! Check out Substack. cheers! https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/whatever-happened-with-that-crowd
Correction:
Wash Post, NBC, NPR & NY Times seem to be doing all the lying. NYSlimes & NBC even have repeat liars. LOL… FOX corrected their story.
As Sharyl points out, no one is above criticism but as we can see, Fox is by far the least guilty of lying.
While not enamored of Fox’s reporting on the election fraud, I know what is going on more generally because Fox is much more balanced than certainly CNN or MSNBC who routinely behave (Smolett, Avenatti, Rebehka Jones, Bobulinski etc.) as the media organs for the democrat party.
You need to watch Fox. Obviously you don’t. They are more truthful than the liberal media, where you never see the real truth. I watch both sides to keep balanced.
You are right, William….but, try as I might, it’s really difficult to stay tuned in to “the other side” for very long before I start yelling at the TV. Then my husband feels he has to intervene to “calm me down” by calling me a lunatic, which only serves to add more fuel to the fire, so needless to say, I have to spend 5 minutes in “timeout”. (I’m just too old, 75, for this) ? ” Staying balanced” is very elusive
I must say, however, The Pillow Guy doesn’t always help the situation either. Man he has the corner on the advertising market on Fox News.
Interesting. I came to the conclusion sometime back that we can’t rely on corporate media(due largely to ‘conflicts of interest’ and the fact the News Media is owned by a handful of Oligarchs)–and thus, “balance” is not a matter of how many different channels we review. Literacy and applied literacy are the gateway to critical thinking. The screenfare is designed to indoctrinate and spread propaganda. Channel surfing aside–discernment and cultivating historical perspective are essential if we are to break the chains of ignorance.
That is what you libs derogatorily call a “whataboutism,” is it not?
Prove it…Put up or shut up !!
Examples?
You have 1 example, compared to the litany of left leaning media outlets that lie, are incompetent or are just lazy in their reporting.
Miss Atkinson is one of the few real reporters in this country, who seeks the truth and we the deplorables are so grateful that have her.??????
Ahmen
ditto.
When I click on the address to read the Definitive List, I am sent to a page that says, ‘not found 404.’
Dear Mrs. Attkisson: I spent 2 solid 2 years designing a fool proof land border security plan. This plan would secure our borders saving the taxpayers billions of dollars and will pay for itself over a period of time as all business deals do. This plan is designed to be perpetual lasting forever. I would like to send this plan to you for your evaluation. My information: Louis P. McCasland email: [email protected]; P.O. Box 280 Hondo, Texas 78861 Phones: 830-423-7984: 210-685-4469 and Joan”s phone no. 210-685-4470
If you haven’t already, I also recommend sharing this info with J. Prather–Prather Point.
Thank you for your service.
Keep up the work. 2022 needs to be an open and fair election. I wish the best for President Joe Biden but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know why Ruby Freeman waited for observers to go home to remove ballots from under a table? Why those five poll workers just didn’t resume counting the ballots they had been counting previously is troublesome.
Thank you…many times thank you. The sad part is for the most part the liars will continue to lie. Even sadder is the lie “is out the door and almost around the world until the truth gets to the porch”.
I thought it was “the truth gets its pants on”, but I agree. But for people like Sharyl I would lose my mind.
thanks for the aide memoire. How quickly we forget and how much they rely on that.
Here is another media mistake. On April 3, Ron Elving was reporting on the second capitol police officer who died. He brought up Brian Sitnick and repeated the false narrative that Mr. Sitnick had died from being bludgeoned by Trump supporters on January 6. The link is below. The story title is “Week In Politics: People On Alert After Another Attack On The Capitol.”
https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/2021/04/03/981875128/weekend-edition-saturday-for-april-3-2021
THANK YOU for all you do – your excellent reporting is truly a beacon of hope amongst all the propaganda.
I wonder if the cop killed by the knife wielding Louis F. devotee will be mourned in state. Actually, I am kidding. He won’t.
I admire you, Sharyl!! You are the best of the best! You give people facts & let them make up their own minds (which never happens anymore!).
I am also wondering if anyone of our politicians or whom-it-may-be has thought about or mentioned making Election Day a holiday? Then there is no issue as to how voting hours will effect working people! Am I being crazy for thinking this because it seems simple?!
One of the great misnomers is “common” sense. When you have a common sense view you shouldn’t feel this alone. The French figured this out; their version is “bon sense” because it sure as hell is not common.
Making it a holiday would make it more valued and encourage more participation. Voting station tailgating! I love it.
Ed Eichman,
“Common sense” has become a pejorative term,
rather : always write/say “Rational ( or logical )
Sense,” as “common” among elites means to
them—the “unwashed masses.”
Leftists’ ( Biden & Company’s ) twisted Emoting
Mind is best displayed/demonstrated by a female
trial juror :
Forwarded Message :
Emoting Feminine Mind, Bill :
The Good-Looking Always Get a Break :
https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/tiktokers-are-trying-to-break-a-criminal-out-of-prison-due-to-his-good-looks-616a4153a65d
Recall the Menezdez brothers’ trial, after murdering
their parents in cold blood.
—Female juror supported them because,
as she put it, “Well, they lost their parents!”
-Rick
[[ P.S.
Sharyl, Nexusnewsfeed dot com displayed
your pretty picture, which beauty is why
you were targeted by someone at the
Agency. ]]
Thank you.
Here’s one you missed. Omission, but a whopper.
In the middle of a pandemic with vaccination delivery being one of the highest priorities, I have heard a hundred democrats sound off on how requiring government issued id in order to vote is an attack on the African American vote, BUT I have not heard one democrat raise a concern that these same marginalized millions will not be able to get a vaccine without a photo id.
Why? Because they don’t actually care about these maladroits or because they know they don’t exist.
The leftist media has made an art form of distortion, misinformation and censorship. I thought it was the result of bias or lack of research or ignorance. I was wrong. It is intentional. It is a conscious organized attack on objectivity and freedom. The motivation is to attain, for the instigators,, influence and power over the masses. It’s working.
Thank-you for all your hard work Ms. Attkisson! You help us know the truth!
I guess I must lead a very sheltered life, I don’t know of anyone who listens to the corporate news. Nobody believes in it any more,
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/11/kamala-harriss-radical-green-new-deal-vision-ban-plastic-straws-alter-food-pyramid-to-limit-red-meat/
I have many sites with kamala stating that months ago. It is TRUE they do want to replace meat with gates plant based meat. It’s been said many times
You do an incredible job Sharyl!!
It is a shame that the ‘media police’ could not handle the unbiased truth that you shared on the air. Again they managed to place you in a spot where the lower-rated audience is tuned. Please keep fighting for where your hard, direct informational questions can be heard and seen. A fan
Anyone that watches MSM has no clue of what is going on. The Democrats/MSM/Big Tech are one and the same with the purpose of destroying the Country. Wake up America, the Marxist agenda is here!!
Democrats/.Republicans/Independents that care about America and capitalism must strongly and quickly unite and vote out before it is too late!!!!!!!!.
> NPR also called the media outlet “Newsmax” “far right”
‘Far right’ is what you use when you are thinking Orthodox Jews (far right) are Hitler supporters (far right).
It doesn’t mean anything else than ‘the people who don’t support our policies and have guts to complain’.
Fascism was created by Mussolini. He had been a big man in the Internationals or Comintern (Communist Internationals) when he realized he was proud of being an Italian. Fascism was built on the teaching of Karl Marx. Hitler added a racial component when he created Nazism. Communism and Fascism/Nazism are products of the Left.
International Socialism is another term for Communism. This is put into practice by the Globalists, the one world government types, that government being the UN, Nazism has a national focus.
Communism is found on the far Left end of the political theories. Nazism is to their immediate Right. Everything else is to the Right of the Nazis.
+ Both systems have all powerful leaders kept in power by the Secret Police and the Military and the people have no rights.
Most history books are written by college professors who are Leftists, Communists and they have sought to put as much distance between the Communists and the Nazis.
There are lesser differences,
I love your work Sharyl , but April 4 it’s Ron DeSantis–not Rick. (Don’t mean to be petty.)e
Nothing new here, Years ago (1971) Edith Efrom in the “News Twisters” reported rampant fake reporting by main stream news organizations.
I’ve read both of your recent books. Excellent!!! I love the list of media corrections! Keep them coming.
It may not be considered a “mistake”,
but very important is news
that does NOT get reported.
The censored Robert Hunter Biden laptop computer story before the 220 election had the potential to change the results of the 2020 election. (Based on what people said in a poll after the election, when told about the story (for the first time).
Thank you, Sheryl. But surely there’s a lot missing here. How can your readers help?
Sorry; I know how to spell your name. From now on it will be “Ms. Attkisson,” which is how I should have addressed you to begin with.
Thank you, Ms. Attkisson, for all you do.
Hmmm…Perhaps someone should look into the credible reports that the Biden Administration is paying the Taliban to allow the evacuations from Kabul to proceed ‘unmolested’.
BCNU…
I guess with this bomb shell there is no need for anyone to wonder how you racked up all the gold. Thanks, you are the best.
Such an amazing recap. I trust Sharyl to give us the truth no matter where it leads. Keep these coming…love this piece ..and I can only imagine how much time spent to put it together. Bravo!
I’m glad I subscribe.
I wish there were more journalists like Sharyl Attkisson who are not afraid to report the truth. I gave up listening to Main Street media long time ago. I get my info now from outlets and journalists like Sharyl Attkisson and Full Measure, American Family Association and American Family Radio news cast. I can get the truth from a perspective that is not pushing an agenda or false ideology and just like Sharyl they tell the truth whether it hurts or not.
We should be able to sue them. Why can’t we???
Re: 1. January 8,2021
Ultimately, autopsy found that Officer Sidenick actually died of 2 strokes, no evidence of pervious injury or allergic reaction to chemical irritants. I know the Time reported on the autopsy, but since I’m not willing to pay for a subscription, I don’t know if they made any reference to previous reports.
The facts reign that we are guaranteed by the US. Constitution and our Bill of Rights to be “innocent until proven guitly”…in a court of Law. Presidementia Biden usurps that right using his policies outlined last week. Go figure it…it’s not a crime to refuse a flu shot…to be burdened by executive order as a criminal is in direct conflict with the Constitution. To issue such is Dictatorial and against all Judicial precedent…Hey Jo!…B.I.O.Y.A. ….
Sharyl does great work. She’s a valuable contributor to our common good!
Love the definitive media list… I have one request. Instead of the date being the large text subject line how about a few words that describe the mistake followed by the date in normal size text?
Please ponder this,
Thanks!
David, give her a break, you want it that way you do it and post it.
Regarding #29, to clarify, the USPS are not subject to the executive order mandating vaccinations for federal employees, so the original story was correct, although politically incorrect. To make it more palatable for Washington Post readers they added the mention that the USPS will be subject to the OSHA vaccination mandates which at this time don’t exist.
I doubt that most of these were “mistakes,” but deliberate lies that were so flagrant and easily disprovable that they had to be withdrawn.
It’s probably easier to just assume everything that comes from the establishment media is a lie and then issue a correction in the rare case where that turns out to not be the case. For example Rachel Maddow actually said something that was true a few weeks ago.
Hi Lance, I assume nothing about this administration. Re MadCow she had no idea what she was reporting if it was factual. Jim
This was a great read, thanks for doing the work
With regard to the Satchel Paige anecdote Biden embellished the story with “facts” that he or someone else made up.
First, the quote was attributed to Satch but there is no evidence he really said it. He did have a lot to say about age but the story Biden told about him beating “Chicago” at the age of 47 and being interviewed by reporters is not true.
Accepting the official birth date (Satch always claimed a goat ate his birth certificate and he didn’t know his own age) Satch didn’t earn a win against “Chicago” in his 47th year as Biden claimed. He did earn three wins in his last full year in the ML (1953) but the only ones after his 47th birthday (2) were against – The Washington Senators. You can look it up.
For Section 230(c)(1) of Title 47 of the United States Communications Decency Act to persist, at its core providing immunity from liability for journalists who promote their reporting on websites–many in MSM do as shown above. Then MSM reporting should be logged to immutable blockchains where corrections can be traced for patterns of false reporting.
This may be considered nit picking given it was only one of the examples, but the story of the 7-hour gap is out of place in this list. In what way was this a “media mistake”? There was, in fact, a gap from 11:17 am to 6:54 pm. There may be legitimate reasons for that gap, but there was in fact a gap.
Now someone might say that the media was making a mountain out of a molehill given there may be innocent explanations for the gap (although none have been provided as far as I know). Sort of like hyping the story about the “mysterious van” in Detroit.
And SA’s characterization that the “supposedly best journalists in the business” missed an “obvious detail” is pretty snarky. First of all, her explanation was that “there were many ways Trump likely would have communicated during the “gap” period while he was not physically at the White House”. One problem with this comment was that Trump was at the White House for the great majority of the time covered by the gap. And who said that these “best journalists “missed” this “obvious detail”? They didn’t claim there were no other means of communication. Remember the stories that Trump might have used a “burner” phone (even though Trump claimed not to know what a “burner” phone was – a claim that others refuted based on first-hand knowledge). But remember that the purpose of the subpoena was to find out who had talked to Trump during the insurrection so they could find out what he had been told. I don’t think that Select Committee was concerned if that communication came through the White House switchboard or was conducted via cell phones. So the fact that Trump didn’t provide all of the information that they were seeking is a serious issue. SA may characterize it as “supposedly suspicious”, but it’s not that much of a stretch to question why the information wasn’t provided. We know, for example, that he talked to Kevin McCarthy during this time. Who else did he talk to?
If the media had claimed that there was no way Trump could have communicated with anyone other than through the WH switchboard. that would have been a mistake. But that’s not what they claimed. They merely claimed that there was a gap of 7 hours in the released information.
To sum up: the Select Committee sought information on who Trump had talked to during the insurrection. Trump released an incomplete list. The media correctly pointed that out. Unless there’s something else, SA’s claiming that this is a media mistake is itself a mistake.
for 3 years we heard on dozens of outlets that DT had stolen the election and was illegitimate. No one went to jail or had their homes raided for saying that. Congress was ok with investigating it. In every court on the planet a signed under penalty of perjury, notarized affidavit is EVIDENCE, There were zero affidavits attesting to the Trump steal..
So now, after over 2,000 affidavits were collected about illegal or suspicious activity, some large scale, some small but hard to explain, it is somehow criminal to suggest the election was stolen.
What are the odds that with 9 swing states all 7 that stopped counting, went dark and all but NC flipping to Biden were ALL from that 18% of states? How could it be that NONE of the 41 non-swing states felt the need to go dark and “stop counting”? Do the probability math, if you can, it’s off the charts.
Courts have no place in elections. The Bush Gore case should never have made it to SCOTUS. State legs own it and courts want nothing to do with it and therefore are not proof of anything. People who argue that courts not taking an election case is proof of the falsity of the claim are dolts.
They are NOT “mistakes.” The are delibert lies!
*NPR, like many in the media, reports (as if it as somehow confirmed firsthand) that “President Donald Trump’s… allegations of election rigging and widespread voter fraud” are “false.” Instead, the reports should or could accurately say that NPR and other news outlets have not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud; yet, there is no indication any outlets conducted a widespread firsthand investigation to find or eliminate fraud.*
What disingenuous, dishonest claptrap. Trump’s claims have been VERIFIED as false. Verified in courts, by election and state officials and investigators, and by Trump’s own agencies and investigators. Nobody has uncovered anything in 19 months because it was a lie from the start.
Investigations were conducted all over the country and they debunked Trump’s litany of lies.
Cam – you are 100% correct. I have challenged everyone in this newsletter to provide me with any hard evidence of voter fraud. What I get back can be summarized into these categories:
1) Nothing
2) “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you”
3) “Watch 2000 Mules” (This is just one example of the many claims that are really just simple factoids that could be interpreted any number of ways but because one of those ways is that it could show voter fraud, it becomes proof positive of that fraud. Other examples are the “mysterious” van delivering ballots in Detroit (it is possible that the van was delivering fake ballots although someone has to explain why the head of elections in Wayne County would tweet about it) or the claim that a van supposedly bringing food to poll workers in Michigan was actually delivering fake ballots (again, it could be true but the person who made this charge later admitted that she hadn’t actually seen any ballots in that van.).)
Note the complete and total absence of anything resembling actual proof. Or even a coherent story about how the supposed fraud could have been committed.
And any lingering doubts should have been completely removed by the testimony of all of those at the January 6 hearings, how they went through Trump’s claims and showed them to be “insane”. I suppose you can believe that all of those testifying are corrupt, but if I had to choose between those who have served their country with distinction for many years and one person known to lie with reckless abandon, I know where I’m putting my money.
Let me be clear: those who continue to spew the lie that the election was stolen or refuse to admit clearly that zero evidence of fraud has been produced are not on the side of American democracy. It’s no more complicated than that.
Let me be clearer: Those that aid and abet this nonsense with one-sided articles containing factoids insinuating voter fraud without a simple statement that such claims have no evidence to back them up are scarcely any better. This newsletter is replete with stories about possible voter fraud. Indeed, any time someone has a brain cramp and comes up with some wild story about how the election was stolen, here it will be in all its gory details. Yet when those claims are investigated and found to be without merit, we get no mention of it at all in this newsletter (just like we’ve gotten no reporting on the January 6 hearings).
And we have yet to get any clear statement in this newsletter that none of the many, many investigations of voter fraud have turned up any evidence.
If anyone thinks that this is overly harsh, there are two possible responses:
1) Point me to some evidence of voter fraud
2) Point me to some article wherein SA has clearly stated that no evidence of voter fraud has been found (of course such a statement should accompany any article that does claim to point to some voter fraud)
If you can’t do either one of these things, then my claim must be considered valid.
In that same “mistake”, SA says that NPR referring to Newsmax as “far right” is a mistake. Really? Have you actually listened to Newsmax? We all know what NPR means – “far right” is just shorthand for “completely in the bag for Trump”. And that is a completely fair characterization.
SA has repeatedly complained about MSM media bias. Fair enough. But that is an opinion just as much as the characterization of Newsmax as “far right”. Funny, but I don’t remember any such qualifier in any of those articles.
as always, Sharyl, spot on.
This article reappears from time to time whenever SA finds another example of a media mistake for us to hyperventilate over. So today’s version is updated with the story that “Good Morning America wrongly tweeted that Ketanji Jackson is the first US Supreme Court justice”. But the actual tweet was this: “Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in as the first BLACK (emphasis mine) Supreme Court justice in U.S. history”.
The ironic thing is that the actual tweet is correct, but the article which cites the tweet as an example of a media mistake is actually wrong.
I look forward to the correction. Until then, I will be hyperventilating.
Re: #49
The whole argument isn’t really based on THE FACT that Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Supreme Court Justice of the United States appointed based on her skin color. PERIOD
Meanwhile (PDA) brings up an excellent point that when reading these comments it would be nice to know which Media Mistake # is being referenced.
Oh, the irony! I made a mistake while commenting on Media Mistakes…..PDL was the one who brought up the excellent point! GeezOPete….it never ends! Sorry.?
When “mistakes” happen over and over in the same direction, they aren’t mistakes, they’re policy.
Thank you Ms Attkisson. These lists are invaluable. You had reported in your book–“SLANTED,” that you recall the year, 2011 as the ‘on switch’ for “The Narrative”…and in retrospect, I’m wondering if you still believe the mainstream news media has any journalistic merit whatsoever in 2022?
This:
https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/lights-camera-j6-extended-trailer/
Sharyl has built up a great deal of trust over the years. If she says it, you know she can back it up with well-researched evidence. I love this kind of collation of information in one handy place.
Likewise for me.
The pattern here is clear. Support the current left-wing narrative, facts be damned! I might be oversimplifying, but I doubt it.
Sharyl,
Is it OK if I copy and paste these examples of these errors on my X account?
Each and every media mistake should be seen.