Part III
100. Nov. 28, 2019
Newsweek falsely reports that President Trump is spending Thanksgiving golfing in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago Resort. He was actually in Afghanistan serving dinner to U.S. troops. It's the second year in a row that national media makes the same mistake. (The reporter, Jessica Kwong, was reportedly later fired.)
101. Nov. 24, 2019
It turns out the same Newsweek reporter, Kwong, reported an allegedly misleading story the week before about President Trump's tipping implying he'd been cheap.
Newsweek later updated the story to remove the headline reference to a "thin stack of cash" and include that it was 100 dollar bills, and above and beyond what Trump had already tipped the servers.
102. Dec. 3, 2019
(Allegation) Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) files a $435 million defamation lawsuit against CNN over a Nov. 23 CNN story that claimed Nunes had flown to Vienna, Austria in December 2018 to meet with a former Ukrainian prosecutor in to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Nunes says at the time CNN claimed he was in Vienna, he was actually in Benghazi, Libya and Malta for meetings; and Nunes produced photographs he says proves that. Additionally, he says he has never met with the named former Ukrainian prosecutor in Vienna or anywhere else.
(If evidence ultimately shows CNN was correct and Nunes is incorrect, this post will be updated and removed from the count.)
103. Dec. 9, 2019
It would be difficult if not impossible from a practical standpoint to list the thousands of the media reports, from the New York Times to CNN, that have now been proven false by information documented in Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the FBI's misbehavior in investigating the Trump campaign.
Here, they will all be grouped together as one media mistake, but include nearly every major national media outlet that falsely reported, as if fact, that the discredited Democrat-funded "dossier" -- submitted by the FBI to get a wiretap to spy on Trump associate Carter Page -- was only a "small part" of the wiretap application. Also, the reports that Page was a Russian spy and the conduit between Trump and Putin. Also, the many insistences that Trump was a "Putin stooge" and coordinating with Putin or Russia, when the FBI's own evidence now shows they never found anything remotely close to that. In fact, they appeared to disprove it.
104. Jan. 31, 2018
(Out of chronological order because it just came to my attention.)
Media reports in Dec. 2017 claimed the Trump administration banned officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using seven words.
In response, doctors posted photos of themselves with tape over their mouths.
It turns out documents showed there was "not a ban or prohibition on words but rather suggestions on how to improve the chances of getting funding."
105. Dec. 25, 2019
(Allegation) An unusually unequivocal denial of a Wall Street Journal report come from the Trump administration. Trump officials say the anonymously-sourced report is "total false, untrue and baseless. It did not happen."
If information comes to light that proves the Wall Street Journal source was accurate at the time, this post will be updated to reflect that.
106. Dec. 16, 2019
The news media widely misreport that the report by Dept. of Justice Inspector General Horowitz found "no political bias" in the Russia probe. As Horowitz made clear in his Congressional testimony, that is false.
Instead, Horowitz gave a limited, qualified opinion about a narrow part of the opening of the investigation, stating he could not find documentary or testimonial evidence that the serious political bias of various FBI officials impacted the original decision to open the probe into Trump campaign-related Americans.
Horowitz explicitly acknowledged that various FBI officials involved in the probe, including Peter Strzok and Lisa Page had political bias against Trump.
He also stated, in Congressional testimony, that Christopher Steele, the political opposition researcher hired by the Clinton campaign to provide the anti-Trump "dossier" to the FBI, had political bias.
And he stated that it's possible political bias was behind other inexplicable and egregious errors the FBI made during the probe, which he did not say was free of bias. Those matters, Horowitz testified, have been referred to the criminal probe and to the FBI to handle.
107. Aug. 5, 2019
(Out of chronological order because it just came to my attention.)
MSNBC's Nicole Wallace falsely claims that President Trump had talked about "exterminating Latinos." She apologized the next day stating, on Twitter, "I misspoke about Trump calling's for an extermination of Latinos. My mistake was unintentional and I'm sorry."
108. Jan. 9, 2019
(Out of chronological order because it just came to my attention.)
Ken Vogel of the New York Times corrects a story that falsely claimed Trump adviser Paul Manafort had wanted to share polling data with a Russian oligarch close to President Putin.
109. Dec. 27, 2019
The New York Times corrects a report it published to demonstrate how people who voted for Donald Trump no longer support him. Their featured example was a man who-- it turns out-- never voted for Trump in the first place.
110. Jan. 7, 2020
MSNBC wrongly reports up to 30 U.S. deaths after an Iranian rocket attack. In fact, no Americans were killed. The number was a fabricated number reported by the Iranians.
111. Jan. 16, 2020
MSNBC's John Brennan, former CIA Director, falsely reports that Trump personally wrote a note regarding wanting Ukraine's president to announce an investigation into possible corruption related to the former vice president and his son.
112. Feb. 21, 2020
The New York Times and multiple other news outlets report on a secret briefing to Congress that supposedly told lawmakers that Russia is interfering to try to get Trump reelected in 2020. The report is later followed up by stories indicating that the warnings may have been "overstated." In fact, officials told CNN the US "does not have evidence that Russia's interference this cycle is aimed at reelecting Trump."
113. Feb. 26, 2020
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, multiple media outlets imply or state thatPresident Trump slashed, cut or gutted the budget for the Centers for Disease Control. In fact, the CDC budget has increased each year.
114. Feb. 28, 2020
Numerous media outlets falsely report that President Trump called the coronavirus a "hoax." In fact, the president called the Democrat's politicization of the outbreak a hoax.
115. March 1, 2020
(Allegation) Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) announces plans to sue The Washington Post over what he says was false reporting about him. The Post claimed Nunes went to the White House and talked to President Trump about a Congressional briefing by then-Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire about prospects of Russia interference in the current 2020 campaign. The Post report then claimed that Trump "erupted" at Maguire before replacing him.
Nunes says he never talked to the president about Maguire and did not go to the White House when The Post claimed he did.
If information comes to light showing that The Post was correct, this post will be updated.
116. March 5, 2020
The Washington Post editorial team refers to many of America's "hundred of millions" of voters in the U.S. supporting Joe Biden. But there are not that many voters in the U.S. (There were 153,000,000 people registered to vote in 2018. Tens of millions of them do not vote.).
117. March 15, 2020
An anonymously-sourced news report alleges President Trump attempted to bribe a German coronavirus vaccine maker and wants to hoard the vaccine so only Americans will have it.
Reuters reported that the German Health Ministry confirmed the report.
However, the German Health Ministry clarified it had not verified the report, just a quote attributed to one of its spokespersons. The Trump administration denied the report altogether.
(If the original report is verified and turns out to be true, after all, this entry will be removed from the list.)
118. March 18, 2020
The New York Times and Jeremy Peters publish an article with multiple false claims about Sharyl Attkisson and Rob Schneider, claiming they and others have "minimized" coronavirus risks and "insisted" it it is overplayed. In fact, Peters altered an Attkisson quote and made at least nine false claims about her work. Peters also manipulated a Schneider quote and quoted him out of context in order to make him appear as though he had violated recommendations not to eat at restaurants, when he had not. More details here.
April 1, The New York Times lawyers issue multiple Corrections to the false article. They:
- Partially fix a deceptively-altered quote
- Remove a section
- Amend three parts
- Publish a "correction"
119. March 19, 2020
Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post wrongly blames Republican leader Senator Mitch McConnell for delaying a coronavirus package vote. The Post later issued a correction, stating: "An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delayed a vote on the House's coronavirus relief package. In fact, McConnell vowed to move at "warp speed" on the bill and it was only delayed due to a demand from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for an amendment on the bill. This version has been updated."
120. March 27, 2020
The New York Times issues a correction after falsely reporting that the U.S. was short at least 800 thousand ventilators in the coronavirus crisis because a million would be needed and there were only 200k on hand. In fact, a study actually projected a million people may need a ventilator over the course of the pandemic, not at one time.
121. March 28, 2020
A New York Times timeline about the slow implementation of coronavirus testing in the U.S. is corrected. The date of the country's first confirmed case of coronavirus through travel was almost two weeks later than stated in the original timeline.
122. March 30, 2020
CBS This Morning airs a story supposedly showing video of a New York hospital crowded coronavirus patients. Some viewers recognized it as the same video shown to represent a hospital in Italy.
CBS News issues a correction saying the network mistakenly used the Italy video in the U.S. story. "It was an editing mistake. We took immediate steps to remove it from all platforms and shows," a CBS News spokesperson said.
123. April 6, 2020
CBS News airs social media video of a crying woman who says she was a nurse and quit her job due to not having masks while treating coronavirus patients. The video got more than eight million views. When questions were raised about the video, CBS left it up but added a "clarification": "Imaris Vera, the nurse in this video, clarified her experience on Monday in a tweet:
'We were each assigned 1 N95 per 1 covid patient?s room but was not allowed to wear it outside of the room, wear our own N95 mask around the Nurses station or Halls, which I came prepared with'." The clarification did anything but clear up the facts, but it seems to indicate nobody was asked to treat coronavirus patients without masks, after all.
124. April 8, 2020
Days after CBS News mistakenly uses shots of an Italian hospital as if it is in New York City, and apologizes for the mistake (Mistake #122 above), the network uses the same Italy video again in a discussion about coronavirus-overrun Pennsylvania hospitals.
125. April 15, 2020
A Facebook "science fact check" incorrectly flags as "false" an Epoch Times coronavirus documentary about the virus's possible link to a Wuhan, China research lab. That's despite the fact that none of the documentary's information is proven false, and the documentary draws no conclusions.
In addition, contrary to Facebook's fake "fact check," the government has explicitly announced it is investigating information that the Covid-19 outbreak started with a leak at the lab.
It turns out the first named reviewer referenced by Facebook's fact check is a U.S. scientist who has been working at the Wuhan lab.
126. April 14, 2020
The U.S. government publicly confirms it is looking into possible links between coronavirus and a research lab in Wuhan, China.
On Feb. 17, 2020, Paulina Firozi of The Washington Post had falsely declaredthe idea of the virus coming from the Wuhan lab to be "debunked." It had not been debunked.
In fact, a more recent April 14 article by The Washington Post debunked the earlier Washington Post article's claim that the Wuhan tie had been debunked.
127. April 22, 2020
Reuters and other new outlets claim President Trump tapped a "former Labradoodle breeder... to lead U.S. pandemic task force." They imply the official, Brian Harrison, is unqualified and blame him for supposed slowing the U.S. coronavirus response.
The stories from multiple outlets appear on the same day.
However, Harrison never led the coronavirus task force. Additionally, while he did briefly own a family business raising Labradoodles, he has also served three administrations in high level posts and was not plucked from dog breeding obscurity to serve on the pandemic task force.
128. April 25, 2020
After Marketwatch and The Washington Post report coronavirus checks may or "will" be delayed several days to get President Trump's signature on them, the Treasury Department announces the checks are being issued "on time, as planned" and that there was no delay.
129. April 25, 2020
In a widely distributed report, Politico reports that President Trump owes the Bank of China tens of millions of dollars in a loan coming due in 2022, as he deals with China on coronavirus. However, the Bank of China issued a statement saying it only held the loan for 22 days and sold it to a U.S. real estate firm in 2012.
Politico changed its headline and details of the story but did not issue a "correction" or apology, and still maintains Trump has improper ties to China.
Update: Politico belatedly issued a correction three days later, acknowledging that they committed a basic mistake by not asking the Bank of China for comment before publication.
130. April 28, 2020
Yahoo reporter Hunter Walker asks Trump a question with false information in it:
“Overall, South Korea has done five times more tests than the U.S. per capita,” Walker asked Trump during an Oval Office meeting that included Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) “Why is that?” "I don't think that's true," Trump replied.
“That is true,” Walker insisted.
In fact, South Korea’s testing was 11 per 100,000 people and the U.S. is at 17 per 100,000.
Walker later apologizes in a Tweet: "We have passed South Korea in the number of tests conducted per capita. I misread the mobile version of this chart and am sorry about that, @realDonaldTrump."
131. April 6, 2020
Maggie Haberman, Peter Baker, Katie Rogers and David Enrich at The New York Times report that "Trump has seized on [hydroxychloroquine] as a miracle cure."
In fact, the day before the article was published, the president repeatedly qualified his support for hydroxychloroquine-- as he usually does-- and did not call it a miracle cure.
"It may work, and it may not work. But if it doesn’t work, it’s nothing lost by doing it," said Trump at an April 5 media availability. He also stated, "in case it does work, we want to have it," and "Now, it may not work, in which case, Hey, it didn’t work. It may work, in which case it’s going to save a lot of lives. Now, a lot of people say...it has a profound effect. Well, maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t."
132. May 10, 2020
NBC's Chuck Todd on Meet the Press used a deceptively edited comment made by Attorney General William Barr about the case of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. The network later apologized for the error.
133. May 10, 2020
CBS 60 Minutes falsely tweets that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "attempted to resurrect a debunked theory that the virus was man-made in China." Pompeo had said the opposite. “Look, the best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point," said Pompeo. When asked, “Your Office of the DNI says the consensus, the scientific consensus, was not man-made or genetically modified,”
Pompeo then replied, “That’s right. I agree with that. I’ve seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly. I have no reason to doubt that that is accurate at this point.” When asked further, “So just to be clear, you do not think it was man-made or genetically modified?” Pompeo replied, “I’ve seen what the Intelligence Community has said. I have no reason to believe that they’ve got it wrong."
One other flaw with the 60 Minutes tweet is that the news organization cannot claim to know, first hand, the origin of coronavirus since nobody from the news agency was present for its birth.
134. June 2, 2020
Mediaite writes an account of demonstrations outside the White House, quoting numerous reporters as saying tear gas was unjustifiably used. Fox News host Laura Ingraham said no tear gas was used. Mediaite quotes numerous reporters as "fact checking" Ingraham and concluding she is wrong. However, the U.S. Park Police releases a report that recounts a litany of violent acts the protesters had allegedly been committing, including pelting officers with objects and trying to grab their weapons.
The police confirmed that during the efforts to control the crowd, no tear gas was used. "Correct your article, please," tweeted Ingraham. As of this posting, Mediate had not corrected its article or reverse fact-checked the apparently false claims about Ingraham and tear gas.
135. June 22, 2020
The New York Times, NPR and others unquestioningly link, as if a fact, the discovery of a "noose" in a black NASCAR driver's stall to racism. An investigation quickly concluded it was a garage door pull rope, and had been there for months, long before the driver had been assigned the stall.
136. July 12, 2020
USA Today used a "Fact check" to connect a Trump campaign T-shirt design using an eagle-- to a Nazi eagle. The newspaper later "clarifies" its article to note that "the eagle is a longtime US symbol, too."
137. Fri. July 17, 2020
On this date, newly-released documents reveal at least nine factual errors or misrepresentations in a New York Times article by Michael Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, and Matt Apuzzo about alleged Trump-Russia collusion in 2017.
Among other issues, internal notes made by then FBI official Peter Strzok-- but kept secret until this date-- contradicted claims in the Times article including: that Paul Manafort had been picked up communicating with Russians, that Roger Stone had been investigated by the FBI, and that Trump advisers had gotten caught communicating with Russians. Details here.
138. Thurs. July 23, 2020
The Atlantic issues a series of corrections to a false story it published, “How I Became a Police Abolitionist,” written by social justice activist Derek Pernell who claimed she became scarred and anti-police because, as a child, she witnessed a police officer shooting her cousin, a "boy" for skipping a basketball sign in sheet, and that the police officer wasn't held accountable. It turns out, it wasn't a police officer, it was a private security guard; the victim, who was shot in the arm, was an adult, not a child; and the guard did not escape serious consequences, he was charged with assault.
139. Thurs. Aug. 5, 2020
An AP report about groups named in an FBI affidavit regarding an alleged Ohio corruption scheme false reported that one named figure, D. Eric Lycan, is the current counsel for the Republican Party of Kentucky. But Lycan left that position more than a year ago.
140. Sat. Aug. 8, 2020
Multiple analysts, news outlets, politicians, and advocacy groups falsely report that President Trump has announced plans to eliminate Social Security and/or Medicare if he's re-elected. In fact, the executive order signed by the president clearly shows a temporary cut in payroll taxes (which fund the entitlement programs) applies to those earning under approximately $105,000 a year. Others continue paying. Others in the media, such as the LA Times' liberal and pharmaceutical propaganda columnist Michael Hiltzik, left false implications, though stopping short of claiming Trump announced a policy to eliminate the entitlements.
141. Sat. Aug. 8, 2020
The Washington Post publishes the "Mother of all Corrections," a 579 word correction of a July 23 article written by food writer Korsha Wilson. The correction consists of 15 bullet points. Post executive editor Martin Baron saidthe paper was “embarrassed by the widespread errors in this freelance article."
The article was titled “Black families once lived off their southern farmland. Their descendants are struggling to hold onto it.” The Post acknowledged it “contained many errors and omitted context and allegations important to understanding two families’ stories.”.
142. Sat. Aug. 22
AP publishes a fact check that concludes President Trump's true statement about an event at the Democratic National Convention was something other than true.
Trump had tweeted: "The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention." AP labelled the true claim to be misleading even as the news agency acknowledged, "the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly and the LGBTQ Caucus meeting, both Tuesday, left out 'under God,' from the pledge." AP argued that because others Democrats had cited the pledge accurately, Trump's tweet did not qualify as true.
143. Mon. Aug. 31, 2020
The Washington Post's Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey publish allegations in an article entitled: "New Trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy, worrying public health officials."
The headline contains no attribution and states the allegation as if it's an established fact. The article itself relies on unnamed, anonymous people.
However, the subject of the allegations, Dr. Scott Atlas, stated in unequivocal terms that he has never pushed nor spoken to President Trump about the described strategy, nor has anybody that he knows of.
(If evidence arises showing The Post was correct, after all, this item will be updated.)
144. Tues. Sept. 8, 2020
Trump critic John Bolton becomes the latest in a series of on-the-record, firsthand sources to debunk The Atlantic report by Jeffrey Goldberg that relied upon anonymous sources to claim that Trump faked the cancellation of a helicopter trip to a French cemetery in 2018 where fallen US soldiers were buried because he didn't want his hair messed up by the weather, and that Trump referred to the dead troops as "losers" and "suckers."
Multiple news outlets repeated the claims.
“That was simply false. I don’t know who told the author [Jeffrey Goldberg] that,” said Bolton who was in the room in Paris when the decision was made. "The president assented to the recommendation that he not go. It was a very straight weather call."
Shortly after the initial report, the White House denied the allegations and released documentation also showing there was, indeed, a weather cancellation, and that the call was made by military officials.
Bolton and others also said Trump did not call fallen soldiers names during the meeting in question or at any time that they ever heard.
When Fox News' Jennifer Griffin sought to confirm The Atlantic story, she came back with what she called "confirmation" of the anonymous claims, yet reported a different set of details. Griffin said that according to her anonymous sources, once the weather cancelled Trump's helicopter trip to the cemetery in France, he declined the option to drive there by car.
Griffin also said her sources heard Trump call living generals, not fallen US soldiers, names back in the US at a different time and place. She said Trump told the generals at the Pentagon that they were "losers" and babies."
Later in interviews, Goldberg acknowledged a key point of his story may be wrong, admitting that there could have been a weather cancellation of the helicopter trip. In all, 21 on the record sources disputed Goldberg's original claims. However, The Atlantic has not issued a correction.
https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1303125135570931717?s=20
(If evidence comes to light showing that The Atlantic was correct after all, this post will be updated.)
145. Mon. Sept. 21, 2020
Newsweek falsely reports that a particular Catholic group associated with Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett inspired The Handmaid's Tale, "set in the fictional Gilead, where women's bodies are governed and treated as the property of the state under a theocratic regime."
Later, Newsweek corrects its story.
146. Fri. Oct. 9, 2020
Politico's "Playbook author" Anna Palmer tweets out the "breaking news" that President Trump lost the Nobel Prize, after apparently (mistakenly) believing his nominations were for this year rather than 2021.
https://twitter.com/apalmerdc/status/1314500362733268992?s=20
147. Sat. Dec. 19, 2020
The New York Times award-winning podcast “Caliphate,” turns out to be centered on a man who told false stories about killing for the Islamic State. The Times returns the prestigious "Peabody Award" the podcast series won for the false reporting in 2018.
148. Wed. Dec. 30, 2020
A senior political reporter at The Huffington Post, Jennifer Bendery, falsely states that Vice President Mike Pence is wrong to claim that "millions" of Americans have been vaccinated for coronavirus... even as Bendery simultaneously acknowledges the number is in the millions.
149. Sun. Jan. 10, 2021
The New York Times misidentifies a shirtless man outside a broken window at the Capitol as a Trump supporter. In fact, the Times didn't do a basic fact check of its assumptions.
The shirtless man was a credentialed journalist for The Daily Caller who had reportedly removed his shirt after getting maced in the chaos. The Times issues a correction.
https://twitter.com/elivalley/status/1348481465496035329?s=20
150. Thurs. Jan. 14, 2021
Numerous reporters falsely transcribe or refer to a falsely transcribed interview with a Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, to incorrectly claim he wants to delay Biden inauguration.
The accurate transcript makes clear that Sen. Tuberville was speaking hypothetically while accepting the inauguration date.
https://www.mediaite.com/news/prominent-reporters-spread-out-of-context-quote-claiming-sen-tommy-tuberville-wants-to-delay-biden-administration/
151. Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021
CNN's Jim Sciutto, Wolf Blitzer, and others report a man had been arrested at a checkpoint to a locked-down zone of the Capitol prior to Biden's inauguration carrying fake credentials, an unregistered handgun, and 500 rounds of ammunition. However, it turns out the man was not an insurrectionist with fake credentials and an unregistered handgun;
he was a security contractor with an inaugural credential who was working an armed security job with Capitol Police and authorized to have a firearm, which was licensed in Virginia. He was released from custody with officials saying they considered him no threat to public safety.
152. Monday, March 11, 2021
The Washington Post corrects its false story (an "exclusive") that quoted then-President Trump as pressuring a Georgia elections investigator to "find the fraud," and that she would be a "national hero" if she did, and alleged it "could amount to obstruction."
As Breitbart News pointed out, the Post story "relied on information from a single anonymous source, described as 'an individual familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the conversation'.”
More than two months after that report, the facts show Trump did not the quote, after all.
Although The Washington Post issued a correction, there was no published apology and no information on what action, if any, would be taken against the reporter who published the false material.
The correction reads:
Correction: Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump’s December phone call with the state’s top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to “find the fraud” or say she would be “a national hero” if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find “dishonesty” there. He also told her that she had “the most important job in the country right now.” A story about the recording can be found here. The headline and text of this story have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump.
153. April 15, 2021
U.S. intelligence dials back a New York Times bombshell. According to Daily Beast:
It was a huge election-time story that prompted cries of treason. But according to a newly disclosed assessment, Donald Trump might have been right to call it a “hoax.”
The story by Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt and Michael Schwartz claimed Russians put bounties on US troops in Afghanistan under President Trump.
Newly-released information, according to Daily Beast shows: “U.S. intelligence only had ‘low to moderate’ confidence in the story. Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the story is, at best, unproven—and possibly untrue.”
Part III of an exhausting...
Good job Goodlibs!
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