Joy Behar addresses Brian Ross' botched Flynn report: 'Mistake,' not 'fake news

"The View" co-host Joy Behar, during the Monday airing of the ABC show, admitted that she was a perpetrator of "premature evaluation" during her Friday celebration of Brian Ross' erroneous Michael Flynn report.

Ross' report said that former national security adviser Michael Flynn would testify against President Donald Trump, and said that Flynn was directed to coordinate communication with Russia while Trump was a still a candidate.

However, ABC News later corrected its report to say that Flynn contacted Russian officials after Trump had won the election and was transitioning to become president.

What did she say?

"On Friday’s show, apparently I was guilty of premature evaluation," Behar admitted, and began to describe what happened.

"ABC News reporter Brian Ross released a story claiming that when Trump was a candidate he told Michael Flynn to contact the Russians," Behar said. "Ross later corrected himself saying it was when Trump was president-elect. Ross has been suspended for a month."

Defending Ross, Behar said that his was a "mistake," and not "fake news."

Behar, discussing Ross' own statement, added, "He said, 'My job is to hold people accountable. That’s what I agree with being held accountable myself.'"

"He has basically — I would say that this is — people are slamming this as fake news," she explained. "To me, this was a mistake. He didn’t deliberately put out a false piece of information; he made an error."

What was the response?

Co-host Sunny Hostin chimed in, noting that accuracy trumps expeditious reporting.

"It was a significant error," Hostin said. "Journalists have to be given the climate very, very careful. It’s not important to be first, rather it’s important to be right. And he's was wrong. He’s paying the price for that."

Co-host Meghan McCain, however, seemed to take more issue with Behar's Friday behavior than anything else.

"I have a lot of things to say about this," she began. "When it happened in real time, I think everyone was watching the show could see my discomfort at the room erupting like the Dodgers just won the World Series. I think holding people to both standards — I remember when Obama was in office Rush Limbaugh saying 'I want my president to fail.'"

She added, "I think when we’re talking about something so egregious, it’s going to tear our country apart. There is no reason to be celebrating, cheering whatever. I went to a Christmas party this weekend. It is no secret most of my friends are in conservative media. I feel like I’m an astronaut trying to explain both worlds to each other."

"I don’t want to sit on a show where I feel like we’re giving fake news or reacting irresponsibly," McCain said.