CNN was criticized heavily online for a correction to a story that purported to show evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and agents of the Russian government. (David McNew/Newsmakers)
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CNN is getting torched for correcting another Trump story - here's who they're blaming
December 08, 2017
CNN was criticized heavily for publishing a story that they had to correct, admitting that they were "duped" by their sources.
Here's the correction:
"CNN's initial reporting of the date on an email sent to members of the Trump campaign about Wikileaks documents, which was confirmed by two sources to CNN, was incorrect," they admitted.
"We have updated our story to include the correct date, and present the proper context for the timing of email," they added.
Manu Raju, a reporter on the story, added a correction and went on CNN to admit they had botched the story.
"CORRECTION: Email to Trump and Trump Jr. from individual offering Wikileaks documents came Sept. 14 -- not Sept. 4 -- as we reported earlier," he said. "Email pointed to docs Trump camp could get publicly."
CORRECTION: Email to Trump and Trump Jr. from individual offering Wikileaks documents came Sept. 14 -- not Sept. 4 -- as we reported earlier. Email pointed to docs Trump camp could get publicly. https://t.co/4FOdCebgQL
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 8, 2017
Here's his appearance on CNN admitting the story was false in some of the details:
Video: Here's how @MKRaju corrected his reporting on @CNNNewsroom https://t.co/zy33tA3NIa
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 8, 2017
Raju admits that although they had two sources confirming the date of the email, it turned out to be a false report.
What was the point of the original story?
The story strongly implied that the email to Donald Trump Jr. was a part of an surreptitious effort by foreign powers to provide hacked information to the Trump campaign that could help them damage Hillary Clinton and tip the 2016 election in their favor.
Here's how the scoop was described when it first published by a CNN employee:
Donald Trump, Trump Jr. “and others in the Trump Organization received an email in September 2016 offering a decryption key and website address for hacked WikiLeaks documents, according to an email provided to congressional investigators”
But if the email was sent to the campaign ten days after CNN's initial reporting, then the information provided in the emails at that point had been publicly available, making the email unremarkable, and hardly evidence of collusion.
Will any journalist be punished?
No. While some compared the false reporting to that of Brian Ross at ABC News, CNN made it clear that their journalist, Manu Raju, followed their guidelines, and the error was in his sources.
What was the reaction?
Reaction from media critics was decidedly negative.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange criticized them heavily.
CNN+CBS story about @WikiLeaks today turns out to be 100% fake news. Another 'Brian Ross' moment. So who's going to be fired? https://t.co/mIlWw556KF
— Julian Assange 🔹 (@JulianAssange) December 8, 2017
Donald Trump Jr. hammered CNN from his account:
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Staff Writer
Carlos Garcia is a staff writer for Blaze News.
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