The Associated Press issued a correction after Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz called them out for a story he said was a dishonest and misleading account of what happened on his show, "Media Buzz."
The story claimed that Kurtz demanded while he was on the air that a graphic be taken down because it showed that the public didn't trust Fox News as much as it did in CNN and MSNBC, according to a new poll.
The story quickly went viral and The Associated Press repeated it. Many on the left used the misleading story to ridicule Kurtz and Fox News.
But what the headline obscured is that Kurtz was merely asking producers to take down the graphic because it was the wrong one, not because it was embarrassing to Fox News. Indeed, a minute later in the segment Kurtz asks for the same graphic to be shown again.
Speaking of fake news, which news network do Americans trust the least? And the winner is @FoxNews. Wait, what? Take that down, take that down! #MediaBuzz #HowardKurtz pic.twitter.com/KLtGEC7WQw
— Not Sure ⚖️🗽✊🌊 (@JoeBauers2505) April 9, 2018
Pollster Frank Luntz, who was talking to Kurtz in the segment, tweeted about the story and explained that it was being spread falsely.
"Misinformation is a bipartisan phenomenon," he tweeted.
Misinformation is a bipartisan phenomenon.
This graphic was displayed too early, so @MediaBuzzFNC asked for his producers to change to the correct graphic on the topic we were discussing… Then brought up this graphic 2 minutes later in the same segment.https://t.co/Q9U7GKuI51
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) April 9, 2018
"This graphic was displayed too early, so [Howard Kurtz] asked for his producers to change to the correct graphic on the topic we were discussing," he explained. "Then brought up this graphic 2 minutes later in the same segment."
Kurtz also went after Raw Story for posting the misleading story.
"This is a total lie," he tweeted. "I ordered the graphic."
"It was posted out of sequence, and then I put it up 60 seconds later," he added.
Kurtz also posted a statement on the show's Facebook page demanding a correction.
“The Associated Press should be embarrassed by a story that utterly distorts what happened yesterday on my program Media Buzz,” Kurtz said. “And its dishonest piece was made worse by the fact that the wire service didn’t bother to contact me or Fox News for comment.”
"I designed a segment in part around a Monmouth University poll that asked people about so-called 'fake news' as well as who they trusted more, President Trump or each of the three major cable news networks," he explained.
"I found the latter comparison so striking that I told my staff to make that poll question into a graphic to be shown on the air. The whole point was to share it with viewers," he added. "During the segment, the control room mistakenly posted the graphic early, while I was dealing with the fake news questions. So I calmly asked that it be taken down."
"About a minute later, I asked for the graphic to be put back on the screen and discussed the finding with my guest, pollster Frank Luntz," Kurtz explained. "The AP reported my request to take down the graphic and ended the story there, creating a false impression by not mentioning that I called for the very same graphic shortly afterward. This echoed partisan chatter online that I had somehow panicked or didn’t want to show the poll graphic, which is flatly contradicted by reality."
“I felt viewers deserved all the facts,” he added. “That’s more than I can say for the AP, which owes me a correction.”
.@FrankLuntz: "It's [@POTUS's] own tweets that are causing so much of the trouble... He should be focused on the economy and on taxes." #MediaBuzz pic.twitter.com/hbjdU6G7gz
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 8, 2018
"This story has been corrected to show that the graphic was taken down because it was used during the wrong segment, and was used again on the show," they wrote at the bottom of their version of the story.
Kurtz addressed the correction on his social media account.
"The AP has now run a correction about my use of the poll graphic on Fox/Trump on #Mediabuzz," he tweeted.
"I appreciate it, but the sequence shouldn't be attributed to me: There's video!"
But, he noted, not every publication was as honest.
Luntz also criticized CNN's Chris Cuomo for sharing the story without checking its accuracy.
