50 Media Mistakes in the Trump Era: The Definitive List

[Ubiquitous]

We the media have “fact-checked” President Trump like we have fact-
checked no other human being on the planet—and he’s certainly given
us plenty to write about. That’s probably why it’s so easy to find
lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and “lies.”

But as self-appointed arbiters of truth, we’ve largely
excused our own unprecedented string of fact-challenged
reporting. The truth is, formerly well-respected, top
news organizations are making repeat, unforced errors in
numbers that were unheard of just a couple of years ago.

Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump’s claims are “lies”
when they are matters of opinion, or when the truth between
conflicting sources is unknowable; taking Trump’s statements and
events out of context; reporting secondhand accounts against Trump
without attribution as if they’re established fact; relying on
untruthful, conflicted sources; and presenting reporter opinions in
news stories—without labeling them as opinions.

What’s worse, we defend ourselves by trying to convince the public
that our mistakes are actually a virtue because we (sometimes)
correct them. Or we blame Trump for why we’re getting so much wrong.
It’s a little bit like a police officer taking someone to jail for
DUI, then driving home drunk himself: he may be correct to arrest
the suspect, but he should certainly know better than to commit the
same violation.

So since nobody else has compiled an updated, extensive list of this
kind, here are:


50 Notable Mistakes and Missteps in Major Media Reporting on Donald
Trump

1. Aug. 2016-Nov. 2016:

The New York Post published modeling photos of Trump’s wife Melania
and reported they were taken in 1995. Various news outlets relied on
that date to imply that Melania—an immigrant—had violated her visa
status. But the media got the date wrong. Politico was among the
news agencies that later issued a photo date correction.


2. Oct. 1, 2016:

The New York Times and other media widely suggested or implied that
Trump had not paid income taxes for 18 years. Later, tax return
pages leaked to MSNBC ultimately showed that Trump actually paid a
higher rate than Democrats Bernie Sanders and President Obama.


3. Oct. 18, 2016:

In a Washington Post piece not labelled opinion or analysis, Stuart
Rothenberg reported that Trump’s path to an electoral college
victory was “nonexistent.”


4. Nov. 4, 2016:

USA Today misstated Melania Trump’s “arrival date from Slovenia”
amid a flurry of reporting that questioned her immigration status
from the mid-1990s.




5. Nov. 9, 2016:

Early on election night, the Detroit Free Press called the state of
Michigan for Hillary Clinton. Trump actually won Michigan.

6. Jan. 20, 2017:

CNN claimed Nancy Sinatra was “not happy” at her father’s song being
used at Trump’s inauguration. Sinatra responded, “That’s not true. I
never said that. Why do you lie, CNN?…Actually I’m wishing him the
best.”

7. Jan. 20, 2017:

Zeke Miller of TIME reported that President Trump had removed the
bust statue of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. from the
Oval Office. The news went viral. It was false.


8. Jan. 26, 2017:

Josh Rogin of the Washington Post reported that the State
Department’s “entire senior administrative team” had resigned in
protest of Trump. A number of media outlets ranging from politically
left to right, including liberal-leaning Vox, stated that claim was
misleading or wrong.


9. Jan. 28, 2017

CNBC’s John Harwood reported the Justice Department “had no input”
on Trump’s immigration executive order. After a colleague
contradicted Harwood’s report, he amended it to reflect that Justice
Department lawyers reportedly had reviewed Trump’s order.


10. Jan. 31, 2017:

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported the White House set up Twitter accounts
for two judges to try to keep Trump’s selection for Supreme Court
secret. Zeleny later corrected his report to state that the Twitter
accounts had not been set up by the White House.




11. Feb. 2, 2017:

TMZ reported Trump changed the name of “Black History Month” to
“African American History Month,” implying the change was untoward
or racist. In fact, Presidents Obama, George W. Bush and Bill
Clinton had all previously called Black History month “African
American History” month.


12. Feb. 2, 2017:

AP reported that Trump had threatened the president of Mexico with
invasion to get rid of “bad hombres.” Numerous publications followed
suit. The White House said it wasn’t true and the Washington Post
removed the AP info that “could not be independently confirmed.”


13. Feb. 4, 2017:

Josh Rogin of the Washington Post reported on “Inside the White
House-Cabinet Battle Over Trump’s Immigration Order,” only to have
the article updated repeatedly to note that one of the reported
meetings had not actually occurred, that a conference call had not
happened as described, and that actions attributed to Trump were
actually taken by his chief of staff.


14. Feb. 14, 2017:

The New York Times’ Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti and Matt
Apuzzo reported about supposed contacts between Trump campaign staff
and “senior Russian intelligence officials.” Comey later testified
“In the main, [the article] was not true.”


15. Feb. 22, 2017:

ProPublica’s Raymond Bonner reported CIA official Gina Haspel—
Trump’s later pick for CIA Director—was in charge of a secret CIA
prison where Islamic extremist terrorist Abu Zubaydah was
waterboarded 83 times in one month, and that she mocked the
prisoner’s suffering. More than a year later, ProPublica retracted
the claim, stating that “Neither of these assertions is correct…
Haspel did not take charge of the base until after the interrogation
of Zubaydah ended.”



16. April 5, 2017:

An article bylined by the New York Times’ graphic editors Karen
Yourish and Troy Griggs referred to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, as
Trump’s wife.


17. May 10, 2017:

Multiple outlets including Politico, the New York Times, the
Washington Post, CNN, AP, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal
reported the same leaked information: that Trump fired FBI Director
James Comey shortly after Comey requested additional resources to
investigate Russian interference in the election.


The New York Times’ Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo, and CNN’s
Sara Murray reported the information in sentences and paragraphs
that omitted attribution, as if it were an established fact. The
Washington Post’s Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, Sari Horwitz and
Robert Costa wrote news articles in the style of opinion pieces and
from an omniscient viewpoint as if they were somehow in the mind of
Trump. For example, they reported, “Every time FBI Director James B.
Comey appeared in public, an ever-watchful President Trump grew
increasingly agitated that the topic was the one that he was most
desperate to avoid: Russia.” (Other reporters —Reuters’ Dustin Volz
and Susan Cornwell— did properly attribute the claim.)


The Justice Department, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said the media reports were untrue
and McCabe added that the FBI’s Russia investigation was “adequately
resourced.”


18. June 4, 2017:

NBC News reported in a Tweet that Russian President Vladimir Putin
told TV host Megan Kelly that he had compromising information about
Trump. Actually, Putin said the opposite: that he did not have
compromising information on Trump.




19. June 6, 2017:

CNN’s Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper and Brian Rokus;
and ABC’s Justin Fishel and Jonathan Karl reported that Comey was
going to refute Donald Trump’s claim that Comey told Trump three
times he was not under investigation. Instead, Comey did the
opposite and confirmed Trump’s claim.


20. June 7, 2017:

In a fact-check story, AP reported erroneously that Trump misread
the potential cost to a family with insurance under the Affordable
Care Act who wanted care from their existing doctor.




21. June 8, 2017:

The New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman reported that Comey testified
Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Comey not to call the
Russia probe “an investigation” but “a matter.” Weisman was mistaken
about the attorney general and the probe. Actually, it was Obama
Attorney General Loretta Lynch (not Sessions) who told Comey to
refer to the Hillary Clinton classified email probe (not the Russia
probe) as “a matter” instead of “an investigation.”


22. June 22, 2017:

CNN’s Thomas Frank reported that Congress was investigating a
“Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials.” The report
was later retracted. Frank and two other CNN employees resigned in
the fallout.


23. December 2, 2017:

ABC News’ Brian Ross reported that former Trump official Lt. Gen.
Michael Flynn was going to testify that candidate Trump had directed
him to contact “the Russians.” Even though such contact would not be
in of itself a violation of law, the news was treated as an
explosive indictment of Trump in the Russia collusion narrative, and
the stock market fell on the news. ABC later corrected the report to
reflect that Trump had already been elected when he reportedly asked
Flynn to contact the Russians about working together to fight ISIS
and other issues. Ross was suspended.


24. July 6, 2017:

Newsweek’s Chris Riotta and others reported that Poland’s First Lady
had refused to shake Trump’s hand. Newsweek’s later “update”
reflected that the First Lady had shaken Trump’s hand after all, as
clearly seen on the full video.


25. July 6, 2017:

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, CNN and numerous outlets had
long reported, as if fact, the Hillary Clinton claim that a total of
17 American intelligence agencies concluded that Russia orchestrated
election year attacks to help get Trump elected. Only three or four
agencies, not 17, had officially done so.


26. Aug. 31, 2017:

NBC News’ Ken Dilinian and Carol Lee reported that a Trump
official’s notes about a meeting with a Russian lawyer included the
word “donation,” as if there were discussions about suspicious
campaign contributions. NBC later corrected the report to reflect
that the word “donation” didn’t appear, but still claimed the word
“donor” did. Later, Politico reported that the word “donor” wasn’t
in the notes, either.



27. Sept. 5, 2017:

CNN’s Chris Cillizza and other news outlets declared Trump “lied”
when he stated that Trump Tower had been wiretapped, although
there’s no way any reporter independently knew the truth of the
matter—only what intel officials claimed. It later turned out there
were numerous wiretaps involving Trump Tower, including a meeting of
Trump officials with a foreign dignitary. At least two Trump
associates who had offices in or frequented Trump Tower were also
wiretapped.


28. Sept. 7, 2017:

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported Democrat leader Rep.
Nancy Pelosi called President Trump about an immigration issue.
Trump actually made the call to Pelosi.


29. Nov. 6, 2017:

CNN’s Daniel Shane edited excerpts from a Trump event to make it
seem as though Trump didn’t realize Japan builds cars in the U.S.
However, Trump’s entire statement made clear that he does.


30. Nov. 6, 2017:

CNN edited a video that made it appear although Trump impatiently
dumped a box of fish food into the water while feeding fish at
Japan’s palace. The New York Daily News, the Guardian and others
wrote stories implying Trump was gauche and impetuous. The full
video showed that Trump had simply followed the lead of Japan’s
Prime Minister.


31. Nov. 29, 2017:

Newsweek’s Chris Riotta claimed Ivanka Trump “plagiarized” one of
her own speeches. In fact, plagiarizing one’s own work is impossible
since plagiarism is when a writer steals someone else’s work and
passes it off as his own.




32. Dec. 4, 2017:

The New York Times’ Michael S. Schmidt and Sharon LaFraniere and
other outlets reported that Trump Deputy National Security Adviser
K.T. McFarland supposedly contradicted herself or lied about another
official’s contacts with Russians. The story was heavily, repeatedly
amended. CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, New York Daily News and Daily Beast
picked up the story about McFarland’s “lies.”


33. Dec. 4, 2017:

ABC News’ Trish Turner and Jack Date reported that former Trump
campaign chairman Paul Manafort had recently worked with a Russia
intelligence-connected “official.” But the Russian wasn’t an
“official.”


34. Dec. 5, 2017:

Bloomberg’s Steven Arons and the Wall Street Journal’s Jenny
Strasburg reported the blockbuster that Special Counsel Robert
Mueller had subpoenaed Trump’s bank records. It wasn’t true.



35. Dec. 8, 2017:

CNN’s Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb reported that Donald Trump Jr.
conspired with WikiLeaks in advance of the publication of damaging
Democrat party and Clinton campaign emails. Many other publications
followed suit. They had the date wrong: WikiLeaks and Trump Junior
were in contact after the emails were published.



36. Jan. 3, 2018:

Talking Point Memo’s Sam Thielman reported that a Russian social
media company provided documents to the Senate about communications
with a Trump official. The story was later corrected to say the
reporter actually had no idea how the Senate received the documents
and had no evidence to suggest the Russian company was cooperating
with the probe.


37. Jan. 12, 2018:

Mediaite’s Lawrence Bonk, CNN’s Sophie Tatum, the Guardian, BBC, US
News and World Report, Reuters and Buzzfeed’s Adolfo Flores reported
a “bombshell”— that President Trump had backed down from his famous
demand for a wall along the entire Southern border. However, Trump
said the very same thing in February 2016 on MSNBC, on Dec. 2, 2015,
in the National Journal, in October 2015 during the CNBC Republican
Primary debate, and on Aug. 20, 2015, on FOX Business’ Mornings with
Maria.


38. Jan. 15, 2018:

AP’s Laurie Kellman and Jonathan Drew reported that a new report
showed trust in the media had fallen during the Trump presidency.
But the report that AP cited was actually over a year old and was
conducted while Obama was president.


39. Feb. 2, 2018:

AP’s Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Chad Day reported that
ex-British spy Christopher Steele’s opposition research against
Trump was initially funded by a conservative publication: the
Washington Free Beacon. AP corrected its story because Steele only
came on the project after Democrats began funding it.



40. March 8, 2018:

The New York Times’ Jan Rosen reported on a hypothetical family
whose tax bill would rise nearly $4,000 under Trump’s tax plan. It
turns out the calculations were off: the couple’s taxes would go
actually go down $43; not up $4,000.


41. March 13, 2018:

The New York Times’ Adam Goldman, NBC’s Noreen O’Donnell and AP’s
Deb Riechmann reported that Trump’s pick for CIA Director, Gina
Haspel, had waterboarded a particular Islamic extremist terrorist
dozens of time at a secret prison; and that she had mocked his
suffering. In fact, Haspel wasn’t assigned to the prison until after
the detainee left. ProPublica originally reported the incorrect
details in Feb. 2017.



42. March 15, 2018:

AP’s Michael Biesecker, Jake Pearson and Jeff Horwitz reported that
a Trump advisory board official had been a Miss America contestant
and had killed a black rhino. She actually was a Mrs. America
contestant and had shot a nonlethal tranquilizer dart at a white
rhino.


Watch Sharyl Attkisson’s TEDx Talk: Is Fake News Real?



43. April 1, 2018:

AP’s Nicholas Riccardi reported that the Trump administration had
ended a program to admit foreign entrepreneurs. It wasn’t true.


44. April 30, 2018:

AP reported that the NRA had banned guns during Trump and Pence
speeches at the NRA’s annual meeting. AP later corrected the
information because the ban had been put in place by Secret Service.


45. May 3, 2018:

NBC’s Tom Winter reported that the government had wiretapped Trump’s
personal attorney Michael Cohen. NBC later corrected the story after
three senior U.S. officials said there was no wiretap.




46. May 7, 2018:

CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger reported that Trump’s personal lawyer,
Cohen, paid $1 million in fines related to unauthorized cars in his
taxi business, had been barred from managing taxi medallions, had
transferred $60 million offshore to avoid paying debts, and is
awaiting trial on charges of failing to pay millions in taxes. A
later correction stated that none of that was true.


47. May 16, 2018:

The New York Times’ Julie Hirschfeld Davis, AP, CNN’s Oliver Darcy
and others excerpted a Trump comment as if he had referred to
immigrants or illegal immigrants generally as “animals.” Most
outlets corrected their reports later to note that Trump had
specifically referred to members of the murderous criminal gang MS-
13.


48. May 28, 2018

The New York Times’ Magazine editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein and
CNN’s Hadas Gold shared a story with photos of immigrant children in
cages as if they were new photos taken under the Trump
administration. The article and photos were actually taken in 2014
under the Obama administration.


49. May 29, 2018

The New York Times’ Julie Davis reported the estimated size of a
Trump rally to be 1,000 people. There were actually 5,500 people or
more in attendance.



50. June 1, 2018

In a story about Trump tariffs, AP reported the dollar value of
Virginia’s farm and forestry exports to Canada and Mexico was $800.
It’s $800 million.


Politicians are often fact-challenged. But for us in the media— our
whole business is in facts. And we’ve played too fast and loose with
our own.

--
Dems & the media want Trump to be more like Obama, but then he'd
have to audit liberals & wire tap reporters' phones.