Two months ago the Washington Post (and other media outlets) ran a report about a conversation then-President Trump had with a top Georgia election investigator. As it turns out, the actual audio showed that Trump was wildly misquoted, and now that the dust has settled after a bogus narrative was released and widely circulated, the Post is backpedaling on the original story:
BREAKING: The Washington Post has retracted their story about Pres. Trump’s call with a Georgia election investigator
“The Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call”
“Trump did not tell the investigator to ‘find the fraud’ or say she would be ‘a national hero’ if she did” pic.twitter.com/kqlMvjPM4h
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 15, 2021
?
"Trump did not tell the investigator to “find the fraud” or say she would be “a national hero” if she did so."https://t.co/PnQm0aJyOu pic.twitter.com/GEzAJmhWDY— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 15, 2021
They lied about what Trump said? No way!
If they retracted it, at least that would be honest. This is labeled as a "correction." https://t.co/WAWONvuLG8
— I got your #Unity right here (@jtLOL) March 15, 2021
They wait for months after they publish their false story to take it down and release a statement, but the damage is done and more people see the story than the statement
— . (@ravensflockNYY) March 15, 2021
Notice this correct only happened after the election https://t.co/wmKwUBZ0QE
— The Unholy Libertarian ?? (@KingBlowback) March 15, 2021
Yes, we also couldn’t help but notice that.
This kind of mistake is beyond serious. There's zero accountability in major corporate media anymore, yet they continually insist they're the ones holding the line on the truth. And always remember what should scare you about the media is what *doesn't get exposed." pic.twitter.com/ceBaApCZQ8
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) March 15, 2021
Also note headline on the Post's follow-up story is a sort of maliciously anodyne "Recording reveals details of Trump call to Georgia’s chief elections investigator." It's not "Trump's Remarks Grossly Misrepresented Across Media, Because We Credulously Fall For Political Ops."
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) March 15, 2021
Anyway, it's also worth pondering when was the last time you saw a correction of this gravity that was anywhere near this damaging to a Democratic politician? I'm guessing you have to dig pretty far back.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) March 15, 2021
The media “mistakes” always only seem to harm Republicans, which means they’re not mistakes. And of course the story spread like wildfire:
real bad. this quote was and still is everywhere. pic.twitter.com/jZwQ9rPwRp
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 15, 2021
.@cammcwhirter tracked down the actual recording of the call which led to Wapo's correction (but not the other outlets yet). https://t.co/Gx9DbjqVQl
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 15, 2021
CNN issues a sorta vague "editor's note." The Wapo correction was much more comprehensive. https://t.co/XshPapFF3G pic.twitter.com/kSRqHE4sLQ
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 15, 2021
And no one will be fired over it. https://t.co/JRq0rxMLC7
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 15, 2021
Reminder there was a sense at the time that this phone call likely cost Perdue and maybe even Loeffler their races.
Most people in the media (including people at CNN) thought this was going to be an easy GOP win going into the weekend and then the call “quotes” dropped Monday. https://t.co/8hZnlcYBvN
— John Gage (@johnrobertgage) March 15, 2021
The media are nothing if not transparent.
Scream the headline, whisper the correction.
— Federalist Musket?? (@Patriot_Musket) March 15, 2021
More than one conservative has cited the “find some votes” thing to me as a reason to not support his efforts to identify potential fraud.
— Federalist Musket?? (@Patriot_Musket) March 15, 2021
Yup. And some of them accuse those who want an investigation of being ignorant or chasing wild conspiracy theories.
— TheMorningSpew2 (@TheMorningSpew2) March 15, 2021
Nobody at WaPo will be held accountable for reporting fake quotes from anonymous sources attributed to the president of the United States that were completely made up because corporate media is a blatantly corrupt enterprise https://t.co/1wKEaihB0C
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 15, 2021
“We try our absolute best to get it right, and sometimes we fail” or some other such nonsense that nobody else who makes such egregious mistakes gets to say and keep their job. https://t.co/9G0WgtuwtJ
— Fuzzy Chimp (@fuzzychimpcom) March 15, 2021
Who else believes the Post misrepresented the Georgia call intentionally? https://t.co/CTsS5RprWt
— Carl Gottlieb (@c_cgottlieb) March 15, 2021
Oh. My. Goodness. I have no words. https://t.co/0K8AurE0pB
— ⚾️ Mary #FlyTheW ? (@mchastain81) March 15, 2021
The media in America is broken beyond repair. Scrap it all and start from scratch.
— Sandy 〽️ (@RightGlockMom) March 15, 2021
But don’t worry, everybody, because the rest of the Post’s reporting can totally be trusted! *Eye roll*
Oh nothing. Just the Washington Post admitting to making up damaging quotes from the sitting President of the United States. But don't worry – I'm sure they've never done it before and will never do it again. You can trust them #journalism https://t.co/Le7JYF3tVM
— Gerry Callahan (@GerryCallahan) March 15, 2021
