Thanks to White House Chief of Staff for this wonderful picture of the MLK bust in the oval pic.twitter.com/Lzgj6RljvI
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) January 21, 2017
As we told you earlier, President Trump returned the bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office, fulfilling a promise he made during the campaign. But the move set off a wave of speculation over what happened to the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. that President Obama had moved into the Oval Office to replace Winston.
TIME reporter Zeke Miller initially tweeted that the MLK Jr. bust have been removed entirely, but his first report was wrong:
Correction: The MLK bust is still in the Oval Office. It was obscured by an agent and door.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 21, 2017
Tweeting again: wh aide confirms the MLK bust is still there. I looked for it in the oval 2x & didn't see it. My apologies to my colleagues
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 21, 2017
But the damage was done as many other reporters went with Miller’s initial report. To his credit, Miller took full responsibility for the mistake and is apologizing to his fellow reporters over the error:
@justinsink @MikeDorning this was my screw up. apologies
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 21, 2017
this was my bad
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 21, 2017
my sincerest apologies for the confusion. This was my bad.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 21, 2017
Miller also apologized to newly minted press secretary Sean Spicer:
.@PressSec This is on me, not my colleagues. I've been doing everything I can to fix my error. My apologies.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 21, 2017
Apology accepted https://t.co/dYqwRv1p0f
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) January 21, 2017
Spicer added this warning for the press corps:
A reminder of the media danger of tweet first check facts later https://t.co/dYqwRv1p0f
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) January 21, 2017
Good advice.
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