MSNBC's O'Donnell says he should not have reported unverified claim on air about Trump loans

COMMUNIST SOCIALIST LIBERAL FAKE NEWS - MSNBC's O'Donnell says he should not have reported unverified claim on-air about Trump loans

Adam Edelman - Aug 28, 2019

MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell said Wednesday he made an "error in judgment" and should not have reported on air Tuesday information about the president’s finances from a single source and formally retracted the statement on air Wednesday night.

A list of FAKE NEWS "reporters" Lying:

1. Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC made an "error in judgment" and should not have reported on Aug 27, 2019 information about President Trump's Finances from a single source and formally retracted the statement on air Aug 28, 2019.

2. THREE CNN EMPLOYEES RESIGN OVER RETRACTED STORY ON RUSSIA TIES

Thomas Frank, a reporter for “CNN Investigates,” on June 22, 2017 appeared to have a compelling exclusive on the story of the year. The Senate Intelligence Committee, reported Frank, was investigating a Russian investment fund — the Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) — “whose chief executive met with a member of President Donald Trump’s transition team four days before Trump’s inauguration.”

That transition team official was Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Streeter who was expected to take a prominent White House position but did not. Scaramucci met in January 2017 with RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev.

On June 22, 2017, CNN published a story connecting Anthony Scaramucci with Investigations into the Russian Direct Investment Fund. That story did not meet CNN’s Editorial Standards and had to be Retracted. Links to the story were disabled and CNN had to Apologize to Mr. Scaramucci.

The moves follow an investigation carried out by CNN executives over the weekend, with the conclusion that longstanding network procedures for publishing stories weren’t properly followed. “There was a significant breakdown in process,” says a CNN source. “There were editorial checks and balances within the organization that weren’t met.”

The THREE WHO HAD TO RESIGN WERE:

                                                                                              I.          Thomas Frank, the reporter on the story.

                                                                                            II.          Eric Lichtblau, a recent CNN addition from the New York Times who edited the piece.

                                                                                            III.          Lex Haris, the executive editor of “CNN Investigates.”

3. Brian Williams, NBC Nightly News anchor (NBC AGAIN) was caught lying about riding in a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq in 2003. In 2015, NBC suspended him for six months without pay.

4. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC  (MSNBC AGAIN) was caught lying in 2011 when she accused Rush Limbaugh of racism and cited "birther" remarks he made after Obama's birth certificate was released. She was forced to apologize to Limbaugh and on the air when NewsBusters reported the video she used was from before the certificate's release (one-year-old rather than one day old).

5. Jonathan Karl, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent  was caught lying in May 2013 about both a Benghazi story and its source. The scandal became so scrutinized that Karl was forced to tell CNN he "regret[ted]" his inaccuracies, which was as close as he got to apologizing.

6. Lara Logan, CBS News Correspondent was caught lying in her 60 Minutes report about a security contractor who fought a militant and scaled a wall of the Benghazi compound. In the fall of 2013, it was revealed to be entirely untrue and Logan was put on leave by CBS.

7. Michael Finkel, The New York Times Magazine In 2002, was fired by Adam Moss, his boss and editor. Finkel was caught creating an entire composite character based on interviews he had done for a fictitious article, disgracing him as a journalist.


8. Ed Schultz, MSNBC (MSNBC AGAIN), criticized General Stanley McChrystal, Commander, US Forces in Afghanistan, citing him as "yet another problem [President Obama] inherited from the Bush administration." Schultz was later attacked (and called a "lying p***y" by Ann Coulter) because it was actually President Obama who replaced General David McKiernan with McChrystal. 


9. Dan Rather, CBS News,  reputation was tarnished after the accuracy of his 2004 story questionin President George W. Bush‘s military service was publicly disputed by the leader’s administration.

On Tuesday, the host reported that President Donald Trump's financial records show that some of his loans have Russian co-signers.

"The Last Word" host opened his show Wednesday night by saying he repeated statements from a single source that weren't ready for reporting and that he did not go through the network's "rigorous verification and standards process" before repeating it, and that "had it gone through that process, I would not have been permitted to report it."

"Tonight, we are retracting the story. We don't know whether the information is inaccurate, but the fact is we do know it wasn't ready for broadcast, and for that I apologize," O’Donnell said on Wednesday's broadcast.

O’Donnell tweeted earlier Wednesday that his reporting Tuesday night, which cited a single unnamed source close to Deutsche Bank, did not meet "our rigorous verification and standards process."

"Last night I made an error in judgment by reporting an item about the president's finances that didn’t go through our rigorous verification and standards process. I shouldn't have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air," O’Donnell said.

On Tuesday night, O’Donnell reported that the unnamed source close to Deutsche Bank revealed to him that loans taken out by Trump were co-signed by "Russian billionaires."

NBC News has not viewed the Deutsche Bank records and has not been able to verify what the source told O'Donnell.

Later in the show, O’Donnell returned to the subject and said the claim was "going to need a lot more verification before it’s a provable fact."

Responding to O’Donnell's reporting, an attorney for Trump sent a letter on Wednesday to NBC News calling the segment "false and defamatory" and demanding the host "immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize" for the statements.

The attorney, Charles Harder, added that "the only borrowers under these loans are Trump entities, and Mr. Trump is the only guarantor."

O’Donnell's reporting referred to tax returns and financial records tied to Trump that Deutsche Bank said Tuesday it possessed. The bank's statement was the latest development related to an effort by House Democrats to obtain the president's financial information.

A spokesperson for MSNBC referred questions to O'Donnell's tweet and declined further comment. MSNBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the on-air retraction Wednesday night.

O'Donnell on Wednesday night's show referenced that the president's attorneys demanded a retraction.

"Saying 'if true' as I discussed the information was simply not good enough," O'Donnell said.

"I should not have said it on air or posted it on Twitter. I was wrong to do so," he added.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/msnbcs-odonnell-says-he-should-not-have-reported-unverified-claim-on-air-about-trump-loans/ar-AAGt3Sl?ocid=spartandhp