Because of a "serious error" in a report about donald trump’s former top adviser michael flynn, the US broadcaster ABC news has suspended its investigative journalist brian ross for four weeks without pay.
"We deeply regret and apologize for the grave error of yesterday," ABC news said. The coverage broadcast by brian ross during the special was not fully checked against editorial standards.
During a live report on friday, ross had claimed that a confidant of flynn had said that flynn was willing to testify that then-presidential candidate donald trump had told him to contact russian officials during the election campaign.
ABC news later corrected the report, stating that the source had clarified that trump – as president-elect – had instead asked flynn and a small group of other advisers to find ways to repair relations with russia.
U.S. President trump expressed satisfaction with broadcaster’s decision. On twitter, he wrote: "congratulations to ABC news for suspending brian ross for his horribly flawed and dishonest report on the russia, russia, russia witch hunt. More broadcast groups and "newspapers" should do the same with their fake news!"
Ross himself wrote on twitter that his job was to hold people accountable. That is the reason why he agrees to be held responsible himself.
Flynn is at the center of investigations into the extent to which russia could have influenced the u.S. Election campaign and whether the trump side could have made common cause with the russians. Flynn, who was one of trump’s closest confidants during the election campaign and then briefly served as his national security adviser, pleaded guilty on friday to lying to the fbi about his russia contacts. He had previously been charged with multiple counts of making false statements.
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