Trump Calls For Firing After Post Reporter’s Mistaken Tweet

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President Donald Trump on Saturday evening issued a call for a reporter with The Washington Post to be fired because of a quickly deleted tweet that presented a misleading impression of Trump’s rally crowd in Florida.

The Post reporter, David Weigel, had earlier tweeted a photo of the crowd gathered at Pensacola Bay Center for Trump’s speech there Friday evening, showing numerous empty seats. He removed the tweet after being told by others that the photo was taken before the venue filled up and apologized in a later Twitter exchange with the president.

Trump’s public response: “.@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired.”

On Saturday night, The Washington Post released a statement. “Dave Weigel relied on an inaccurate image in tweeting about President Trump’s rally in Pensacola,” the paper’s vice president of communications, Kristine Coratti Kelly, said. “When others pointed out the mistake to Weigel, he quickly deleted the tweet. And when he was later addressed by the president on Twitter, he promptly apologized for it.”

Trump has frequently lashed out at media figures in very personal terms. It was not the first time the White House had called for a journalist’s firing: In September, after ESPN commentator Jemele Hill called the president a “white supremacist” in a tweet, his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a White House press briefing that it was a “fireable offense.”

Earlier Saturday, Trump similarly lashed out at two other media organizations, ABC and CNN, that had issued corrections on stories about Trump in recent days.

“Fake News CNN made a vicious and purposeful mistake yesterday. They were caught red handed, just like lonely Brian Ross at ABC News (who should be immediately fired for his ‘mistake’). Watch to see if @CNN fires those responsible, or was it just gross incompetence?” he tweeted.

Around 5 p.m., Trump addressed Weigel’s tweet with his own: “.@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo!” the president wrote, including pictures of the venue’s seats filled as he was onstage.

Weigel tweeted back almost immediately. “Sure thing: I apologize. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I’d gotten it wrong,” Weigel wrote, referring to David Martosko, U.S. political editor of the Daily Mail’s website. “Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner.”

In a later tweet, Weigel wrote: “It was a bad tweet on my personal account, not a story for Washington Post. . . . Very fair to call me out.”

(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Emily Yahr 

{Matzav.com}

 


3 COMMENTS

  1. Typical cover-up/non apology by the Compost. If Trump wouldn’t of responded, they would of ran with their bogus story.
    The one good President Trump is/has been doing, is totally exposing the media for the liers that they are. Untill now, the average American dummy always believed whatever the flat screen in front of him spewed forth. They were able to destroy anyone’s name or reputation will false libels. Not any more! Trump has them on the run. He is NOT afraid of them and now it’s the MEDIA that’s scared of HIM. Finally.

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