NBC issued a major correction about an article detailing a phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the latest media correction regarding a story involving Trump, his administration, or his campaign.
The call was revealed by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who gave details to reporters during a gaggle, and later by Trump himself.
Sanders said Trump and Putin spoke for a little over an hour and had a good discussion.
“They discussed nuclear agreements, both new and extended, with the possibility of having conversations with China on that front as well. They discussed trade and the fact that it has increased between the two countries since the president has come into office. They also talked about North Korea, Ukraine, and Venezuela—overall a very positive conversation and we’ll have a more detailed readout coming shortly,” she said.
Special counsel Robert Mueller recently submitted his report on Russian interference into the 2016 election and found no collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian actors, despite years of reporting claiming that there was collusion.
Trump and Putin spoke “very, very briefly” about the report, Sanders said, noting it was talked about “essentially in the context of that it’s over and there was no collusion, which I’m pretty sure both leaders were very well aware of long before this call took place.”
Later in the gaggle, Sanders answered a question about former White House counsel Don McGahn. NBC reporter Dartunorro Clark apparently thought she was still talking about the phone call and erroneously wrote that Trump and Putin discussed the possibility of McGahn appearing before Congress.
The detail set off a number of journalists and analysts who cited the article, who were forced to issue corrections of their own on their Twitter accounts.
Deleted tweet quoting NBC report that said Sanders said Trump discuses McGahn w Putin because a CNN reporter said it’s a mischaracherization of what she said.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 3, 2019
“An earlier version of this article incorrectly included one topic that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Presidents Trump and Putin discussed on Friday. They did not discuss the possibility of former White House counsel Don McGahn appearing before Congress. Sanders was answering a question from reporters about whether McGahn would testify before Congress,” NBC said in a correction.
A number of journalists who routinely write and share stories and missives critical of Trump jumped on the story and then had to backtrack later.
Maggie Haberman, a reporter for the openly anti-Trump New York Times, was among those who shared the false detail. “Deleted tweet quoting NBC report that said Sanders said Trump discuses [sic] McGahn w Putin because a CNN reporter said it’s a mischaracherization [sic] of what she said,” Haberman told her 1.09 million followers.
Deleted my tweet on this story, which has removed reference to Trump and Putin talking about McGahn.https://t.co/UfmlQ0i0lZ
More here:https://t.co/qSRhrNOzlx
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) May 3, 2019
Aaron Blake, a reporter for the openly anti-Trump Washington Post, also fell for the error. “Deleted my tweet on this story, which has removed reference to Trump and Putin talking about McGahn,” he said.
Just a few hours later, Blake noted he was deleting a series of missives he wrote about Vice President Mike Pence, calling his interpretation a “misunderstanding.”
Clark, the author of the story, did not explain how he got the major detail wrong. Responding to a critic, he wrote, “Correction added.”
