Washington Post panned for massive correction to Trump-Georgia election story: 'So, they made up quotes'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Washington Post made a massive correction Monday to a January report about a phone call between then-President Donald Trump and Georgia elections investigator Frances Watson, admitting it wrongly attributed multiple quotes to Trump based on an anonymous source.
The Post initially reported Trump had told an official working in Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office to "find the fraud" in the state, which he lost narrowly to Joe Biden, and that she would be a "national hero" if she did.
However, a newly emerged recording of the Dec. 23 call found he didn't use those words. Instead, Trump said she would be "praised" when the "right answer comes out" and encouraged her to closely examine mail-in ballots in Fulton County, the heavily blue and most populated county in the state.
The Post published a lengthy correction to its story: "Correction: Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump's December phone call with the state's top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump's comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to "find the fraud" or say she would be "a national hero" if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find "dishonesty" there. He also told her that she had "the most important job in the country right now." A story about the recording can be found here. The headline and text of this story have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump."
CNN also reported on the call citing an unnamed source and waited until Monday afternoon to correct its story, after initially stating Trump said "national hero" and "find the fraud" in its opening paragraph. Many outlets picked up the story, including Vox, ABC News, and NBC News.
While news outlets often cite sources who paraphrase conversations they participated in or overheard, using quotes indicates to the reader a subject said those exact words.
"Our media are so, so, so breathtakingly corrupt," Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway tweeted. "They *always* mischaracterized this call -- in a corrupt and fraudulent way. But to actually make up quotes in service of that? We are so screwed. By our disgustingly corrupt and unaccountable media."
After MSNBC's Hayes Brown defended the Post and praised its correction, Hemingway fired back that it was hardly a "self-policing win."
"So, they made up quotes. What in the actual F," conservative CNN commentator Mary Katharine Ham tweeted.
Conservative writer Mark Hemingway said the Post's correction and new headline did not adequately reflect its wrongdoing, calling the mistake "beyond serious" and indicative of the lack of accountability in corporate media.
In the conversation with Watson, Trump continued to claim he won Georgia by "hundreds of thousands of votes" and "something bad happened" there. Watson told Trump her team and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was focused on finding the truth and looking into any claims of fraud or wrongdoing.
Trump was the first Republican to lose the state in a presidential election since 1992. He repeatedly attacked Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R., after he lost the race there, accusing them of being corrupt. Multiple audits and investigations did not uncover evidence of widespread fraud in the state, and recounts confirmed the result.
In another leaked phone call, he also told Raffensperger he won Georgia by "hundreds of thousands and votes" and encouraged officials to "find" enough votes to offset his margin of defeat. Some Republicans have blamed Trump's rhetoric against the election's integrity as contributing to the January runoff defeats of former Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
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Another false story from the MSM.
Pretty sure that anything that comes from the Washington Examiner is a lie.
'The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump's comments on the all, based on information provided by a source.'
Who is this 'source'?
What a bunch of bullshit! There were no made up quotes.
Yes and what's more CNN confirmed a false story.
based on information provided by a source.'
A nefarious source.
What we have come to expect from the liars at the Post. What I can't understand is how this tape gets released almost 4 months after the election. The Post ran with this lie for so long!
Here is the correction in its entirety:
I think that it is much ado about nothing.
Of course it is. Anything they can find that the so called MSM gets wrong they will highlight, meanwhile fox wins a court case where they are cited as saying they do not tell the truth, and that is ignored and still listened to as gospel.
The MSM always seems to get it wrong on the same subject.
I'm sure you do.
The MSM consistently exaggerates, misquotes, and straight-up fabricates the things Republicans do and say, but particularly when it comes to Trump. This is just another example.
But no matter!
The partisans will be along any second to slap quote marks around a word and insist it means something sinister.
As I have said many times, there are plenty of legitimate things to criticize Trump for, but it’s never enough because the truth isn’t scandalous enough. They need to make something up or change the definition of words to make sure that the faithful are properly outraged or afraid.
So donald was just casually calling election officials asking about fraud...
No matter what some paper did or didn't say, acting like these phone calls were normal or innocent is ignoring reality.
Who said it was casual? That would be weird. He was a candidate urging an election official to keep looking for fraud. You might think his request was unfounded, but it’s not remotely illegal, and totally what you might expect of a desperate candidate losing an election.
Normal? No. Legal? I’m afraid so. The only way you can say otherwise is to ignore reality.
Imo no more legal than if I was asking around for someone to commit murder for me.
That's what they appear to be best at
What a silly comparison. We’re talking about election results.
They did a recount of the House race in Iowa and found more votes for the Democrat. That’s great, but it’s not enough and she wants more. Will you compare that to murder, also?
It is called conspiracy to commit...
It works the same whether you like the comparison or not.
What bothers me is them deciding to throw away votes. I think I read they threw away about 20 of them. I don't care who they were for, in this day and age we should not have these problems and peoples votes should not ever have to be tossed, for bullshit reasons.
So I can conspire to commit one crime and not another?
Good to know...
What conspiracy? To commit what?
Sorry, but whether you like it or not, pleading with a government official to investigate election results is not remotely close to murder. It’s also not a crime.
Well, I agree, but we have government officials who have been given the responsibility of deciding what constitutes a “bullshit reason.” Trump thinks he lost because of bullshit reasons. This lady in Iowa thinks she lost because of a bullshit reason. Stacey Abrams in Georgia thinks she lost the governor election because of bullshit reasons - and Kamala Harris agrees - but those same officials have told Trump to pound sand. It seems to me that personal partisanship has a lot to do with what a person considers a “bullshit reason.”
Sorry but everyone except donald defenders knows what he was after.
I suspect they know as well yet are willing to turn a blind eye.
If some think he was only looking out for fraud, I have a bridge for sale. It came from London.
Tossing ballots should not have anything to do with partisanship. We should not even be in the position of having to decide to toss one or not.
Yay ... an article about "fraud" vs. "dishonesty" ... excuse me but I have a sigh to parse.
"Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump’s December phone call with the state’s top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call, based on information provided by a source," the Post said Thursday in a 129-word correction published atop the story.
"Trump did not tell the investigator to 'find the fraud' or say she would be 'a national hero' if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find 'dishonesty' there. He also told her that she had 'the most important job in the country right now.'"
The headline and text of the Post report have been corrected to remove quotes misattributed to Trump, the newspaper said.
The correction comes days after The Wall Street Journal obtained audio of the December call between Trump and the investigator.
Defin it let need to use the actual words and not make up or alter them WAPO. All the same though, he essentially said the same thing, “make the results in my favor, and I’ll help you out.”