A “chyron malfunction” has resulted in an official apology (though no explanation) from ABC News and the President of the United States finding the perfect moment to work in a “Fake News” and “Witch Hunt” tweet — with all the usual fallout from the presidential trolling online.
In a still unexplained moment caught by Mediaite, while covering Trump’s comments to pool reporters Tuesday, ABC News’ chyron revealed the shocking news that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had pleaded guilty to five counts of manslaughter.
Here’s a screenshot of ABC’s bombshell update:
[[{“fid”:”34676″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Screenshot: ABC News”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“1”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Screenshot: ABC News”}},”attributes”:{“title”:”Screenshot: ABC News”,”class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”1″}}]]
The only problem, of course, is that it’s simply untrue. How exactly the network screwed up on something so specific is hard to say — in fact, ABC in its apology didn’t even try to explain it, saying instead that it’s still “investigating” how the bizarre mixup happened.
“We regret and apologize for the false lower third graphic that aired during our special report. We are investigating how incorrect information was in our system and how and why it was allowed to air,” ABC said in a statement Wednesday. “We apologize to our viewers and to Mr. Manafort. There simply is no excuse for this sort of mistake.”
While some of ABC’s fans graciously accepted the apology, Trump wasn’t so quick to let “Fake ABC News” off the hook:
As is the case for basically everything he ever tweets, the internet simultaneously exploded and imploded, with even “Jesus Christ” weighing in — creating either a wormhole or a space-time vortex, it’s unclear. Maybe ABC can explain it after it figures out how it convicted Manafort of “manslaughter.”
Some examples of the Trump critics using the fake news incident as an excuse to condemn Trump and his administration, particularly about the separating illegal immigrant families debacle, and a few of his supporters jumping in on his behalf:
