ABC News Apologizes After Editing Former Bush Spox’s Praise of Sean Spicer to Sound Like Attack
ABC News apologized Tuesday after the Monday night edition of Nightline edited a quote from former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer in a way that made it appear that he was more critical of current White House press secretary Sean Spicer than he actually was.
“[Spicer’s] briefing made me uncomfortable. It was too truculent, too tough. It looks as if the ball was dropped on Saturday,” Nightline quoted Fleischer as saying.
But Fleischer took to Twitter to complain that he had been taken out of context.
@Nightline proves Spicer right about MSM’s dedication to negativity. Here is what I told them in a taped interview: 1/4
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) January 24, 2017
“It looks to me if the ball was dropped on Saturday, Sean recovered it and ran for a 1st down on Monday.” 2/4
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) January 24, 2017
Here is how they chopped my quote: “It looks to me if the ball was dropped on Saturday” after ABC referred to “deliberate falsehoods.” 3/4
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) January 24, 2017
If this is how the press reports, Trump is right to go after them. 4/4
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) January 24, 2017
Flesicher called on ABC News to issue a correction, saying he didn’t really care if he got an apology. As it happens, he got both:
Nightline aired a segment Monday night about the first three days of the new administration including Sean Spicer’s statement to the press on Saturday. As part of the report, we interviewed former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. In editing the piece for air, his quote was shortened and as a result his opinions mischaracterized. We are fixing the piece online to include his full quote and context. We apologize and regret the error.
[Image via screengrab]
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