A political reporter for the liberal Newsweek magazine has been dismissed after producing an inaccurate article regarding President Trump’s activities on Thanksgiving Day, claiming that the GOP occupant of the White House intended to spend the holiday just “tweeting and golfing.”
The item was posted before the President traveled to Afghanistan to visit the U.S. soldiers stationed there, and it was a serious blow to political reporter Jessica Kwong.
According to an article posted on Saturday by Mike Brest, breaking news reporter for the Washington Examiner, Kwong initially published her article on “Thursday morning, before the President’s trip … was announced publicly.”
Her original title was: “How Is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing and more.”
Brest then quoted a representative for the weekly publication as stating:
Newsweek investigated the failures that led to the publication of the inaccurate report that President Trump spent Thanksgiving tweeting and golfing rather than visiting troops in Afghanistan.
The story has been corrected, and the journalist responsible has been terminated. We will continue to review our processes and, if required, take further action.
The Examiner reporter also stated: “Hours after the President's trip was announced, Newsweek edited Kwong's story and added a note at the bottom of it.”
That note read: “This story has been substantially updated and edited at 6:17 p.m. EST to reflect the President's surprise trip to Afghanistan. Additional reporting by James Crowley."
Brest continued: “The beginning of the story now focuses on the President's trip and his speech to the troops, while the new headline reads: ‘How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing -- and surprising U.S. troops in Afghanistan.’”
Kwong also posted a message on Twitter regarding the situation, and she noted that the earlier posting was being deleted “because it was written before knowing about the President’s surprise visit to Afghanistan,” which she described as “an honest mistake.”
As you might expect, it wasn’t long before Trump responded to the incident by tweeting: “I thought Newsweek was out of business?”
Donald Trump Jr. also replied: “Fake news gonna fake!”
Later that same day, Kwong tried to deflect some of the blame for the incident onto the editor who had earlier assigned her to write a story on what Trump was doing on the Thanksgiving holiday. After the White House trip was revealed, Brest stated, the reporter reached out to the Newsweek editor on duty and relayed information on the President's latest actions.
“That editor then decided to assign another reporter to write a new story about it but neglected to update Kwong's original piece in a timely manner,” the Examiner reporter noted.
Brest added that Newsweek did not answer additional questions about that editor's status or if that person would face any consequences over the publication of the story.
As NewsBusters described nearly a month ago, Trump attended the game pitting the football LSU Tigers against the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, and sports writer Scott McDonald used the occasion to compare the current Republican President to Richard Nixon, who resigned before he before he could be impeached in 1974.
