ABC apologizes for ‘Manafort pleads guilty to 5 charges of manslaughter’ chyron
Wednesday, the lower third of an ABC News special report during the noon ET hour read: “MANAFORT PLEADS GUILTY TO 5 CHARGES OF MANSLAUGHTER.” ABC has now issued an apology.
“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.”
The graphic stayed up on screen from 12:21:30 p.m. – 12:21:37 p.m. ET, before the producers apparently figured out what happened, and transitioned to the chyron regarding President Trump making comments on immigration and the separation of children from their parents at the border.
Manafort has been jailed on a number of charges including money laundering and making false statements, but nothing to do with manslaughter. Even these charges have been called into question since they were long before the Trump campaign, yet identified by the Mueller investigation.
Trump turned to Twitter to bash the news outlet.
“Look what Fake ABC News put out,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I guess they had it prepared from the 13 Angry Democrats leading the Witch Hunt! #StopTheBias”.
