Brian Ross Should Be Fired

By Brent Bozell When youre the source for breaking news but it turns out to be faking news youre in trouble. ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross reported on retired Army Gen. Michael Flynns plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller by claiming that Flynn is prepared to testify that President Trump as a candidate Donald Trump ordered him directed him to make contact with the Russians which contradicts all that Donald Trump has said to this point. It was a nuclear explosion. Within minutes the stock market plunged 350 points. It quickly became clear that was flat-out wrong. Later ABC News added on the evening news what it disingenuously called a clarification -- actually it said Trump directed Flynn to contact the Russians after the election. Not only is that not scandalous but it is also completely expected for a new president. After more uproar ABC finally found the reporting to be a serious error and suspended Ross for four weeks without pay. Its a classic journalistic mistake to try and be first to report something before its verified. But in the Trump era when liberals believe the president is a uniquely dangerous threat to America -- and even the world -- any news that could lead to speculation about Trumps impeachment or resignation is like catnip. Journalists are prone to overhype anything that could spell The End. This suspension might have been an adequate punishment ... if Ross hadnt already made a long line of whoppers. Conservatives remember the 2012 movie theater mass shooting in Aurora Colorado by James Holmes and how Ross came on in breaking-news mode to announce that there was a Jim Holmes on a Colorado Tea Party Patriots website ... as if that were a perfect starting point to identifying a mass shooter. It wasnt. But there are more. In 2001 Ross claimed that the anthrax used in deadly attacks after 9/11 in Washington D.C. and New York was coated with bentonite a chemical compound found only in biological weapons made by then-Iraqi leader Saddam Husseins henchmen. Former President George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer remembers the event. He tweeted: I explicitly told ABC News not to go with the anthrax story because it was wrong. Brian Ross went with it anyway -- and one week later issued a murky hard to understand correction. In the first month of the Iraq War in 2003 Ross reported that Husseins cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid (or Chemical Ali) an Iraqi general had been killed. Several media outlets forwarded that report. Six months later U.S. officials announced that they had him in custody. In 2006 Ross claimed that Pakistani officials had arrested al-Qaida explosives expert Matiur Rehman who had an official list of terrorist recruits and could lead to then-al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. A Pakistani official denounced the report as fictitious. Then-ABC consultant Alexis Debat warned ABC that the report was not true a day after it was initially broadcast. In that same year Ross breathlessly relayed that the FBI was investigating then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert for bribery in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Justice Department officials describe the 64-year-old Illinois Republican as very much in the mix of the corruption investigation he said. This prompted the Justice Department to deny that there was any federal probe of Hastert and Hastert demanded a retraction of the statement and threatened to sue ABC. None of these whoppers ever led to any suspension of Ross whos been at ABC since 1994. His liberal colleagues have given him six Peabody awards and six George Polk awards so his reputation inside the network was apparently unscathed by his large errors. Its a little bizarre that these days alleged sexual harassers like Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer are dumped abruptly while Brian Williams has an hourlong nightly show on MSNBC and Brian Ross gets a slap on the wrist. These supposed guardians against fake news make it look like fact mangling isnt really a serious offense. Brian Ross should be fired.