ABC News Apologizes for Very Bad Paul Manafort Error

ABC News aired the wrong graphics during a special report on President Trump’s decision to sign an executive order ending his zero family separation policy and wound up falsely reporting that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort had pleaded guilty to five charges of manslaughter.

“We apologize to our viewers and to Mr. Manafort,” ABC News tweeted. “There simply is no excuse for this sort of mistake.”

One of those viewers was Donald Trump, who (of course), called the mistake a “witch hunt” led by Democrats.

Although Manafort, a former Trump campaign manager, is currently being held at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia, it’s for a completely different reason. His charges involve money laundering and foreign lobbying violations, not death, and he had his bail revoked last Friday and went to jail after a federal judge concluded that he had he tried to tamper with witness testimony.

This is not the first time ABC News or one of its affiliates has aired the wrong graphics. ABC 7 Chicago sent out a similar apology for a much less severe (but funnier) mistake four months ago. It ran a graphic reading “P.F. Chang” instead of “Pyeonchang” for a story about the 2018 Olympics.