Reporters apologized for spreading a bogus New York Times hit piece on Rick Perry Thursday, after new facts came to light that completely undermined the central assertion of the story.
“I’m about to delete this tweet, which spread the rumor about Perry not knowing what energy sec does,” New York Magazine writer Jesse Singal tweeted, referring to an earlier tweet sharing the story. “I think it’s false.”
The New York Times reports Perry had no clue the energy secretary is in charge of safeguarding the nuclear arsenal when he accepted the nomination for the position in Donald Trump’s administration. Massive flaws in the reporting quickly became clear, however, as the sole source for the story told The Daily Caller his words were taken out of context, and journalists quickly dug up a statement from Perry on his nomination that explicitly mentions the nuclear arsenal. (RELATED: Journos Slam ‘Garbage’ New York Times Hit Piece On Rick Perry)
Initially a lot of journalists retweeted and cheered the story, but after it was clearly debunked, some began deleting those tweets and instead sharing the stories debunking the report. They harshly criticized the paper in the meantime.
“I officially retract my snarky Rick Perry tweet c/o the NYT,” writer Andrew Heaton tweeted. “I stand by my snarky Dancing with the Stars tweets.” Asked why he was retracting in a reply to his tweet, he added: “It appears the NYT had a pre-existing opinion and then slopped some dubious reporting on top to confirm.”
“Im retracting last 2 tweets,” Vanity Fair editor and Newsweek senior writer Kurt Eichenwald tweeted. “Someone pointed out there are now questions if NYT allegations on Rick Perry are true.”
“Since I tweeted the NYTimes story, I’ll tweet this repudiation from their source,” Huffington Post reporter Natalie Jackson tweeted. “Deleting my initial tweet.”
“I still think experts are far better for running technical depts like Energy, though, but apologize for spreading bad story,” she added.
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