Initially one reporter sees a woman near tears. Others hear a voice cracking from fatigue.
And the whole thing goes viral.
On election night, Mediaite‘s Alex Griswold (full disclosure: a former coworker) broke the story that ABC’s Martha Raddatz had “fought back tears” when it was evident that Donald Trump had won. At the time, other journalists agreed with his take, writing up stories as fast as they could that Raddatz had grown emotional and nearly cried on air over Hillary Clinton‘s loss.
In a new profile out in Elle, Raddatz sets the record straight: She wasn’t crying. The story is “bullshit,” she told Trump when he publicly embarrassed her by ridiculing her for it in a meeting with a news execs. Still, he went on to make fun of her for it at a campaign rally in Cincinnati.
Mediaite‘s headline went from “Martha Raddatz Fights Back Tears While Discussing Implications of Trump Presidency” to “Martha Raddatz Appears To Choke Up While Discussing Implications Of Trump Presidency” a day later.
An update read as follows:
UPDATE – 11/09/16: This post has been edited since it was originally posted. The headline has been changed to better reflect Martha Raddatz’s reaction. An ABC News spokesperson also responded to the article by saying that it was “ridiculous and untrue.” In fairness to Raddatz, at the time of this report, she had been on air for nearly 7 hours live reporting about the election.
The Mirror sought comment from Mediaite‘s Griswold.
In the Elle profile, Raddatz acknowledge the piece bothered her. “That story drove me crazy,” she said.
The Daily Wire, a right-leaning pub, also insisted she was crying. The site declared that Raddatz had “teared up” at the prospect of a Trump presidency and called the media “losers.”
WebDaily’s Jared Spade wrote that she “burst into tears” on election night. (Which, visibly, is just not true. WebDaily is blatantly in love with Trump.
Raddatz is still not too thrilled with Griswold.
“I can’t let those things drive me crazy,” she said. “But I also am going to defend myself. That blogger never even called me to ask if I was crying. I was not crying. And I was not choked up, either.”
For what it’s worth, The Mirror never viewed the moment as Raddatz crying, being near tears or choking up. I thought her voice was scratchy because that’s how her voice typically sounds.
Hardly a reason to accuse of her displaying sadness.