Politics

Journalists Spread Fake News About Ivanka Trump

ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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Journalists and pundits spread fake news on Twitter Sunday that Ivanka Trump was engaged in pay-to-play with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The false story started with a Wall Street Journal reporter Rebecca Ballhaus misrepresenting an article from her own outlet. The story, “Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. Pledge $100 Million To World Bank’s Women Entrepreneurs Fund,” says that the president’s daughter proposed the creation of the fund, but “Ms. Trump doesn’t control it or raise money for it.”

Ballhaus, however, said in a tweet that it was “Ivanka’s Women Entrepreneurs Fund.” Reporters ended up picking up on the tweet, and CNN’s Jim Sciutto wrote, “This is virtually identical to what Trump and others in GOP criticized Clinton Foundation for.” His tweet received nearly 10,000 retweets.

One MSNBC analyst, Malcolm Nance, went as far as to say, “Good lord. Trumps do Literal Pay-to-Play. This is grounds for immediate dismissal [from] government.”

The fake story was spread by journalists from outlets ranging from The Washington Examiner to Agence-France Presse.

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