The Newsweek reporter who was fired after writing an inaccurate article about President Trump’s Thanksgiving Day plans is deflecting some of the blame onto her editor.
Newsweek initially published the article Thursday morning, before the president’s trip to Afghanistan was announced publicly. The story’s initial headline was, “How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing and more.”
Kwong told the Washington Examiner that she was assigned to write a story on what Trump was doing on Thanksgiving. The next day, Kwong reached out to the editor on duty and relayed the president’s latest actions, after which the story was published. When the president’s trip to Afghanistan was announced, that editor then decided to assign another reporter to write a new story about it but neglected to update Kwong’s original piece in a timely manner.
The story, which received backlash from both the president and Donald Trump Jr., was updated hours later with a new headline, a note at the bottom of the story, and the angle of the piece was changed to focus on the president’s trip.
The new headline reads, “How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing — and surprising U.S. troops in Afghanistan,” while the note at the end of the story reads, “This story has been substantially updated and edited at 6:17 p.m. EST to reflect the president’s surprise trip to Afghanistan. Additional reporting by James Crowley.”
Trump headed to Afghanistan to surprise U.S. troops on Thanksgiving https://t.co/f7Xeqz1ZGQ Deleting this tweet because it was written before knowing about the president’s surprise visit to Afghanistan-an honest mistake. Story has already been updated, as shown in the screenshot. pic.twitter.com/g9CfPaV2kQ
— Jessica Kwong (@JessicaGKwong) November 29, 2019
Kwong apologized on social media for the story saying it was “an honest mistake” and added that the story had been updated, and she had deleted a tweet about the original story.
“Newsweek investigated the failures that led to the publication of the inaccurate report that President Trump spent Thanksgiving tweeting and golfing rather than visiting troops in Afghanistan,” a Newsweek representative previously told the Washington Examiner. “The story has been corrected, and the journalist responsible has been terminated. We will continue to review our processes and, if required, take further action.”
Newsweek did not answer additional questions about the editor’s status with the outlet or if they would face any consequences over the publication of the story.
