A number of journalists questioned Lawrence O’Donnell’s decision to report a single-sourced unverified report about President Trump’s connections to Russia on his show Tuesday night.
O’Donnell opened his show Tuesday night claiming that the Deutsche Bank is in possession of tax returns from the president or his immediate family and that he needed co-signers to obtain loans from the bank. The MSNBC prime-time host reported that said co-signers are “Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.”
He later clarified those remarks at the end of his show to “stress” that the allegations are from “a single source” and that the story has not been “confirmed by NBC News.”
An MSNBC producer chimed in Wednesday morning explaining that the bank is declining to comment on the report and that the single source O’Donnell referenced “has not seen the bank records.”
No other news outlet has been able to confirm O’Donnell’s reporting while the president’s lawyers have demanded a retraction and an apology.
Several in the media were skeptical of the decision to run with a story that could not be corroborated. CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy questioned on Twitter why MSNBC would run the segment on a prime-time show.
So the natural question is: Why did it run on MSNBC prime time? https://t.co/bJehALYib6
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 28, 2019
“The information came from a single source who has not seen the bank records.” Sounds like a winner, @Lawrence. https://t.co/btko8mLb7i
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) August 28, 2019
Hours after this report aired, MSNBC and NBC News still haven’t published a written story on Lawrence’s claim or posted video of this segment. Seems a bit odd?
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) August 28, 2019
Bad journalism poisons everyone in journalism…if O’Donnell didn’t vet this story, and if he is wrong, @MSNBC should suspend him; Lawrence O’Donnell Admits Russia Report Not Verified by NBC https://t.co/gtbsM1ICuN
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) August 28, 2019
Here an MSNBC producer throws @Lawrence O’Donnell under the bus for his irresponsible horribly sourced report: https://t.co/tx22KdSfLG
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) August 28, 2019
