The last seven days have not been journalism’s best.
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The latest bit of media malpractice comes via Vice Media’s Motherboard, which retracted two separate reports Wednesday after its editors agreed the stories were too flimsy and too poorly sourced to defend.
Both reports dealt with allegations that Disney executives had been agonizing over the inclusion of President Donald Trump in Disney World’s famed “Hall of Presidents.”
Not only is this entire narrative incorrect, according to Disney executives, but the two articles also contained additional factual errors.
The first retracted report, titled Here’s the Secret Backstage Trump Drama at Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents, was published on May 19. It claimed Disney chiefs were unsure whether Trump’s animatronic figure should be given a speaking role.
The second retracted report, titled Behind the Scenes of Disney’s Donald Trump ‘Hall of Presidents’ Drama, was published on June 26. It claimed the president’s team insisted on writing the robot’s speech.
Both articles relied on anonymous sources, and both were wrong, according to Disney.
“Despite some media reports to the contrary, President Trump will have a speaking role in The Hall of Presidents, like every president since 1993,” editorial content director for the Disney Parks blog Thomas Smith wrote.
“We have been working closely with the current White House — just as we have with previous administrations — and the president’s recording session has been scheduled. The attraction will re-open in late 2017,” he added.
On June 28, Motherboard pulled both stories and issued an editor’s note in their place:
The Motherboard bungle comes not long after three CNN staffers resigned Monday following the retraction of a story published last week.
“In the aftermath of the retraction of a story published on CNN.com, CNN has accepted the resignations of the employees involved in the story’s publication,” CNN announced Monday.
The three who quit were: “CNN Investigates” reporter Thomas Frank; the story’s editor, Eric Lichtblau; and “CNN Investigates” executive editor Lex Haris.
The since-retracted report alleged longtime Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci, who played a significant role on the president’s White House transition team, had deep ties to a $10 billion Russian investment fund owned by a Kremlin-connected bank.
CNN has not said outright that it published a made-up story. Rather, company personnel have been told that the report was pulled because it didn’t live up to editorial standards, not that the claim itself was necessarily false.
It’s unclear whether the three resignations were tendered in protest or if they came as a result of pressure from CNN management.
