Media

ABC News apologizes for false graphic saying Manafort pleaded guilty to manslaughter

by Joe Concha

ABC News issued an apology on Wednesday after erroneously posting a graphic during a special report stating that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had pleaded “guilty to 5 charges of manslaughter.”

“We regret and apologize for the false lower third graphic that aired during our special report. We are investigating how incorrect information was in our system and how and why it was allowed to air,” ABC News said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

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“We apologize to our viewers and to Mr. Manafort. There simply is no excuse for this sort of mistake.”

The graphic, known as a chyron that serves as a headline for a story on the screen, was shown during a special report covering President Trump’s decision to sign an executive order aimed at ending his administration’s controversial practice of separating children from their parents who have crossed the U.S. southern border illegally. 

The error was first flagged by media reporter Alex Griswold of the Washington Free Beacon. 

“ABC News’ banner briefly reported this afternoon that Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to killing five people. (He has not),” Griswold wrote.

Media coverage has been dominated by controversy over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy for the past 96 hours, climaxing on Wednesday with the president’s decision to “keep families together” after illegally crossing the border.
 
“We want to keep families together. It’s very important. I’ll be signing something in a little while that’s going to do that,” Trump said to reporters during a meeting with GOP lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday afternoon. 
 
Manafort, who was indicted by Russia investigation special council Robert Mueller in 2017 on various money laundering and tax fraud charges, is currently being held at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va., after a judge ordered him there on charges of witness tampering.