Hello everyone! Today, we’re diving into a bit of a media mishap involving veteran journalist Judy Woodruff, who recently found herself in hot water after sharing some inaccurate information during a PBS broadcast. This all happened in the midst of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza, which, as you can imagine, is a highly sensitive topic.
So, what exactly went down? Well, during a PBS roundtable discussion at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Woodruff made a claim that caught a lot of people off guard. She told her audience that former President Donald Trump had been on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him not to agree to a cease-fire in Gaza. Woodruff suggested that Trump believed this would benefit Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, a statement that raised quite a few eyebrows.
Now, here’s where things get tricky. The information Woodruff shared wasn’t based on her own investigative reporting. Instead, she was referencing reports she had supposedly read from other outlets, specifically Axios and Reuters. However, the issue was that the reports she mentioned had already been debunked by the time she brought them up on air. According to these outlets, while there were initial claims that Trump and Netanyahu had spoken, both sides later denied that any such conversation had taken place.
The backlash was swift. Viewers and critics alike pointed out that the story was proven false days before Woodruff repeated it on live television. This led to a wave of criticism online, with many questioning how such a seasoned journalist could make such a mistake.
PBS reporting that Trump has been talking to Netanyahu trying to STOP a cease fire deal because it would “help the Harris campaign”
This is a despicable lie. Judy Woodruff should retract this misinformation before mainstream media start repeating it as fact.
👇 pic.twitter.com/t5bMXCWAjG— DailyNoah.com (@DailyNoahNews) August 21, 2024
In response to the uproar, Woodruff took to social media to offer a clarification and an apology. She admitted that she had repeated the story without realizing that it had already been debunked. Woodruff emphasized that she was relying on reports from reputable sources but acknowledged that it was a mistake to share the information without verifying its accuracy first.
Judy Woodruff lied in her “apology” by claiming she was just repeating what she read on Axios and Reuters.
Their reports actually said the literal opposite of what she claimed. pic.twitter.com/VxCmg9b9OV
— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) August 21, 2024
As you might expect, this didn’t go over well with everyone. The Israeli Prime Minister’s office went as far as to call Woodruff’s statements a “complete lie,” and the whole incident has sparked a conversation about the importance of fact-checking in journalism, especially when it comes to high-stakes international conflicts.
On the other side, Trump did confirm that he had spoken with Netanyahu, though his version of events focused on urging a swift end to the conflict rather than advising against a cease-fire. He stressed that the violence needed to stop, but he also criticized the terms of the proposed cease-fire.
So, what’s the takeaway here? Well, it’s a reminder of how crucial it is for journalists to actually do investigative reporting, verify their sources, and report the truth. Sadly, this is becoming less and less the case.
