g deep on deep-six // (Scott Johnson).
On Friday, NBC’s Today reported a story about the assault on Paul Pelosi. Within a matter of hours, the network removed the story from the Today show with the comment that it “did not meet NBC News reporting standards.” The story was posted via Twitter and we noted NBC’s retraction .
How could the story have failed to meet NBC News reporting standards They didn’t.
Paul Farhi, Washington Post’s columnist, spoke to “people at NBC” and mocked anyone who repeated the story despite NBC’s mysterious “retraction.” Subhead : “People at NBC claimed that the “Today” show report was based upon “unreliable” information from a source not named in the story.
Farhi’s sources, assuming they are plural, remain unnamed in the story.
Miguel Almaguer, a NBC News reporter, had what appeared to be a story on Friday about an attack on Paul Pelosi last week. His “Today” show appearance quickly became a viral sensation on right-wing websites and social media accounts.
One problem: Almaguer’s account was based on flawed information that was provided by a source not named in the report. These people claimed Almaguer was wrong when he reported that Nancy Pelosi’s husband (D-Calif.), gave no indication to police that he was in danger when they answered the door. San Francisco police claim that Pelosi was actually struggling with David DePape when they first saw him.
However, before NBC News’s hasty deletion of the video from its site — accompanied with a vague note noting that the story “didn’t meet NBC News reporting standards”, it spawned a sinister and new narrative.
Farhi doesn’t even give a reason to leave sources (“people at network”) unnamed. Because of the sensitive nature of the matter? Because they weren’t authorized to address it. Because they didn’t want embarrass a colleague. Because they need to protect their phony baloney jobs. Because of national security considerations (Just kidding.)
