NBC issued a correction on “NBC Nightly News” to previous reports that one of the suspects in the Paris terror attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was killed and that the manhunt was over.
On Wednesday, NBC’s Pete Williams reported that two senior U.S. counterterrorism officials had told the network that the three gunmen responsible for the fatal shooting were no longer at large, reported POLITICO.
The false information had been broadcasted not only on “NBC Nightly,” but also on NBCNews.com, MSNBC, and even via social media by the “NBC Nightly News” official Twitter account.
During the program’s Thursday evening broadcast, NBC anchor Brian Williams admitted that the network had been mistaken:
“Starting over night and into today we've been correcting something we first reported here. We were told by not one but two senior U.S. intelligence officials that this manhunt had ended last night with all three suspects either dead or captured. While these sources had been reliable in our previous reporting, the intel they passed along to us last night turned out not to be correct.”
Since the manhunt was then still underway, one could say this was slightly embarrassing.
At least they owned up to it (by blaming their sources). Same thing.