Theyre trying to help him cover up the disturbing connections that do exist between trump world and russia. Every single day, journalists are uncovering new links between the two. Meantime, at home youre probably wondering if your taxes are going to go up or going to go down. Amid all the deceptive claims about the gop tax bill. Right now, the biggest challenge for newsrooms i cant say this loudly enough. The biggest challenge is to cut through the craziness and explain whats going on in clear, accurate language. We need to start with the basics. We need to exercise a lot of caution and precision, without shying away from the truth. We need to describe the crisis that we are seeing with our own eyes. This moment calls for more explainers. More time lines. More summaries. More factchecks. To help the audience, to help all of you at home. We in the media need to write our stories, not to impress each other, but to inform you. To inform an increasingly worried public. And above all else, we need to protect our credibility at all costs. Which brings me to the two big stories were covering this hour. Nbc firing matt lauer. And abc suspending brian ross. These are two very different cases, to be sure. Lauer accused of sexual misconduct. Ross admitting to sloppy journalism. But both lead to a common result. Questions about the credibility and the accountability of the people who deliver us the news. Of course, trump is exploiting both cases on twitter. And well get to lauer and to trump a little later. But first to ross. The breaking news this weekend. Abc saying he made a serious error in his bombshell report about Michael Flynn was not fully vetted through our editorial standards process. So what happened . Well, as the shock of flynns plea deal sank in on friday, as the nation tried to figure out what was happening, ross told viewers that flynn is prepared to point the finger directly at trump. And testified that the president , before taking office, ordered him to make contact with the russians. That was before election day. The key here was that flynn was going to say it all happened during the campaign. Raising the prospect of ill lets. That report called the dow jones to drop 350 points. Although the market almost fully recovered later in the day. No other news outlets were able to match his bombshell reporting. We wondered why. And we found out. On the nbc nightly news, ross backtracked. A clarification tonight on something one of flynns confidantes told us. He said the president asked flynn to contact russia during the complain. Hes clarifying that, saying candidate trump asked him during the campaign to find ways to repair relations with russia and afterward, the president elect told him to contact him on issues to Work Together to fight isis. They call it a clarification, but it was a huge correction. Team trump was outraged. One of the president s sons, donald trump jr. , retweeted me and predicted there would be no disciplinary action. We can put his tweet onscreen here. He said because it was looking bad for trump, nobody at abc would be punished. In fact, on saturday evening, abc did suspend ross, a fourweek suspension, without pay. Now the question is whether he will return in january. Will he return to his job and what does that mean . What does all of this mean for the ongoing investigations into trump and russia . Lets get into that now with our panel here in new york, political analyst, Jeff Greenfield and oliver darcy. And april ryan, Washington Bureau chief for american urban radio networks, also a cnn political analyst. Oliver, youve been doing reporting all weekend. Before we get into the details, jeff, when we look at whats going on so far, we dont know what flynn may say to mueller. Isnt that the point, that this isnt exonerating for trump, not incriminating. We dont know yet whats going on. Thats what made this error so consequential. As you pointed out, if trump had directed his team to reach out to russia during the campaign, that is collusion. And that really undermines the notion this was a very conspiratorial operation. You would expect the president elect to reach out, maybe. The thing that baffles me about this is why would it take abc news hours to correct this when every other media outlet was right . Also, and im going to be very blunt about this. Im sorry. This is not brian ross first mistake in reporting breaking news inaccurately. Linking saddam to the anthrax attacks in 2001. Linking the aurora shooter to a tea party by using the wrong name. Abc should have been on notice any time there is breaking news and special events, you run the risk of misreporting. Having anchored at cnn, a report about nerve gas in laos that turned out to be unsupported, having to apologize. Mistakes are made. The second point i would make, because this is exactly what trump and his allies want to say, no matter what you hear on mainstream media, its fake. Theyre doing it to hurt us. And this is like handing a sword to the people who want all media to be looked at in that regard. Do you think thats why theyve suspended him . In the past, would there have been a suspension for this . He wasnt suspended after the aurora mistake. Im reluctant not only to predict the future, but to relitigate the past. All i know is in the current environment, i think they had to. So oliver, you were early on this story, you noticed on abc news. Com on friday, that his reporting wasnt on the website. And that made you wonder what was going on. Right. Because if you have massive scoop that no other outlet has, you would be thinking they would be singing from mountaintops. Instead, it was missing completely from their online reports. And so i started asking abc, you know, whats going on . Why is ross bombshell not online . And it took a few hours but eventually they got back to me and said they would do this clarification on world news. And they eventually called it a correction and now say its a serious error. But to your point, ive heard from people inside abc after four weeks theyre still not certain, you know, can he come back, and is he when you report something, is it going to be seen as credible from now on . There is a lot of uncertainty about that. And inside abc too, when i was talking to people yesterday, theyre very embarrass and had there is also frustration that he was allowed to go to air with this report. I think that we need to home in on. The idea that he had a Single Source and wasnt approved through the vetting process. If you or i had that kind of information, we would have to talk to our editors, our bosses, before reporting it on the air. The fact he didnt do that, suggests maybe this was not just his fault, there may have been a structural problem. Right. It should have gone through some sort of vetting. It seems it didnt. And its even particularly bad here, because his track record is not very good. Hes had several highprofile mistakes, and he went to air with an explosive report that caused the market to tank, based on a single anonymous source that ended up being, you know, not correct. To your point about the president to your point about the stock market, the president weighed in this morning on twitter. Lets put his tweet on screen. He says people who lost money when the stock market went down 350 points based on the false and dishonest reporting of brian ross, hes been suspended, should consider hiring a lawyer and suing abc for the damages his bad reporting has caused. Many millions of dollars. April . You cover the president every day. Your reaction . Well, the president has said things about hiring lawyers before, when it comes to those who are accusing him of sexual misconduct. He hasnt done that yet. But this is a serious issue. And the stakes are very high. You know, we as reporters, we will make mistakes. We have. We continue to. And we will in the future. But the stakes are so high, brian. And right now, whats happening, i think, about how this administration pounces on one moment that is thats a faux pas. I think about early on in the administration when sean spicer was press secretary, something that was small, but it blew up so big. You remember the controversy about the Martin Luther king jr. Bust possibly not being in the office. People went berserk over it. And now this has gone to another level. Stakes are so high. And we have to really make sure all the is are dotted and all of the ts are crossed. Because this is a very serious situation. This russia investigation issue has tentacles that reach far beyond this moment. And into the future. The president has been set, as it relates to russia being involved in our election process. But how does this play out in the future . We have to get it right. Theres no room for error. And many journalists are every day. I mean, i think back to thanksgiving, and when the New York Times broke the news that flynn had stopped cooperating with trumps team, the lawyers have stopped talking. That was a prelude to what we saw eight days later when he turned himself in court. So a lot of fantastic reporting happening. But these errors, they do undermine the profession. Jeff, can i go back to the idea that the president of the United States is suggesting people sue a news outlet . This is not normal. You can see that five times a day, this is not normal. Look, the president s understanding of the legal world is somewhat shaky. He also thinks he personally can rewrite the libel laws. But i just want to make one very quick point. It goes back as long as ive been in this business, which is back to thomas edison. When breaking news happens, when you are on the air, the editorial process is shortcircuited. Mistakes are going to multiply. I think back to the reagan shooting, when we reported he hadnt been shot, that he was shot, that james brady was dead. It is more important than ever in a story like a sudden breaking news that you be careful, and that you restrain yourself from saying, i just heard an amazing fact. I can do that with some friends in a restaurant. If i do it on the air, i should be held accountable. And meanwhile, im watching fox news this morning, oliver, and the main takeaway is trumps theyre saying theres no real trouble for you in this mueller investigation. Yeah, maybe the investigation should end, because you are so innocent. Theyre telling him, dont worry. Youre winning the war on christmas. A lot of positivity and counter narrative. I wonder if the seriousness of the actual flynn news, not ross mistake, but the actual news has been papered over by conservative media. It seems it has. Fox did pretty good during the breaking news coverage. The actual journalists the newscast covered it well. When it goes to the prime time lineup, its a total bubble. And a lot of fox is opinion. Fox friends, the president s favorite show in the morning. I want to go back to abc here. I think its important when journalists make mistakes that outlets are you know, transparent with their viewers and readers and they own it. And im wondering if abc would have actually owned this, had we not started asking questions. Because initially they called it a clarification and then they wanted to call it went back and called it a correction. But would abc have owned this . There was not only a mistake made in the actual reporting, but how abc was transparent with their viewers in revealing that mistake to their audience. Absolutely. Meanwhile, the president s tweet about abc only one of ten tweets hes posted today. So oliver, thank you. After the break, were going to talk about his relationship with twitter. And how it is now causing real danger. The market. But through good times and bad. At t. Rowe price. Weve helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. If yoRheumatoid Arthritisevere and youre talking to your rheumatologist about a medication, this is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further irreversible damage. This is humira helping me reach for more. Humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. Humira works for many adults. It targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. 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He knew about flynn lying to the fbi . Back in january . Now, comey says trump told him to ease off on flynn. So all of this raises the specter that trump just admitted to obstructing justice. But but but trumps lawyer, john dowd, jumped on the grenade. This is what dowd has been telling news outlets. He says he drafted the tweet, which makes no sense. But it does raise the question about who is drafting the rest of the president s tweets . Lets ask. Who decided to retweet these racist anti Muslim Videos . At least one of the videos is just plain fake. One is from more than three years ago in egypt and one is yet to be verified. The retweets brought backlash from the uk Prime Minister, theresa may, so trump tweeted right back at his fellow head of state, only he didnt tweet back at her, because he tweeted at the wrong theresa may. Then trump fixed the error and told the uk Prime Minister to mind her own business. And so on and so on. But the retweets also caused this. An unsettling headline this afternoon. Officials at the u. S. State department were so concerned about the anti Muslim Videos that President Trump retweeted yesterday, they told the white house they were actually worried that the president s actions might spark a reprise of violent protests of u. S. Embassies in the middle east. Unsettling, to say the least. This is not the only example of troubling tweets recently. There was news out of libya, a tweet where the president called Cnn International fake news, led some in the libyan media to question about people being sold at slave auctions in libya. Real reporting now being challenged, using the president s fake tweets about fake news. Lets dive more deeply into this problem, if it is a problem. Back with me is Jeff Greenfield and brian caram, a regular in the briefing room. Good to have you here today. Good to see you, brian. Lets talk through this twitter issue. Do you think its coming to a head, the president s tweets are becoming more troubling, a bigger problem for the country . When you issue tweets where youre one of your oldest allies is saying its dangerous and when the state department is, sure. I want to offer a potential theory. You know the movie gas light . Yes. He tries to convince his wife shes going crazy by deliberately confusing her. Im beginning to think thats what trump is doing. Im beginning to think the shear range of these tweets in their distance from reality sometimes is all designed to make us run frantically from one tweet to the other in such a way we wind up losing all perspective. Dont start covering the serious policy consequences of this regime. And wind up looking like completely fools, only because we are dealing with misinformation at such a level and with such indifference to the consequences that we lose perspective. I mean, i think everybody should go out and look at gas light again. I was looking to see if its streaming on netflix. If i find out, ill let you know as you watch. Brian, i heard you jump in and say beginning . Well, i call it twitter litter. Its always been that way since hes come into office. If you watch his when he tweets, its always to obfuscate to get you to look somewhere else so youre not looking at whats really going on. And thats been kind of the hallmark of his whole twitter campaign. And i know people in the high officials in the white house who would love to get him to drop the twitter and drop it and walk away. But they wont. It brings attention to him. It deflects from the issues that are at hand. And at the same time, gets us chasing o