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The Newsweek reporter who falsely reported on President Trump’s Thanksgiving Day activities has been given the boot. Jessica Kwong has been fired from the news outlet.
Kwong, a political reporter responsible for “covering the Trump administration and family” broke the story on Thanksgiving morning. The story’s headline read something like this: “How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing and more.”
Kwong managed to leave out the “and more” part:
This little detail which was omitted, as you can imagine, caused quite the commotion even though Kwong backpedaled as fast as she could:
Trump headed to Afghanistan to surprise U.S. troops on Thanksgiving https://t.co/f7Xeqz1ZGQ Deleting this tweet because it was written before knowing about the president’s surprise visit to Afghanistan-an honest mistake. Story has already been updated, as shown in the screenshot. pic.twitter.com/g9CfPaV2kQ
— Jessica Kwong (@JessicaGKwong) November 29, 2019
But it totally could’ve happened the way you daydreamed about so I forgive you. Hopefully you can taunt him next Thanksgiving if he’s selfish enough to spend it with his family, relaxing, and tweeting instead of with our troops overseas.
— Tracey E Chambers (@TraceyEChambers) November 29, 2019
But it totally could’ve happened the way you daydreamed about so I forgive you. Hopefully you can taunt him next Thanksgiving if he’s selfish enough to spend it with his family, relaxing, and tweeting instead of with our troops overseas.
— Tracey E Chambers (@TraceyEChambers) November 29, 2019
Donald Trump Jr., in response to Kwong’s initial report, commented on Twitter with “fake news gonna fake.” Newsweek has responded to the fiasco:
Newsweek investigated the failures that led to the publication of the inaccurate report that President Trump spent Thanksgiving tweeting and golfing rather than visiting troops in Afghanistan. The story has been corrected, and the journalist responsible has been terminated. We will continue to review our processes and, if required, take further action.”-Newsweek’s response to The Washington Examiner
Trump’s first trip to Afghanistan was kept under wraps until he arrived. This is a standard practice when Air Force One brings the Commander in Chief into a war zone. We know this. Kwong may not have known about this excursion, fair enough. But can we get any more cliche from a “journalist” reporting on the President? Tweeting and golfing? The article was “substantially” updated by another Newsweek employee, James Crowley and is still far from complimentary. They used their inverted pyramid to highlight the “important” elements, though. In order of importance…Tweeting, golfing and oh yeah….a trip to Afghanistan! In a twist, Kwong blamed her editor for the piece going out as is without the Afghanistan visit, claiming she called her editor when learning of the event and that her editor assigned the piece to someone else (Crowley).
This also was not the first time Newsweak’s-Newsweek’s Kwong let her bias get the best of her when reporting on the Trump family. Take this gem from December of 2017:
On the morning after Christmas, first daughter Ivanka Trump tweeted photos of her husband, Jared Kushner, and son on a boat with the caption, “this fish is a trophy!” But many Twitter users were more interested in something in the background—a Confederate flag.”-Jessica Kwong, formerly of Newsweek
In the above reference article, Kwong insinuated agreeing with a tweet from Walter Shaub, who worked in the Office of Government Ethics under former President Barack Obama, calling the depicted flag a “dogwhistle“.
Perhaps another “honest mistake”? Or just one Kwong was never called out on the carpet about? It is interesting the news outlet that once drafted a magazine cover highlighting Hillary Clinton’s “journey to the White House” before the election results of 2016 actually gave a journalist (and I use that term loosely) her walking papers. I mean, since when are they concerned about honesty where the President is concerned? It may have something to do with the scandal in which Newsweek appeared to be crumbling from the inside with allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and enforcing clicks at all costs. Now, all of a sudden, they’re doing the “right” thing? Or is it because they were caught red-handed with a huge mistake in reporting on their hands?
We do think Ms. Kwong will land on her feet. She may need to “substantially update” that resume of hers but we are sure some outfit like CNN or MSNBC will pick her up. After all, Kwong has graduated from Berkeley, promotes the Impeachment Taskforce and speaks three languages. Too bad none of them are the truth.
Photo Credit: FlickR/Creative Commons/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
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While Ms Kwong wrote a nasty piece and got what she deserved, there are some editors that own approval of publication and should also be fired.
Jessica… what’s Kwong with you?
Here’s the good thing that happened … once it was determined the reporter intentionally (important word here) wrote a false/fake/lie/incorrect story, she was fired. Now, if all news outlets, both left/right/middle did the same this would lead to a better educated population. It’s also a travesty that news outlets differentiate between “entertainment” versus “news” programs. Many viewers are unable to differentiate the difference and take information they glean from the “entertainment” portion as fact. It’s not.
But what would we do with all of the empty, lavishly appointed high rise buildings, Kevin? I’m also not sure that the natural fertilizer industry has enough product collection positions to accommodate the displaced work force – that being their only other skill set.
“We will continue to review our processes and, if required -”
LOL. You are not a new mom & pop business just figuring out how this all works.
The failure is less that of the reporter than Newsweek in general. Yes, Kwong is obviously ambitious. Getting in digs at Trump is good for her career, so that’s what she did with a portrayal of Trump having a ‘tweeting Thanksgiving.’ But the magazine itself also failed for not having someone on duty 24/7 and tasked with quickly correcting stories when they proved wrong. That would cost money and I suspect money is a bit short at today’s Newsweek. The age of four-color newsweeklies like Time and Newsweek died with the arrival of the Internet. They are a shadow of their former selves. US News hangs on as viable by filling a niche for rankings and the like.
Like the sun comes up in the morning there will be fake news
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