UPDATE, 6:04 p.m. PT: President Donald Trump chimed in on ABC News’ apology for airing a video it initially said was footage of a bombing in northern Syria when it was in fact from a Kentucky gun demonstration.
He connected the error to the network’s planned interview with Hunter Biden on Tuesday.
Trump wrote, “A big scandal at @ABC News. They got caught using really gruesome FAKE footage of the Turks bombing in Syria. A real disgrace. Tomorrow they will ask softball questions to Sleepy Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, like why did Ukraine & China pay you millions when you knew nothing? Payoff?”
PREVIOUSLY, 10 a.m. PT: ABC News removed a video that purported to show a Turkish attack in northern Syria after questions were raised about its similarity to footage of a 2017 military gun show in Kentucky.
The video was shown on World News Tonight on Sunday and Good Morning America on Monday. But Gizmodo compared the video shown on ABC and the gun show clip uploaded to YouTube and concluded that “it’s clear that the videos are the same.” The video aired on the network appeared to be a blurry version of much sharper YouTube footage.
ABC News issued a correction on Monday in which it said that “we’ve taken down video that aired on World News Tonight Sunday and Good Morning America this morning that appeared to be from the Syrian border immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy. ABC News regrets the error.”
According to Gizmodo, far-right social media figures began to question the authenticity of the video and its similarity to the 2017 footage. In the video, senior foreign correspondent Ian Pannell made clear that the video was obtained by ABC News and not shot by network news personnel.
ABC News is conducting an investigation into the matter, according to a source, who said that the video was obtained from a reliable source on the ground but that it was difficult to verify because of border and security concerns.
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