President Donald Trump, apparently claiming to speak for “millions” of offended people, is demanding an apology from Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger. Trump, playing the victim, had expressed anger Wednesday, saying he deserved an apology like Valerie Jarrett got from Iger after Roseanne Brr’s racist tweet. On Thursday, Trump doubled down, but also made an embarrassing error.
“Iger, where is my call of apology?” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “You and ABC have offended millions of people, and they demand a response. How is Brian Ross doing? He tanked the market with an ABC lie, yet no apology. Double Standard!”
Disney owns ABC.
The president’s attack seemed to suggest that “millions of people” were offended by the firing of Roseanne Barr and the cancelation of her show, but that is unclear.
What is clear is Trump appears to be referring to is a late 2017 ABC News report by Brian Ross, which the network was forced to correct. Ross had reported that candidate Trump had asked Michael Flynn to contact the Russians.
That report was incorrect. ABC News corrected the record within hours, and the following day suspended Ross for four weeks, and apologized.
“We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday,” ABC News said December 2. “The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process.”
“As a result of our continued reporting over the next several hours ultimately we determined the information was wrong and we corrected the mistake on air and online.”
“It is vital we get the story right and retain the trust we have built with our audience — these are our core principles,” the statement added. “We fell far short of that yesterday.”
Apparently the president thinks he deserves a personal apology.
Trump is literally equating an erroneous news story with a racist, personal attack.
Trump has not condemned Barr’s racist, anti-Semitic attacks, and anti-Muslim attacks.