United States News network, ABC has suspended its chief investigative reporter, Brian Ross for four weeks without pay after he was forced to correct a serious error about Donald Trump's former aide, Michael Flynn. The news agency made the suspension known in a statement issued to the general public. The agency regretted the error and stressed that the report had not been vetted before publication.
"We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday. 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. We fell far short of that yesterday," it added.
During the ABC special report on Friday, Ross who cited a single anonymous source told viewers that Flynn was prepared to testify that Donald Trump, as a candidate for president, told him to contact Russians.
Ross later retrieved the statement during the day's 'World News Today' claiming that the source that provided the information for his story later told him that it was after he was elected president and not as a candidate that Trump asked Flynn to contact Russians.
The erroneous news was retweeted over 25, 000 times before it was deleted by ABC.
