NBC News remained silent Thursday morning regarding whether or not MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell will face disciplinary action after being forced to apologize and retract a singled-sourced, unverified report — which bypassed the network’s standards — claiming President Trump possibly had loans cosigned by Russian oligarchs.
O’Donnell admitted on Wednesday that he aired information that “wasn’t ready for reporting” and broke NBC News regulations in the process.
“I did not go through the rigorous verification and standards process here at MSNBC before repeating what I heard from my source,” O’Donnell said. “Had it gone through that process, I would not have been permitted to report it. I should not have said it on air or posted it on Twitter. I was wrong to do so.”
So O’Donnell did not go through the “rigorous verification and standards process”?
Imagine your airline saying the pilot did not go through the “rigorous verification and standards process” and crashed the plane that your family was in. Or the doctor operating on your relative. Or the lawyer writing your loan agreement.
By any professional standard, MSNBC should dismiss O’Donnell and make an example of his reckless behavior.
In fact, it could be the best thing that could happen to the media. It would send a message that sources must be verified, especially if they are telling you something “too good to be true” about President Trump.
MSNBC’s problem is that it’s trained its audience to expect something bizarre every night about Trump. It’s time for NBC to realize that this is not really a cable news network anymore.
