Long-time PBS host Judy Woodruff has apologized for spreading unverified reports about Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the Associated Press, Woodruff had cited a story from Axios and Reuters claiming that Trump encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay ceasefire talks until after November’s U.S. election.
PBS’s Democratic National Convention coverage on Monday repeated the accusations without evidence.
The New York Times reports Woodruff released a statement calling her actions, which she said were based on Axios and Reuters reporing, “a mistake.”
“In the live TV moment, I repeated the story because I hadn’t seen later reporting that both sides denied it,” her statement said. “This was a mistake, and I apologize for it.”
“This was a mistake, and I apologize for it,” Woodruff wrote.
The journalist, long a feature at the taxpayer-funded PBS, admitted that her remarks were not founded on any original reporting or investigation of her own. She explained that she had failed to take into account denials from both Israel and the Trump campaign regarding the truthfulness of the news reports.
I want to clarify my remarks on the PBS News special on Monday night about the ongoing cease fire talks in the Middle East. As I said, this was not based on my original reporting; I was referring to reports I had read, in Axios and Reuters, about former President Trump having…
— Judy Woodruff (@JudyWoodruff) August 21, 2024
“The only thing President Trump has told the prime minister is ‘to get the war over with,’” said Steven Cheung, the Trump communications director. “Any assertion otherwise is fake news.”
The reporting promulgated by PBS, Reuters and Axios are similar to speculation ahead of the 2020 election about Trump and Russia which networks belatedly admitted were not true in 2022.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice