ABC Stages Fake Crime Scene

ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis stood in a field in Woodruff, South Carolina, and relayed the gruesome details of how a 30-year-old woman had been held captive in a storage container allegedly by a registered sex offender.

Behind her, yellow police tape with the words "SHERIFF'S LINE DO NOT CROSS" flapped in the wind, indicating the scene of the crime.

In fact, the police tape was tied to ABC News' own equipment just off-camera, a photograph obtained by CNNMoney shows. Sources with knowledge of the matter say the tape was placed there by ABC News for the purpose of its inclusion in the live shot.

The photograph, sent by an anonymous source, shows the tape running no more than 30 feet and tied to camera stands at both sides. In Davis' segment, which was broadcast on ABC's "Good Morning America," it is impossible to tell where the tape ends.

"This action is completely unacceptable and fails to meet the standards of ABC News," Julie Townsend, the vice president of communications at ABC News, told CNNMoney. "As soon as it was brought to our attention, we decided to take the producer out of the field, and we're investigating further."

TVNewser notes the incident follows several recent news media fails. Earlier this week, CNN revealed it had parted ways with Donna Brazile following an incident (and another that followed) in which she gave questions to the Clinton campaign ahead of a primary debate and a town hall on CNN; earlier today, a Virginia jury found a former Rolling Stone reporter, and the magazine, liable in a defamation suit over a now-retracted story about sexual assault at the University of Virginia; and Bret Baier just apologized for suggesting indictments were “likely” in an investigation of the Clinton Foundation.