CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell is rankling journalists at CBS News with her tweets about former President Donald Trump’s passports, with some griping that she played it fast and loose according to CBS News’ reporting standards, reports The NY Post.
O’Donnell tweeted Monday that she had been told by a “DOJ official” that the FBI was “not in possession” of Trump’s three passports, which contradicted the former president’s statement that his travel documents were taken by FBI agents who searched his Florida home last week.
But the anchor attributed the information to a single source — a big no-no at CBS News, which has a strict two-source protocol, angry CBS sources told The Post. They added that the tweets also made it sound like O’Donnell was calling a former president a “liar.”
“This is an embarrassment for CBS that the face of the your network can’t even make a second call to a Justice Department rep,” one livid source said. “It’s journalism 101.”
The FBI had returned the documents earlier in the afternoon, according to now-public correspondence between Trump’s camp and the DOJ.
In a written statement to The Post, a CBS rep defended O’Donnell’s series of tweets.
“Donald Trump publicly alleged that his passports were ‘stolen’ and in the hands of the FBI. As part of the normal reporting process, our reporters inquired with the DOJ about whether they had Donald Trump’s passports,” a CBS rep said in a statement to The Post.
“They replied that they did not,” the rep added. “Our reporting reflected that; it was true then and it is true now that the FBI was not in possession of his passports at the time. And as the tweet thread makes clear, any items that were not contained in the warrant would be returned.”
“It’s still bad journalism,” the source punched back. “She didn’t ask if the passports were ever in their possession. She didn’t say ‘no longer in possession.'”
Semantics aside, the source said: “She’s desperate. It doesn’t look good. If you’re going to attack the POTUS and call him a liar you shouldn’t tweet the thing.”
CBS insiders explained that generally, any news reported by the news division must be confirmed by at least two people or else it is in violation of the network’s standards & practices rules.
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