"They were caught red handed, just like lonely Brian Ross at ABC News," President Donald Trump wrote of CNN on Twitter. Trump takes aim at media over reporting errors

President Donald Trump spent the weekend on Twitter moonlighting in one of his favorite jobs: media critic.

During his weekend away from Washington, Trump seized on recent false reports by ABC and CNN along with a erroneous tweet by a Washington Post report as ammunition in his ongoing feud with the "fake news" media. These mistakes, which the reporters and news organizations corrected, were portrayed by the president of examples of journalists who are "out of control" and whose mistakes are a "stain on America."


"They are out of control — correct reporting means nothing to them," Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. "Major lies written, then forced to be withdrawn after they are exposed ... a stain on America!"

Trump added that the reports are "purposely false and defamatory."

The president has personally called for the Washington Post to fire the reporter in question, Dave Weigel, who tweeted out a photo of a sparse crowd for Trump's Friday event in Florida. Trump said that picture was taken early in the evening and demanded the tweet, which had already been taken down, be removed along with an apology and retraction. Weigel promptly apologized.

Earlier Saturday, Trump slammed CNN after the network corrected a report about his son Donald Trump Jr., saying the network made a "vicious and purposeful mistake" in its reporting of emails received by the Trump campaign containing information from WikiLeaks relating to hacked Democratic National Committee documents.

"They were caught red handed, just like lonely Brian Ross at ABC News (who should be immediately fired for his 'mistake')," the president wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning. "Watch to see if @CNN fires those responsible, or was it just gross incompetence?"

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On Friday, in a story billed as an “exclusive,” CNN originally reported that Trump Jr., President Trump and other top Trump campaign officials received an email offer from a man named Michael J. Erickson of a website and decryption key for hacked DNC documents. The timing of the message is crucial as CNN reported Erickson sent the email Sept. 4, 2016, which would have been before WikiLeaks begin releasing another batch of stolen emails on Sept. 13. After The Washington Post reported the correct date was Sept. 14, meaning the email was referencing a batch of already-released documents, CNN and other outlets corrected their reports.

A CNN spokesperson previously told POLITICO that the reporters involved in the latest correction, Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb, would not be disciplined.

“There will not be any disciplinary action taken because every procedure put in place as part of the editorial process was followed,” the spokesperson said. “People don't get fired at CNN for making a mistake. They get fired when they don't follow editorial procedures.”

Trump invoked the CNN correction during a rally in Florida on Friday night as the latest example of "fake news."

"They apologized! Oh, thank you CNN,” he said facetiously. “Thank you so much. You should have been apologizing for the last two years.”

CNN "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter reported Friday night that CNN does not believe that the sources in Raju and Herb's story acted maliciously, but were rather mistaken in their knowledge of the email's date. Some critics have called for the sources to be publicly outed for the error.

In a second jab at the network on Twitter, Trump on Saturday morning said the network should revisit its slogan.

"CNN’S slogan is CNN, THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS," he wrote. "There are many outlets that are far more trusted than Fake News CNN. Their slogan should be CNN, THE LEAST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS!"

Later Saturday, Trump slammed Weigel by name.

"[email protected] @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in," Trump wrote. "Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo!"

Minutes later, Weigel tweeted he was sorry and that he deleted the photo after another journalist pointed out the error to him. (Trump tweeted a screenshot of Weigel's original tweet.)

"Sure thing: I apologize," Weigel wrote. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko [David Martosko, the Daily Mail's political editor] told me I'd gotten it wrong. Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner."

Trump later claimed that Weigel had tweeted out a fake image — the image was not fake, just taken at an earlier point in the rally — and that the Post should fire him for the error.

"[email protected] of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.)," Trump wrote. "FAKE NEWS, he should be fired."

Weigel had previously added: "It was a bad tweet on my personal account, not a story for Washington Post. I deleted it after like 20 minutes. Very fair to call me out."

The spat comes after ABC News suspended reporter Brian Ross over another corrected story last week. Like CNN, ABC incorrectly reported the timing of crucial details. ABC News reported that Trump ordered Michael Flynn, who would become Trump's national security adviser, to contact Russian officials during the presidential campaign. ABC News later corrected its report to say that the order had come during Trump's transition, after the election.

Ross was suspended for one month without pay for the mistake.

Trump has implored those who lost money in the stock market when the market dipped after the Flynn news and ABC's report to sue the news organization.