NBC News correspondent Luke Russert and Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson seemingly got ahead of the news this afternoon, reporting that Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) had died, when in fact he is gravely ill.
Russert tweeted the news at 1:54 PM, garnering numerous retweets from other NBC News reporters.
Carlson reported the news on-air at 2:05 PM as a “Fox News Alert.” Politico has the video.
Shortly thereafter, Young’s family revealed that he was “gravely ill” and in the hospital, but that he was not, in fact, dead. Russert tweeted an “Update” with the family’s statement at 2:37 PM, and Fox News ran a correction at 2:23 PM.
“I am really sorry to report that earlier we did report that Congressman Bill Young had passed away, and we can now report that was not the case,” Carlson said. “We sincerely apologize for the error, hopefully that will not happen again.”