WFTV Issues Multiple Apologies Over Series of Reports About One Man

By Kevin Eck 

wftv_apologyWFTV has gone to great lengths to make sure viewers understand how sorry they are over mistakes made while reporting about Tim Davis, Sr.

“We have a correction to make this evening. It concerns Tim Davis, Sr., the former Orlando police officer who was acquitted of his son’s murder in February last year,” said Martie Salt, anchor for the Orlando ABC affiliate, in the 6:00 p.m. version of the apology.

WFTV news director Matt Parcell told Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel the apology was read nine times in all.

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The correction went on to say in 2012, WFTV reported Davis had been accused in the past of domestic violence by two different women. In May 2013, they said police were investigating Davis for allegedly interfering with a child abuse investigation. Both reports were incorrect.

In addition, while reporting that one of Davis’s day care center employees had been charged with child abuse, an WFTV reporter showed the wrong day care center. The charges in that investigation were later dropped.

“The errors were brought to our attention, and we corrected them as soon as we possibly could,” Parcell told the Sentinel.

Parcell said it was a coincidence that the flawed reports all focused on one person: former Orlando police officer Timothy Davis Sr., who was acquitted in February of murder in the fatal shooting of his son.

Parcell said he wouldn’t discuss who had done the reporting.

Here’s the text of the complete apology from WFTV’s 6:00 p.m. news:

“We have a correction to make this evening. It concerns Tim Davis, Sr., the former Orlando police officer who was acquitted of his son’s murder in February last year. In 2012 we reported that Davis had been accused of domestic violence in the past by two different women. Our report was incorrect. Davis has never been accused of domestic violence. Last year we also reported on May 17th and May 18th that Apopka police were investigating whether charges should be filed against Davis for allegedly interfering in a child abuse investigation. By that time police determined no charges would be filed and Davis had not done anything criminal. Finally, in some of our May reports we showed the wrong day care. The child abuse investigation involved a day care owned by Davis located at North Park avenue. Our reporter did his report in front of another day care owned by Davis located on South McGee avenue. Late last year, the criminal charges against that employee at the North Park avenue day care were dismissed by prosecutors.  We apologize to Davis and his day cares for these errors.”

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