Daily Beast's Romney 'Exclusive' Was Completely Wrong

Now that Mitt Romney told everyone he's not running for president, The Daily Beast has some backtracking and explaining to do. This morning, the site published a piece declaring that Romney would run. There was no grey area; Mitt was 100 percent in. The Daily Beast's Twitter account then went on a rampage, screaming about its "exclusive" (100 percent wrong) report: EXCLUSIVE: ROMNEY RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT http://t.co/Sas0OA8klG pic.twitter.com/Qk4eiRj8RL — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 30, 2015 NEW: Romney at 11AM will tell donors of his intention to explore another presidential run. http://t.co/AIpcIYOUqQ — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 30, 2015 Another reason Mitt's running: Jeb is a joke in Romneyland http://t.co/OWH9676jMi — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 30, 2015 To recap: WRONG, wrong and wrong. That's pretty embarrassing. If you're going to pound your chest about an exclusive report, you better be right. Or at least kind of right. Or be able to see right from a nearby hotel room. The site has now deleted its "Romney Will Run" article and replaced it with text saying that their initial report was incorrect. Nice try! Here's the text from the Daily Beast's original piece: Mitt Romney will call senior donors at 11 a.m. ET Friday to give them 'an update' on his campaign plans. Sources have told The Daily Beast that the former Massachusetts governor will announce his intention to explore a third run for the White House. Romney and his senior aides believe he is the best placed candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton. In a memo sent by Romney to his inner circle Thursday, he highlighted three reasons he should run: He thinks he’s the only qualified Republican in the field, polling is favorable to a win, and he thinks he can do better as a campaigner in 2016. Romney had originally intended to wait until later in the cycle but the bullish entry of Jeb Bush into the field encouraged him to jump early. Huh. The Daily Beast might want to follow up with those sources. And what about that memo? Did that even exist? So far, the only comment on the huge blunder comes from Noah Shachtman, The Daily Beast's executive editor. He tweeted "We had what we thought were strong sources saying Romney was in. They were wrong. But it's on us." Hey, finally we have an accurate statement! The Daily Beast still looks awful for deleting its report instead of adding a correction and explanation. That's Reporting 101. You know, like waiting to publish a news piece until you're absolutely sure it's correct.

Fishbowl

Daily Beast's Romney 'Exclusive' Was Completely Wrong

The Daily Beast has some explaining to do

Chris O'Shea

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Chris O'Shea