ABC News Apologizes for Inaccurate Lower Third: ‘Manafort Pleads Guilty to 5 Charges of Manslaughter’

By A.J. Katz 

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort did what??

That’s what many ABC viewers were probably thinking when the lower third of an ABC News special report during the 12 p.m. ET hour read: “MANAFORT PLEADS GUILTY TO 5 CHARGES OF MANSLAUGHTER.”

But that isn’t true. Manafort is in jail awaiting trial on a number of charges including money laundering and making false statements, but nothing to do with manslaughter.

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The graphic (above right) stayed up on screen from 12:21:30 p.m. – 12:21:37 p.m. ET, before the producers apparently figured out what happened, and transitioned to the chyron below, one with a headline far more pertinent to the topic at hand: President Trump making comments on immigration and the separation of children from their parents at the border.

ABC News, to its credit, apologized for the bizarre and inaccurate graphic.

 

Update: Looks like someone else caught wind of the mistake … four hours after the fact:

 

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