ABC News Stands By Hastert Report; Ross Cites “Disconnect” & “Semantics Issue”

On Thursday’s World News Tonight, Brian Ross updated viewers on the story he broke Wednesday: That Dennis Hastert “was among those whose dealings with Jack Abramoff the FBI has been looking into.” According to Hotline, Elizabeth Vargas “spoke of a ‘storm of reaction'” about the original report. Ross’s update recognized that “ABC News was denounced by his Republican colleagues” on the House floor Thursday morning. But he said ABC News stands by its report.

In Friday’s WP, Howard Kurtz recaps the issue and talks to Ross. “I think our story is accurate,” he says. “We’ve gone back to our sources, and they believe what we reported was accurate as they knew it. There seems to be some disconnect between what the congressman thinks, what the Justice Department thinks and what the FBI thinks… There may be a semantics issue here as to what constitutes being under investigation.”