NBC forced to correct false report on suspects in French attack

PASADENA, Calif. – In another instance of a news organization jumping the gun on a fast-moving story, NBC News erroneously reported the capture of two suspects and killing of another in the attack on a French newspaper office and has been forced to issue a correction.

The false report first came on NBC’s flagship “Nightly News” at 6:35 p.m. EST Wednesday and was dialed back over the next few hours. That show’s anchor, Brian Williams, was to explain the error to viewers on Thursday’s broadcast.

NBC reporter Pete Williams credited two U.S. counterterrorism officials as his sources for the report, which appeared online, was tweeted and broadcast on MSNBC at about the same time as “Nightly News.” There was no confirmation from French officials for the report. Pete Williams did the reporting, although Bill Neely delivered the story on “Nightly.”

Pete Williams stayed in contact with his sources, and when doubt emerged, NBC News began hedging. By the third of six separate “Nightly” feeds, sent at 7:30 p.m. EST, Williams said there were contradictory reports. By the time he appeared on Rachel Maddow’s 9 p.m. EST show on MSNBC, Williams explained that his earlier report could not be confirmed.

“The best information we have tonight is that two are still on the loose,” he said.

The episode was reminiscent of the 2013 manhunt for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, when several news organizations erroneously reported that a suspect had been arrested, two days before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody.

NBC, in a statement, said the report was “based on intelligence from two consistently reliable U.S. counterterrorism officials in different government agencies. As soon as it became evident that our sources doubted their information, we immediately updated our reporting across all platforms and continue to do so as this fast-moving story unfolds.”

It’s the latest of a run of embarrassing episodes for NBC News over the past few months, including the brief shelving of medical reporter Nancy Snyderman for violating a quarantine period for Ebola exposure and the firing of an executive overseeing the “Today” show after only two months on the job.