Jessica Kwong, the reporter that was put on blast after publishing the inaccurate story about President Trump “Tweeting” and “Golfing” on Thanksgiving has been fired by Newsweek.
I thought Newsweek was out of business? https://t.co/3ro4eSJloo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2019
Newsweek issued the following statement to the Washington Examiner.
Newsweek investigated the failures that led to the publication of the inaccurate report that President Trump spent Thanksgiving tweeting and golfing rather than visiting troops in Afghanistan. The story has been corrected, and the journalist responsible has been terminated. We will continue to review our processes and, if required, take further action.
After being shared by Donald Trump Jr. and President Trump, the story caused a firestorm of backlash for it’s inaccuracy and snarky tone.
Per WashingtonExaminer, hours after the president’s trip was announced, Newsweek edited Kwong’s story and added a note at the bottom of it. The beginning of the story now focuses on the president’s trip and his speech to the troops, while the new headline reads, “How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing — and surprising U.S. troops in Afghanistan.”
The note at the end of the story reads, “This story has been substantially updated and edited at 6:17 p.m. EST to reflect the president’s surprise trip to Afghanistan. Additional reporting by James Crowley.”
Trump headed to Afghanistan to surprise U.S. troops on Thanksgiving https://t.co/f7Xeqz1ZGQ Deleting this tweet because it was written before knowing about the president’s surprise visit to Afghanistan-an honest mistake. Story has already been updated, as shown in the screenshot. pic.twitter.com/g9CfPaV2kQ
— Jessica Kwong (@JessicaGKwong) November 29, 2019
UPDATE: Kwong has put some of the blame on her Newsweek editor.
Newsweek has not answered questions about the editor’s status.
Kwong told the Washington Examiner that she was assigned to write a story on what Trump was doing on Thanksgiving. The next day, Kwong reached out to the editor on duty and relayed the president’s latest actions, after which the story was published. When the president’s trip to Afghanistan was announced, that editor then decided to assign another reporter to write a new story about it but neglected to update Kwong’s original piece in a timely manner.