FAKE NEWS on Day One: Spicer Scolds Press for TIME Reporter’s False Martin Luther King Bust Story

Twitter/@PressSec
Twitter/@PressSec

White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, scolded TIME magazine White House pool reporter Zeke Miller on Friday for falsely reporting that the Martin Luther King Jr. bust had been removed from the Oval Office after President Donald Trump moved in.

Miller had initially tweeted Friday that the MLK Jr. bust, which then-President Obama put in the Oval Office after removing a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 2009, had been removed from the Oval Office.

Realizing his mistake, Miller tweeted a correction and apologized for spreading the false report:

Miller’s fake news story had already been tweeted by at least one reporter, who had to delete his false report. Miller offered several more apologies to reporters who had quoted his initial report:

Miller also sought Spicer’s forgiveness. “This is on me, not my colleagues. I’ve been doing everything I can to fix my error. My apologies,” Miller wrote:

Moments later, Spicer sent a warning to the media about the “danger of tweet first check facts later”:

As a bonus, Spicer tweeted a photo of the MLK bust in the Oval Office:

President Trump also had the bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill returned to the Oval Office on his first day as President:

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.

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