Via his verified Twitter account, CNN’s Jake Tapper accused Republican Benghazi Committee chairman Trey Gowdy of spreading a “falsehood” about CNN’s attempt to reach his committee for comment prior to the network’s airing of a report about a fired Benghazi committee staffer.
In his statement, Gowdy wrote:
Had CNN contacted the Committee regarding its interview with this staffer before it rushed to air his sensationalistic and fabulist claims, it could have fully questioned him about his unsubstantiated claims. But that is the difference between journalism as practiced by CNN, and the fact-centric investigation being conducted by this Committee.
Responding to my tweeting out of the story, Tapper pointed to this specific charge and said flatly, “this is a falsehood.”
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On Sunday, CNN also denied Gowdy’s claim:
We categorically deny Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy’s statement about CNN,” a network spokesperson said. “We reached out to the committee for a response prior to publishing or broadcasting, which the committee provided. That response was included in our reporting. In addition, Chairman Gowdy was invited to discuss this on CNN and declined. Chairman Gowdy is wrong.
A good faith search of the CNN website shows that the initial story published a little after 10 p.m. on Saturday night. Because this particular story has since been updated, there is no way to verify what the original story looked like.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC