ABC Reporter Pretends Trump Wasn’t Shot While Accepting Award For Assassination Attempt Coverage
ABC News’ Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott promoted the importance of “accuracy” in journalism after winning the White House Correspondents Association award for reporting under deadline pressure on Sunday. The award and $2,500 cash prize was for her live television coverage of the July 13 assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which he was shot in the ear.
“Journalism at its core is the act of bearing witness. We in this room are not just storytellers. We are also witnesses to history, and that comes with a deep responsibility to report with clarity, accuracy and integrity, even moments of panic and distress,” Scott said in the prepared speech she carried to the podium during the annual formal dinner.
Immediately after that, she failed to accurately report what happened in Butler, even though Scott has had months to understand the events of that day.
“Tonight, I want to commend all of the journalists and photographers who did just that on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a campaign rally quickly turned into an attempted assassination of President Trump. Three people were struck by bullets that afternoon. One lost his life shielding his family. Two others suffered life altering injuries.”
She was talking about three Pennsylvania residents who attended the rally and were tragically shot. They are Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania., who was shot and killed; and James Copenhaver of Moon Township and David Dutch of New Kensington, who both received serious injuries.
But four people were struck by a would-be assassin’s bullets that afternoon. Trump was shot in the head. The bullet struck his ear because he miraculously turned his head at just the right moment.
There are iconic photos of Trump’s bleeding ear. Trump was shot that day by a bullet that was within millimeters of changing the course of history, but he did not make Scott’s victim count and a room full of reporters did not correct her.
To be fully accurate, five people were struck by bullets that day if you count the alleged shooter, Thomas Crooks, who was shot and killed by a sniper. We can maybe give Scott a break for failing to count Crooks. Often in mass shootings, the media either does not count the shooter with the victims, or describes it clearly. For example, she could have most precisely said, “Four victims and the alleged shooter were shot.”
Count him or not, the number of people struck by bullets that day was definitely more than three.
Why didn’t Scott count Trump among the people struck by bullets that afternoon? Is he not a person? Does she think he was faking? Does she lack “clarity, accuracy and integrity?”
Or does the propaganda press want the American people to forget that Trump was shot, the Secret Service dropped the ball, and that there are still has unanswered questions?
As time passes, when the story of the Butler rally is retold, reporters who were there must not minimize Trump’s injury or forget to account for him among the victims.
Little changes to the truth may seem small or inadvertent, but this is how to cast doubt on the truth and revise history.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
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