‘As usual, dishonest reporting. Even mainstream media embarrassed!’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Some see Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as a man of exemplary valor and honor who has been the unfortunate victim of activists’ efforts to prosecute the past.
Others see Lee as a brilliant military tactician whose personal ethics were tarnished by his tolerance of the defining issue of the era: slavery.
For President Donald Trump, ultimately he may be only one thing—a loser—but that didn’t stop NBC News from deceptively editing a video to claim Trump was celebrating Lee during a recent rally in Ohio, despite fact he was actually toasting Lee’s opponent, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
WATCH: President Trump says “Robert E. Lee was a great general” during Ohio rally, calling the Confederate leader “incredible.” pic.twitter.com/HhsLI1Mk05
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 13, 2018
Although Trump did call Lee a “great general,” it was in context of a story about how the unlikely Ohio native Grant overcame the odds to win the Civil War.
Trump savaged the peacock network’s post, saying “NBC News has totally and purposely changed the point and meaning of my story … Was actually a shoutout to warrior Grant and the great state in which he was born. As usual, dishonest reporting. Even mainstream media embarrassed!
A few hours later, NBC corrected it, with the full clip in context:
CORRECTION: An earlier tweet misidentified the general President Trump described as “incredible” at a rally in Ohio. It was Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, not Gen. Robert E. Lee. An attached video clip lacked the full context for Trump’s remark. Here is the full clip. pic.twitter.com/NZHj3Q2dHL
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 14, 2018
But by time the correction rolled around, many other leftist outlets had picked up the story and used it to spin coverage in order to criticize the president and paint him as racist.
Not all followed NBC in clarifying the earlier reports.