Far more problematic.
What to say about another emerging ABC News situation? As reported by Politico’s Michael Calderone, ABC News has reprimanded Chris Vlasto, former executive producer of “Good Morning America” — after learning that he had shared proprietary exit-polling data with Team Trump on Election Night. That revelation came from a new book, “Let Trump Be Trump,” by Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, in which they write, “Vlasto had the early exit numbers that the consortium of news networks — the Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News — had collected. The consortium followed eleven battleground states, including Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Trump was down in eight of the eleven states by five to eight points. The news was devastating. A kill shot.”
An ABC News spokesperson passed along this statement: “When we found out about this, we asked [Vlasto] about it. He admitted it and was reprimanded.” And with good reason, considering that consortium members aren’t supposed to leak the numbers to presidential campaigns, or anyone outside their news organizations. Vlasto called Bossie with information just after the consortium lifted its quarantine on the data at 5 p.m. on Election Day, when member organizations were allowed to discuss the numbers in-house.
No word yet on whether Vlasto reprimanded Lewandowski and Bossie for outing him.
The Erik Wemple Blog has rummaged through our attic in search of a box into which to cram this ABC News incident. We pulled out the Mainstream Media Hates Trump box. Didn’t fit. We pulled out the Fox News’s Latest Outrage box. No fit. We pulled out the Boneheaded Reporter box. Again, not quite right. The box problem explains why this particular story — involving line-crossing by a major media outlet — hasn’t caught fire in the follow-up world. Sure, The Hill has aggregated it, but The Hill aggregates personnel moves at the Northwest Current. A couple of others as well.
Along with its reprimand, ABC News might consider thanking Vlasto for not sharing the data with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Had he done so, there would be presidential tweets and coverage from every outlet across the country, and Twitter would have to hatch a subsidiary just to handle the short-form condemnations. Ditto for a scenario in which Fox News shares such data with the Trump people.
What we have here is an extreme form of routine journo-source interaction. They share information and analysis and gossip all the time, though generally not information that is closely guarded and funded by an entire coalition of news organizations. As Calderone notes, Vlasto later held discussions with Trump transition officials about joining the White House team but eventually withdrew. And Vlasto himself has transitioned to a new job at ABC News overseeing investigative efforts, including Ross’s recent, misguided ones.
The Erik Wemple Blog has asked ABC News why a faulty report triggers a four-week suspension, while a case of what appears to be misconduct draws a reprimand. Mind you — a reprimand isn’t nothing, especially when the network publicizes it. Maybe the network has heeded this blog’s warning about the futility of suspensions.