Can you imagine if all reporters who wrote “speculative” news about President Donald Trump were fired?

Places like CNN and The New York Times would be ghost towns, as I see it.

Newsweek fired Jessica Kwong, who seemed to write a hit piece to make Trump appear lazy and uncaring about his job as president.

Related: Why Newsweek Was Wrong About Trump

But the piece had some key details wrong.

Trump flew to Afghanistan as a surprise visit to our U.S. troops there — he did not stay behind in Florida to “tweet and play golf,” as her original piece claimed.

When the president’s trip became known, the publication had to edit and update the story — and put out a statement about it, as The Washington Examiner noted.

Now the publication has canned the reporter.

Kwong’s primary job was to be on top of Trump’s White House actions — but she thought she could slip in what was basically a hit piece, in my view.

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Here’s how The Washington Examiner explained what happened:

The Newsweek reporter who published an inaccurate story about President Trump’s Thanksgiving Day plans has been fired. The outlet’s original story claimed the president only planned on tweeting and golfing during his holiday break, neglecting to mention his trip to Afghanistan.

Newsweek’s Jessica Kwong, whose Twitter handle identifies her as a political reporter “covering Trump administration and family,” initially published the article Thursday morning, before the president’s trip to Afghanistan was announced publicly. The story’s initial headline was, “How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing and more.”

“Newsweek investigated the failures that led to the publication of the inaccurate report that President Trump spent Thanksgiving tweeting and golfing rather than visiting troops in Afghanistan,” a Newsweek representative told the Washington Examiner.

“The story has been corrected, and the journalist responsible has been terminated. We will continue to review our processes and, if required, take further action.” (source: The Washington Examiner)

The “reporter” was fired — but why not the editor?

A good editor would not have let a story like that get posted without taking steps to verify it.

And once again, Newsweek fired a reporter?

I have to give them a little credit for that because it’s something few other media outlets would have done.

Some outlets would have merely “stealth-deleted” it.

I think too many journalists today approach a subject with preconceived notions or minds made up — and try to look for details that confirm their position.

We saw this with the Jussie Smollett case, the Covington Catholic kids’ story, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings — and so much more.

A version of this piece by Wayne Dupree originally appeared in The Political Insider; this article is used by permission.

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