AP’s first news showed a picture that the missile that hit Poland had been fired by Russia. The news spread to the media around the world.
17:01•Updated 19:08
The US news agency Associated Press, or AP, has fired a reporter who wrote a news story that gave incorrect information about a missile crash in Poland last week.
The matter is reported, among other things, by a US newspaper The Washington Post (you are moving to another service).
The news spread widely around the world and gave the impression that Russia was behind the missile crash.
AP was the first to report on the missile crash. The first news was based on an unnamed US intelligence official, who said that Russian missiles hit the NATO country of Poland and killed two people.
AP’s news spread to numerous media around the world. also cited AP’s information in its first news about the missile crash.
Since then, the information has been proven to be most obviously wrong, as NATO, Poland and the United States consider it likely that Poland was hit by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile.
The news caused concerns about the escalation of the war, as Poland is a NATO country.
The official investigation into the case is still ongoing.
The next day AP did repair (you switch to another service) to the news. The correction stated that the source was wrong and it has turned out that the missiles were Russian-made and probably fired by Ukraine as the country defended itself against a Russian attack.
Apparently a misunderstanding in the delivery
According to the Washington Post, the news was written by a 35-year-old James LaPorta. He is a former Marine who worked as a freelancer for several years before joining AP in 2020.
The Washington Post has seen AP’s internal communications regarding the publication of the news.
A question had arisen in the editorial office, whether another confirmation should be obtained for the news. On the other hand, the editorial team thought that it would be strange if the US intelligence agency was wrong.
According to information from the Washington Post, LaPorta would have said that a person working in management positions in the editorial office had already checked his source, leaving the impression that the use of the news source had already been approved.
It was apparently a misunderstanding. The person in question had approved LaPorta’s previous news stories that used the same source, but had not commented on the missile news.
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