Shortly after the news circulated that Kobe Bryant was on the helicopter that crashed in Calabasas, California, Sunday, ABC News broke into reports with a special report. Reporter Matt Gutman didn’t just report Bryant’s death, though, and suggested all four of Bryant’s daughters were on the helicopter, shocking viewers.
He said: “The fact that four of his children are believed to be on that helicopter with him, all daughters, one of them a newborn…”
Sadly, one of Bryant’s daughters, Gianna, was on the helicopter, but the ABC News report that all four daughters were on board was wrong.
Has ABC News corrected?
ABC News provided iMediaEthics with its on-air correction for Gutman’s comments.
It read:
“Earlier I reported that it was believed that four of Kobe’s children were on that flight. That is incorrect. Unfortunately this is a horrible tragedy and one of his daughters was on the helicopter at the time. Obviously they’re still working this investigation – the NTSB is coming, the FAA is already on scene. The coroner is going to make the final determination of who exactly was on that plane but again, I apologize for those remarks earlier about Kobe’s family on that helicopter.”