Californians were given a nasty surprise this week when a particularly alarming report surfaced via ABC News.
The outlet put out an “alert” that the Golden State was officially in the crosshairs of Iranian drones and that Tehran had an itchy trigger finger amid “Operation Epic Fury.”
There was just one major issue with that “alert” — and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt couldn’t let it go unaddressed.
Leavitt took to X to excoriate the report and ask ABC News a rather important question:
This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people.
They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip. The email even… https://t.co/jKey9ahsNk
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 12, 2026
“This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people,” Leavitt posted. “They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip.”
“The email even states the tip was based on *unverified* intelligence,” she continued.
“Yet ABC News left out this critical fact in their story! WHY?” Leavitt asked.
“TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did.”
The New York Post reported that Leavitt further denigrated this report as “reckless” and “completely false.”
Leavitt followed up on that fury by sharing the findings of Ben Williamson, assistant director for public affairs at the FBI.
On the left is the way ABC (or their source) reported the FBI alert.
On the right is the actual FBI alert that went to JTFF partners.
You will notice the word left out —“Unverified.” https://t.co/zSBHObisAI pic.twitter.com/XEZPeNKmDA
— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) March 12, 2026
In the side-by-side screenshots provided by Williamson, you can clearly see that ABC News — whether intentional or not — omitted the very important term “unverified” from its report.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly meanwhile called this incident out as being emblematic of a much larger problem throughout the establishment media.
Outlets like @ABC have been playing fast and loose despite many Americans relying on them for solid, factual reporting during this conflict.
Reporters’ desire to be first with a “scoop” (and this wasn’t one) cannot supersede their duty to responsibly inform the public. https://t.co/20NK2h2kRj
— Anna Kelly (@AnnaKelly47) March 12, 2026
“Outlets like [ABC News] have been playing fast and loose despite many Americans relying on them for solid, factual reporting during this conflict,” Kelly posted. “Reporters’ desire to be first with a ‘scoop’ (and this wasn’t one) cannot supersede their duty to responsibly inform the public.”
As for Leavitt’s demand that ABC News retract the story, the outlet chose to instead simply add an editor’s note blaming the FBI for the snafu, and update the relevant quote to include the word “unverified.”
(Of note, those are the only two references to “unverified” in the entire report.)
“Editor’s note: The FBI has posted a fuller version of its alert to California authorities, which includes that the information was unverified. The latest version of this story has been updated with the full statement,” ABC News’ article now reads at the top.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
