ABC News Stumbles in Report on Tony Scott\'s Suicide

August 20, 2012, 10:53 pm

By BROOKS BARNES

ABC News appears to have stumbled on flawed reporting for the second time in a month.

Late Monday, ABC backed off an earlier report saying that Tony Scott, the movie director who committed suicide on Sunday, had inoperable brain cancer. ABC attributed the information â€" quickly picked up around the globe, often crediting ABC - to “a source close to Scott.”

But after TMZ.com and other news outlets, including a local ABC station in Los Angeles, reported that Mr. Scott's family was not aware of any cancer, ABC News posted an updated article on its Web site: “Tony Scott Brain Cancer Report Appears in Doubt.”

An ABC spokeswoman said the updated information “will also be included on air i n the next show up â€" our overnight news show, ‘World News Now' â€" and on ‘Good Morning America.'”

On July 20, an ABC reporter falsely linked the man accused of killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theater to a statewide Tea Party organization. The news division and the reporter, Brian Ross, later apologized for the error, which was made in an off-the-cuff manner on “Good Morning America.”