PBS correspondent Judy Woodruff apologized on X on Wednesday for comments she made during the network's coverage of the DNC convention on Monday that suggested former President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay a ceasefire with Hamas so that it wouldn't look good for the Kamala Harris campaign.

I want to clarify my remarks on the PBS News special on Monday night about the ongoing cease fire talks in the Middle East. As I said, this was not based on my original reporting; I was referring to reports I had read, in Axios and Reuters, about former President Trump having…

— Judy Woodruff (@JudyWoodruff) August 21, 2024

Woodruff admitted that she did not have her own sources for the comments, but based them on reports from Axios and Reuters.

"The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the prime minister of Israel urging him not to cut a deal right now because it's believed that would help the Harris campaign," Woodruff said on Monday.

More accusations

Woodruff's comments led to accusations that Trump had violated the Logan Act, which bars a normal U.S. citizen who is not a government official from negotiating with a foreign government, even as Israel stated unequivocally that no conversation with Trump took place.

By the time Woodruff made the comments, Axios and Reuters had already updated their stories to reflect the debunking of the narrative four days earlier.

She should have known better, but apparently it was too tempting to try to "get" Trump on yet another thing.

"In the live TV moment, I repeated the story because I hadn’t seen later reporting that both sides denied it. This was a mistake, and I apologize for it," she said.

Being four days behind on a story is just plain sloppy for a journalist, though.

Calling her out

A lot of times, mainstream media journalists like Woodruff are able to get away with false narratives and smear conservatives up and down without anyone calling them out.

As soon as Woodruff made her comments, though, she was called out by her former CNN colleague Greta Van Susteren.

Van Susteren said, “My former colleague @JudyWoodruff knows better than to make such an electrifying statement about Trump and Netanyahu and not source…”

“if it is true, then just source it…we can all deal w/ the truth..not to source is just gossip and not journalism..it is national enquirer,” she added.

Woodruff's apology was a major mea culpa from an outlet trying to prove that it is neutral, but from the looks of it, PBS has a long way to go.