3 American journalists resign after writing on Russia, Trump campaign

Washington, June 28 (IANS) Three journalists of American news channel CNN, including the head of the investigative unit, resigned after writing a story about members of President Donald Trump's electoral campaign having financial ties with Russia.

Reporter Thomas Frank, editor Eric Lichtblau and the executive editor of CNN's investigative unit, Lex Haris, presented their resignations, which the TV channel accepted, Efe news reported.

Trump spread the news on his Twitter account with the words: "Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!"

Trump, who has never moderated his tweets since taking office, at the same time slammed other reputable media like The New York Times, The Washington Post and television channels NBC, CBS and ABC for also publishing "fake news" about his administration.

A spokesman for the TV channel had announced that "in the aftermath of the retraction of a story published on CNN.com, CNN has accepted the resignations of the employees involved in the story's publication".

According to CNN, the story published on June 20 did not comply with the standards of quality, precision and exhaustive reviews imposed by the editorial department, particularly because it was based on a single anonymous source.

The story said that Congress was investigating the ties of a Russian investment fund with Trump officials, including Anthony Scaramucci, adviser to the US President.

Such investigative reports are expected to be reviewed at several editorial levels, fact-checked and passed through a filter of other journalists and editors, as well as of company lawyers.

The story was published only on the Web, not on the TV news channel, and all links to it have been deactivated.