The Daily Beast recently issued a significant correction concerning its report on an alleged impersonation of an interview with former President Donald Trump.
The initial article by The Daily Beast suggested that Real America’s Voice owner Robert J. Sigg had stated that an investigation was in progress regarding the Trump interview conducted by John Solomon and Amanda Head. This article also quoted Sigg criticizing the network’s staff.
“[The story] has been updated to remove quotes attributed to the owner of Real America’s Voice, Robert Sigg, saying he is investigating whether the call was a prank and criticizing network staffers,” the editor’s note reveals. “A Daily Beast reporter had a conversation by text with a person who identified themselves as Sigg, on a number public records show was once associated with Sigg—but a spokesperson for Real America’s Voice said that it was not Sigg and is not his current number.”
The Daily Beast had previously speculated that the Trump phone interview might have been conducted with a prankster or an AI due to the glitchy connection and voice. Contrary to this speculation, Trump shared a clip from the interview on Truth Social where he stated, “crooked Joe Biden is the most incompetent President in history, and he’s the most corrupt President in history.”
“These are all scurrilous lies in a fake quote that The Daily Beast never received from our network,” a spokesperson for Real America’s Voice said in a statement to the Daily Caller. “Ironically, in a story they wrote about RAV being duped, it was The Daily Beast in fact that may have been ‘punked’ into believing they had a qualified quote from us. We have subsequently demanded an immediate retraction from The Daily Beast, requested that they preserve all records related to their ‘reporting’ on this story, and informed them that our legal counsel will be in contact about our next steps in this matter. All options are on the table.”
John Solomon took to X to express his concerns, stating that the story was “false and defamatory” and “concocted from the theater of the absurd.” He further emphasized that the quotes attributed to Sigg were not genuine and questioned the duration it would take for The Daily Beast to retract the story.
The Daily Beast had previously quoted Sigg stating, “This is a major oversight by John and Amanda both. Our news directors will need to go through additional training about journalism practice and how to present the facts and truth to the American people.”
