NBC News Embroiled in Fake News Controversy

Business Insider reports: “NBC News came under fire Sunday morning for a pair of tweets that removed context from an answer Reince Priebus, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for White House chief of staff, offered on the idea of a Muslim registry.

Priebus appeared “Meet the Press” and was asked by host Chuck Todd if he could rule out the idea of placing Muslims on a registry.

Here was the exchange:

TODD: Can you equivocally rule out a registry for Muslims?

PRIEBUS: Look, I’m not going to rule out anything. But, we are not going to have a registry based on religion.”

Despite Reince obviously assuring Chuck Todd that there would NOT be a registry based on religion, NBC chopped and edited his quote in the worst possible way, then tweeted about it:

"Can you rule out a registry for Muslims?" asks @ChuckTodd.

"I'm not going to rule out anything…" says @Reince on @MeetThePress #MTP

— NBC News PR (@NBCNewsPR) November 20, 2016

WATCH: WH Chief of Staff @Reince “not going to rule out anything” when asked about a possible Muslim registry. #MTPhttps://t.co/pSd0PZCuaa

— NBC News PR (@NBCNewsPR) November 20, 2016

Oliver Darcey of Business Insider continues:

“The tweets quickly faced criticism.

“This quote is in fact opposite of what PR tweet indicates,” tweeted Maggie Haberman, a political correspondent for The New York Times.

Charlie Warzel, a senior technology writer for BuzzFeed, called it an “irresponsible half-quote w/o even a link for context.”

Others flooded the NBC News account with messages calling the tweets “misleading” and “dishonest.”

A representative for NBC News declined to say whether the media organization would issue a retraction, but the Twitter account dug its heels in the sand in a reply to Haberman.”