ABC News Clears Debat; Changes Hiring Practice

I have written about Alexis Debat and ABC News before because it is such an odd story in the mainstream news media –

After two internal investigations, ABC News says it has found that anti-terrorism consultant Debat did no false reporting as the network had originally alleged.

The network’s explanation is ambiguous and deftly dances around the issue of whether Debat’s editorial input was bogus or not — “None of these discrepancies would rise to the level of a formal, on-air retraction because none of them was material to the substance of our report,” according to David Westin, president of ABC News.

Nonetheless, the company says it is changing its hiring practices regarding consultants.