ABC News has pulled a producer from the field after CNN’s Dylan Byers caught the network potentially faking a crime scene for the purpose of making a live shot appear more dramatic.
“This action is completely unacceptable and fails to meet the standards of ABC News,” the division’s vice president of communications said in a statement. “As soon as it was brought to our attention, we decided to take the producer out of the field, and we’re investigating further.”
According to Byers, CNN received a photograph from an anonymous source that showed the yellow police tape behind Eva Pilgrim’s hit about a gruesome crime was actually tied to ABC News’ own equipment just off camera.
"This action is completely unacceptable and fails to meet the standards of ABC News… We are investigating further” https://t.co/NNx2MdDdPe pic.twitter.com/YrQYBqdzFZ
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) November 4, 2016
“Sources with knowledge of the matter say the tape was placed there by ABC News for the purpose of its inclusion in the live shot,” Byers wrote.
The shot ran Friday morning on “Good Morning America” and featured Davis standing in front of the yellow tape while providing details of a registered sex offender holding a woman captive in a storage container in Woodruff, South Carolina.
The yellow police tape appeared to be part of a typical crime scene on “GMA” and viewers had no indication that it was actually tied to two pieces of ABC News equipment.