Tipsheet

Five Journalists and Pundits Who Totally Botched The "Ivanka Fund" Story

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported the Saudi government will donate $100 million dollars to the World Bank's Women's Entrepreneurs Fund. Key words: World Bank. White House advisor and President Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump has been vocal about the importance of the fund and supportive of its mission. From the piece

The World Bank announced Sunday at an event with Ivanka Trump, the U.S. president’s daughter and senior White House adviser, that Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have pledged a combined $100 million to a fund that will assist women entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Ms. Trump has made the promotion of women entrepreneurs a signature part of her focus since her father’s inauguration in January. She has advocated for issues such as paid family leave, though the issue has gained little traction in Congress. While she had proposed the idea of the World Bank fund, Ms. Trump doesn’t control it or raise money for it, one person familiar with the plans said.

A number of members of the media, including journalists and pundits, didn't bother reading about the details and falsely claimed the Saudi government was giving the money to a fund run and owned by Ivanka herself. Calling it the "Ivanka Fund," they went so far as comparing the donation to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's abuse of her public office to raise money for the Clinton Foundation. 

The problem? The two aren't remotely comparable and yet this false assumption was proliferated to hundreds-of-thousands, if not millions of people. 

Here's a handy list of some folks who helped spread the false story:

1. CNN's Ana Navarro

2. CNBC's John Harwood

3.CNN's Jim Sciutto

4. MSNBC's Kyle Griffin

5. Author Bruce Bartlett

Corrections have not been issued.

As Cortney reported earlier, WSJ Contributor Sohrab Ahmari did his best to push back with the truth.