It’s a perfect example of the state of modern journalism. A “National Politics Reporter” for The Daily Beast set out to dunk on an interview John Solomon did with former President Donald Trump at Real America’s Voice, suggesting that the voice on the phone was either an impersonator or AI, and ended up getting punked himself.

“Journalist” Zachary Petrizzo wrote an article published at The Daily Beast on Friday with the headline “MAGA Network Investigating Whether Hosts Were Duped by Fake Trump.” The subhead, which included the tagline “Major Oversight,” went on to claim, “While the owner of Real America’s Voice believes an impersonator fooled the channel, pro-Trump journalist John Solomon insists that it was ‘definitely’ Trump on the line.” The original version of the article is archived here.

The opening paragraphs of the article, in addition to disparaging the channel and Solomon, claim that they were “fooled” by a trump impersonator:

The owner of fringe-right channel Real America’s Voice is investigating whether pro-Trump journalist John Solomon and his co-host Amanda Head were fooled on Thursday night by a prank caller purporting to be former President Donald Trump.

Solomon, a former Fox News contributor and a key architect of Trump’s Ukraine conspiracy that led to the ex-president’s first impeachment, boasted on Thursday night that the little-watched network had scored an “exclusive” phone interview with Trump. However, immediately after the conversation began, it was clear that something wasn’t right.

Petrizzo claimed that “The caller’s voice sounded choppy, stilted and artificial, and at times throughout the nearly 17-minute interview, the so-called Trump appeared to glitch and cut out. After clips of the interview were shared on social media by Solomon and Real America’s Voice, criticism and speculation began pouring in—including from many prominent conservatives —that this was definitely not the ex-president and appeared to be an AI program.”

Recommended: The Top 3 Censored Topics in America in 2023

He added:

Robert J. Sigg, the owner of the network, told The Daily Beast on Thursday night that the “Trump” on the call sounded “like ChatGOP” to him and that “an internal investigation will be needed” into whether his hosts were duped.

“This is not the company values that the American people tune in for,” Sigg added. “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.”

He went on to share a bunch of tweets from people who also thought the interview sounded odd (for the record, it did sound a little odd) to back up his premise that Solomon got fooled by a fake interview. Trump, for his part, shared a portion of the interview on Truth Social early Friday morning.

That’s when things got really weird. It turns out that Petrizzo was duped by text messages that were not actually from Sigg. The Daily Beast has since made significant changes to the article, including this note at the top of the story:

Editor’s Note: This 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. 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.

Solomon tweeted this morning: “The Daily Beast has been told by Real America’s Voice that its employees did not interview Rob Sigg, the quotes attributed to him are false and there is no investigation. How long before @thedailybeast retracts this false and defamatory story concocted from the theater of the absurd.”

In an interesting twist, Daily Beast “Senior Media Reporter” Justin Baragona’s byline was removed from the article. I guess he didn’t want the stench of the bad reporting associated with his name. The article was garbage to begin with and should have been retracted rather than scrubbed, but this kind of dishonest reporting is what we’ve come to expect from left-wing media sources. Petrizzo will probably get a raise and a promotion and be feted at all the cool Daily Beast raves.