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NBC News Incorrectly Labels Menendez a Republican Before Correcting Article Hours Later

Bob Menendez
Bob Menendez / Getty Images
September 6, 2017

NBC News published an article on Wednesday that incorrectly labeled Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), who is currently in federal court facing bribery charges, as a Republican.

NBC styled Menendez as a Republican in the lede of the article, before labeling him a Democrat at the end of the introductory paragraph, the Daily Caller reported.

The article appears to be a wire from the Associated Press, but the original piece on the AP's website does not feature the mistake, suggesting it was added in by NBC.

It took NBC over two hours to offer a correction to the article, in which the outlet wrote, "An earlier version of this article misstated the party affiliation of Menendez. He is a Democrat, not a Republican."

This is not the first time that a media outlet has misstated Menendez's political affiliation. The New York Times completely left out Menendez's political affiliation in its article on his corruption trial, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

In an article nearly 1,300 words long on Menendez's federal bribery trial, the first one for a sitting U.S. senator in 36 years, writer Nick Corasaniti initially did not mention once that Menendez is a Democrat.

 After several complaints from Republican Twitter users about the omission of Menendez's party identification, Corasaniti tweeted that it was an "oversight" and said he would make a change to the article.

Menendez is being charged with 12 corruption-related counts, including six counts of bribery, that are tied to his longtime friendship with mega donor Florida ophthalmologist, Dr. Salomon Melgen.