. >> i want to go to brian ross here. looking at investigating the background of jim holmes and found something that might be significant. >> there is a jim holmes of aurora, colorado page on the cairo tea party site as well talking about him joining the tea party last year. we don't know if this is the same jim holmes but it is jim holmes of colorado. >> that was brian ross talking to george stephanopoulos on "good morning america." of course, it was not the jim holmes. on a scale of one to five if five is completely lacking in journalistic credibility where would you put this one? >> six. i mean and here is why. not only did they get it wrong, not only did brian ross use that great journalistic tool of going toll find this guy jim holmes but then they put brian ross that night on abc world news at 6:30 p.m. and did a completely different story about the shooting and never apologized. didn't apologize during the day. owed not only the viewer but also mr. holmes the innocent one a full retraction on the air. this goes int

. >> i want to go to brian ross here.ng at investigating the background of jim holmes and found something that might be significant. >> there is a jim holmes of aurora, colorado page on the

. >> i want to go to brian ross here because have you been looking at investigating the background of jim holmes here you have found something very significant. >> jim holmes of aroar row colorado page. talking about him joining the tea party last year. now we don't know if this is the same jim holmes same jim holmes of aurora, colorado. >> take a look at that thanks very much. >> bill: turned out it wasn't and that story was bogus and abc apologized but the damage, of course was done. >> yeah. this is a big mistake not just on brian ross' part who is a very good reporter normally but also on george stephanopoulos' part. he shouldn't be allowed to get by on this one. the mistake isn't what abc news and a bunch of critics, both on the right and the left say it is. they say the mistake is that he jumped the gun. he he said maybe this is the same jim holmes who was in the aurora tea party. that's not the mistake. the mistake was bringing the tea party into this at all what's the relevance of bringing the tea party into this? its members don't have reputation for shooting up movie theater

abc's brian ross is here. >> in an air of facebook and twitter, no one posted by or about james holmes online. he is a man of mystery. it's very cleerks as his life was in crisis, he began to make plans for his attack. he move colorado last fall. came across as a quiet and easy going college student. but it was a different jim holmes who showed up at this san diego pawnshop asking for tips about firing a gun. >> i immediately recognized him when i saw his picture. i was -- my first words out of my mouth, oh my god, he looks very familiar. >> reporter: last night, at his apartment building heard loud music blaring around midnight from his room, with the recorded u sounds of gunshots. >> knowing i opened the door to his apartment, banging on that door, thank god that he wasn't there. >> and then holmes apparently attempted to make himself into the joker character of the bat machb series. according to a briefing given to the new york police commissioner. >> he had hid hair painted red. he said he was the joker. >> reporter: it was over the last few months that holmes, who was fphi beta ka

abc's chief investigative correspondent brian ross is here this morning. ian, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, dan. authorities will try to figure out what to do today with the booby trapp eped apartment of js holmes. we're also learning that it could have been worse. in fact, his gun jammed at the last minute. he left the gun behind with bullets still in there. bullets that could have killed more people. police say holmes started to assemble his arsenal in may in local gun shops and online. everything bought legally. >> he purchased four guns in the last 60 days at local metro gun shops. and through the internet, he purchased over 6,000 rounds of ammunition. >> reporter: holmes had no criminal record in colorado other than a speeding ticket. police say he began to quitely plan the attack around the same time the phi beta kappa student withdrew from a ph.d. program at the university of colorado. by friday night, he transformed himself into a killer. >> he's a guy that has so left reality, he's now in a make believe world that he's part of the

. >>> pierre thomas covers the justice department and brian ross here. pierre, let me begin with you, we know at least 100 fbi agents on the scene. >> that's right, george. good morning. an army of fbi agents on the scene assisting local law enforcement. the suspect is described as 4 years old. born december 1987. right now, they're searching his car and his home. we're told that he's living in the local area, from the local area, friends, relatives and associates are being interviewed as we speak. ear early indications are no connection to international terrorism or domestic terrorism. the sources that i'm talking to, it looks like a lone wolf scenario. >> we know that he lived in the area for at least a time, do we know for how long? >> again, early stages of the investigation, the fbi officials i'm talking to, say, look, they're trying to talk to friends and relative. again, vacuum cleaning everything they can find out about him. the main thing they did early on is to change databases to see if there any ties to islamic radical terrorism groups. >> br

here by the way. i was shocked that brian ross would wrecklessly and irresponsibly make some connection to the tea party without any basis whatsoever to do so. >> not only is that shocking, from a reporter who should get things 100% right but that he went to the tea party website first to see if there was a connection. i actually think that is almost more interesting and then they get it wrong and then have to be forced to apologize. then they wonder why they have journalism has such a low approval rating. when i was the white house press secretary they used to give us a hard time because of president bush's approval rating. i remember being aed what are you going to do about it. i said there are only two entities in washington that lower approval raidings than george w. bush congress and the media so what are you going to do about it. and they continued to make things worse for themselves and for journalism with things like this. this is not the first time. this happened when congress woman gabrielle giffords was shot. everybody goes to the tea party website to see if there is a connection. i don't kno

here by the way. i was shocked that brian ross would wrecklessly and irresponsibly make some connection to the tea party without any basis whatsoever to do so. >> not only is that shocking, from a reporter who should get things 100% right but that he went to the tea party website first to see if there was a connection. i actually think that is almost more interesting and then they get it wrong and then have to be forced to apologize. then they wonder why they have journalism has such a low approval rating. when i was the white house press secretary they used to give us a hard time because of president bush's approval rating. i remember being asked what are you going to do about it. i said there are only two entities in washington that lower approval raidings than george w. bush congress and the media so what are you going to do about it. and they continued to make things worse for themselves and for journalism with things like this. this is not the first time. this happened when congress woman gabrielle giffords was shot. everybody goes to the tea party website to see if there is a connection. i don't k

here is a part of that report from brian ross. >> reporter: we followed the romney trail of wealth to the cayman islands in the caribbean where he has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in corporations set up here. the caymans are best known as one of the world's great tax havens where secrecy is the rule. >> if you have a cayman corporation, you don't pay any tax to the cayman government. the cayman islands don't report the income that's made to the u.s. government. >> cenk: why would you put your money in the cayman islands? is it to hide it? of course! why else would you put it there? if you didn't want to hide it, why not put it in massachusetts or utah or somewhere in the u.s. who is believing this crap about i didn't mean to hide my money. did i put it in the cayman islands where you can't ask for it? you get a four-year jail sentence if you ask about people's accounts in the cayman islands. golly gee, i don't know how that turned out. we asked another international man of mystery how much money do you think mitt romney's actually worth? >> $100 billion. >> cenk: now obv

here is why. not only did they get it wrong, not only did brian ross use that great journalistic tool of going toll find this guy jim holmes but then they put brian ross that night on abc world news at 6:30 p.m. and did a completely different story about the shooting and never apologized. didn't apologize during the day. owed not only the viewer but also mr. holmes the innocent one a full retraction on the air. this goes into too good to check, couldn't wait, didn't even apologize. >> does nobody stop and think maybe we ought to check this out before we go to air with it? >> that is the interesting question about this episode. everybody makes mistakes but where were the editors? where were the people who would say maybe we ought not to put that on the air whether until we found out whether or not there is another jim holmes which there was whose e-mail was overflowing and whose phone was ringing off the hook and he never got an apology from any one at abc. >> after the gabrielle giffords shoeing there was some effort to pin that event on the tea party sarah palin and the ads she had taken out, all

here's abc's chief investigative correspondent brian ross. >> reporter: for 8-year-old braven blanco, a routine trip to the dentist for a cleaning. >> she wanted pretty teeth. >> reporter: she needed teeth filled and capped. like a dozen children across the country the trip to the dentist would lead to death. >> who thinks they're going to take their daughter to the dentist and never bring her home. >> reporter: again and again, according to a foundation, children have died after their dentist administered sedatives or anesthesia often in dangerous doses. raven got three times what was considered normal for a child her age. [ applause ] >> reporter: a growing number of dentists now routinely sedate children as young as 18 months old for routine cleaning and cavity treatment. saying it makes it easier to treat children who don't fij dg in the chair. experts say there is nothing routine about handling of emergency that can arrive. >> 45 to 60 seconds may be all the time they have to save the child's life. >> reporter: an abc news investigation has found for some dentists the lure is gre

here are few examples. for any of the facts to come out. brian ross on the air and alleged that the shooting suspect could be a member of the tea party. listen to this. >> i want to go to brian ross, you've been investigating the background of jim holmes and there is significant. >> there is jim holmes of aurora on the tea party as well talking about him joining the tea party last year. we don't know if this is the same jim holmes. >> sean: he was absolutely wrong. it was a different jim holmes. they were left to apologize but too little, too late. that is the biggest donor, bill maher, instead of focusing on the tragedy he took a swipe at republicans. he tweeted, quote, right wingers love to tout american exceptionalism. today is a reminder that make an exception is bad. this is not the first time that members of tea party have been falsely blamed to incite tragedies. back in january of 2011 when gabrielle giffords was shot while meeting with her constituents people blamed the tea party movement. in particular sarah palin was blamed for the senseless

police released the shooting suspect's name, abc news reporter brian ross initially suggested that he could be tied to the tea party. here ross said, he said, there is, and gives the name, of aurora, colorado, page on the colorado tea party site talking about him joining the tea party last year. we don't know if it's the same name, but it's name of aurora, colorado giving the name yet again. well, it wasn't the same man. ross later was forced to apologize for his gaffe. as he should have. joining me now, former white house press secretary and co-host of the popular and successful show "the five", dana perino. >> (applause) >> i was shocked and-- a hand. >> thank you. >> mike: i was shocked that brian ross would recklessly and irresponsibly make some connection to the tea party without any basis whatsoever to do so. >> not only is that shocking from a reporter who should get things 100% right, but that he went to the tea party website first to see if there was a connection. i actually think that's almost more interesting. and then they get it wrong and then they have to be forced to apologize? then they wonder why they ha

brian ross getting answers. >>> breakthrough. a big new diet drug about to hit your local drugstore, promising a lot of weight loss fast. dr. richard besser is here. >>> and great catch. a little girl falls 30 feet as a quick-thinking stranger leaps into action and saves her life. >>> good evening. we begin with a dramatic breach of airport security. a disturbed man manages to break into a passenger jet early this morning. he rams the plane through buildings and fences. and tonight, security officials are saying this is a wake-up call. it could have been much worse. abc's senior national correspondent jim avila has the details. >> reporter: in the desert air of st. george, utah, since the damaged jet, its nose and wing crushed by a desperate act by a desperate man. just before 1:00 in the morning, brian hedglin, a licensed but commercial pilot for skywest airlines. climbs over the airport fence. boards the unlocked jet, starts it up and heads for the runway. but in his haste clips the wing of another plane and ricochets off the taxiway. through a fence and into the parking lot, damaging the terminal itself. >> he's a current skywest pilot. he's g

brian ross. >> they probably put in the names, james holmes of aurora, and so then they looked down on their list and see oh, tea party. brian, we got a lead on here first year freshman journalism student knows you should double-check that before hand, i think it was a real shame. >> gretchen: interestingly enough on match.com, this suspect's profile under politics, he said middle of the road. >> yeah. it's not political. it's a shame that that happened. if i were abc, i would be embarrassed. they'll have to pick it up examine move o. but it just proves, being first is not as important as being right. and you can embarrass your whole network, your peers and yourself. he's a good investigative journalist. i would have at least hedged it more than they did. >> steve: they were in a hurry to be the first with that on. unfortunately, the damage is done. >> it was, although probably the damage ends up being more done for abc, but also overall for the media. in public approval rating, look at the president all the time, congress' is really low. but guess whose is lower than that. journalism and the media. >> gretchen: i think it's more than making a mis

brian ross of abc who on the morning of the shooting -- the shooting happened around midnight thursday into friday -- and friday he goes on good morning america and says there could be a tea party link heret quote: there is a jim holmes of aurora, colorado, page on the tea party site talking about him joining the tea party last year. now, we don't know if this is the same jim holmes, but this is jim holmes of awe roar ca, colorado. what do you make of it? >> that was george stephanopoulos, by the way. jon jon thanks for the correction, because i was wrong. [laughter] >> the correction is the main thing. ross got it wrong. he googled it up, he looked it up. he went with it, it fits the tea party narrative that the media have, the tea party was behind gabrielle giffords getting shot, this time around it's another tea party guy to blame, and abc doesn't correct it properly. brian ross to my knowledge never apologized to the wrong james holmes. they issued a retraction, but they put brian ross on abc world news that night, that friday night, talking about something else about the story and never acknowledged they'd made a hideous, in my mind, libelous and slanderous mistake. jon: what about