diff --git a/src/wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php b/src/wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php
index 3011b7a8e3..8ef72f89bc 100644
--- a/src/wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php
+++ b/src/wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php
@@ -4931,8 +4931,8 @@ class wp_xmlrpc_server extends IXR_Server {
 			$post_date = get_date_from_gmt(iso8601_to_datetime($dateCreated));
 			$post_date_gmt = iso8601_to_datetime($dateCreated, 'GMT');
 		} else {
-			$post_date = current_time('mysql');
-			$post_date_gmt = current_time('mysql', 1);
+			$post_date = '';
+			$post_date_gmt = '';
 		}
 
 		$post_category = array();
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/tests/xmlrpc/mw/newPost.php b/tests/phpunit/tests/xmlrpc/mw/newPost.php
index b227cb6594..34b34d64e8 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/tests/xmlrpc/mw/newPost.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/tests/xmlrpc/mw/newPost.php
@@ -159,4 +159,25 @@ class Tests_XMLRPC_mw_newPost extends WP_XMLRPC_UnitTestCase {
 		$this->assertEquals( 'page', $out->post_type );
 	}
 
+
+	/**
+	 * @ticket 16985
+	 */
+	function test_draft_post_date() {
+		$this->make_user_by_role( 'editor' );
+
+		$post = array(
+			'title' => 'Test',
+			'post_type' => 'post',
+			'post_status' => 'draft'
+		);
+		$result = $this->myxmlrpcserver->mw_newPost( array( 1, 'editor', 'editor', $post ) );
+		$this->assertNotInstanceOf( 'IXR_Error', $result );
+		$this->assertStringMatchesFormat( '%d', $result );
+
+		$out = get_post( $result );
+		$this->assertEquals( 'post', $out->post_type );
+		$this->assertEquals( 'draft', $out->post_status );
+		$this->assertEquals( '0000-00-00 00:00:00', $out->post_date_gmt );
+	}
 }