The Only Thing More Laughable Than WaPo Changing Their Headline, Is The Defense Of The Story Itself
Yesterday, Jeff Bezos’s blog, The Washington Post, posted an article with the headline “Immigrants Are Going Hungry So Trump Won’t Deport Them”. An excerpt is below:
In the two months since President Trump’s inauguration, food banks and hunger advocates around the country have noted a decline in the number of eligible immigrants applying for SNAP — and an uptick in immigrants seeking to withdraw from the program.
Their fear, advocates say, is that participation could draw the eye of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or hurt their chances of attaining citizenship. Without federal nutrition benefits, many are resorting to food pantries and soup kitchens to feed themselves and their children.
The evidence is still anecdotal — and The Washington Post was unable to speak directly with immigrants who chose to cancel their SNAP benefits.
But all it took was one astute Twitter user to show the world that the headline they posted wasn’t the original one.
Twitter user and Young Nixon caught the title change by noting the URL, which showed the original title. After he found it, he quickly showed it to the rest of the world:
Bezos' @washingtonpost quickly changed this headline… doesn't want you to know illegals are on benefits paid by… you. pic.twitter.com/soDFn2Hput
— Young Nixon (@YoungDickNixon) March 16, 2017
The slug is still the original headline. This is #fakenews 101, @washingtonpost is a liberal smear tabloid. pic.twitter.com/pfWR6hFcJ6
— Young Nixon (@YoungDickNixon) March 16, 2017
The images are reproduced below, in case you can’t see via Twitter exactly how the headline was changed:
Ok, we already know that Jeff Bezos’s blog likes to make its headlines as click-bait-ey as possible, and we also know that they like to issue weak retractions, so this should just be an open-and-shut case of WaPo deliberately misleading its readers in the headline, out of fear of losing clicks. There’s obviously a big difference between “now canceling their food stamps” and “going hungry” – the implication that whoever would be deported is in the country illegally, and thus not eligible for SNAP benefits in the first place, but is still getting them regardless.
But alas, this saga was anything but over. Parker Molloy, a “writer at Upworthy”, got in on the act, saying that “This article isn’t about undocumented immigrants, it’s about green card holders and citizens worried about getting deported.”
This article isn't about undocumented immigrants, it's about green card holders and citizens worried about getting deported.
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) March 17, 2017
In case you were wondering, you are correct – U.S. Citizens cannot be deported – where would they be deported to? A country they’re not a citizen of? And President Trump’s new executive order explicitly exempts green card holders from deportation… and the order itself only covers six nations.
Molloy continued to insist to the contrary, while Nixon had to explain to her exactly what the article really covered:
The article is about illegals applying for benefits through family members and legal immigrants foregoing SNAP benefits. pic.twitter.com/5WeS8CS8u6
— Young Nixon (@YoungDickNixon) March 17, 2017
Molloy wasn’t alone – Anthony De Rosa, “Digital Production Manager For The Daily Show”, also took to criticizing Nixon for his observation, to which Nixon noted how De Rosa skewed his original statement and observation of the headline change:
.@Anthony it also points out that ILLEGALS use family members to game the system for benefits. Did you skip that part or just lie? pic.twitter.com/5zjaBzZQsA
— Young Nixon (@YoungDickNixon) March 17, 2017
De Rosa went on to claim he didn’t purposely delude to his approximately 100,000 Twitter followers, and Nixon finally hit him with the kill shot:
.@Anthony You quote tweeted, capitalized LEGAL, and misdirected your audience.
Classic @TheDailyShow production in a nutshell.
— Young Nixon (@YoungDickNixon) March 17, 2017
You can see the entire exchange between Nixon And De Rosa here, and the exchange between Nixon and Molloy here.
What was most notable about this entire Twitter “spat” however, was the fact that both of the “defenders” of the original article made absolutely no mention of the headline change, or why it was changed. As I already noted, the WaPo changed the headline to subvert the simple fact that anyone who had any fear of deportation would have to be someone who was either 1) collecting SNAP benefits illegally, or 2) collecting SNAP benefits legally as a non-citizen, but doing so criminally to dispense them to an illegal resident. No one else would or should have any “fear” of deportation.
But, it seems facts get in the way of a Twitter spat and an impassioned defense of a failed narrative. It would be sad… if it weren’t already so amusing.