Washington Post rethinks headline about immigrants canceling their food stamps for fear of deportation

Brett T. | 10:32 PM on March 16, 2017

It’s an amazing time to be alive, and there’s still so much to learn. We’re not ashamed to admit it took the resignation of the EPA’s environmental justice head to clue us in to the fact that the EPA had an environmental justice office, and now we’ve learned that the Washington Post has a designated food policy writer.

We probably would have overlooked food policy writer Caitlin Dewey’s contribution to the paper’s “Wonkblog” column Thursday, too, except for people noticing a rather major change to the headline.

https://twitter.com/juliangwan/status/842456829938548736

https://twitter.com/juliangwan/status/842458257436336128

So what was wrong with the original, “Immigrants are now canceling their food stamps for fear that Trump will deport them”? Maybe it’s that one word — “illegal” — which just never seems to fit in the confines of a newspaper’s headline or a Democrat’s 140-character tweet.

Better, then, to go with the less accurate headline that simply alleges that illegals are going hungry. How much less accurate is it? The Post admits that “the evidence is still anecdotal — and The Washington Post was unable to speak directly with immigrants who chose to cancel their SNAP benefits.”

That’s weak. Sure, they didn’t get his name, but reporters for ABC News did manage to get that Somali refugee on record as saying the U.S. is now the worst country in the world.

Another detail found quite a way down the page seems important: “While none of the SNAP regulations have changed, President Trump’s immigration agenda has raised fears they may change in the future.” Like a Washington Post headline, say.