Shame on the Associated Press. Well, we'd shame them if they had shame. But they're incapable of it.
Here's the post the put up last night, which they deleted:
As many users pointed out, that's not what Vance said.
The full quote is: "I don’t like that this is a fact of life."
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 6, 2024
This is a really misleading headline and Tweet. AP should really change it. https://t.co/VAnwOaEzYe
It was intentionally misleading.
The full quote: "I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools."
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 6, 2024
And Vance isn't wrong.
After getting ratioed into oblivion and having several pending Community Notes, the AP deleted that post and issued a correction:
JD Vance says he laments that school shootings are a "fact of life" and says the U.S. needs to harden security to prevent more carnage like the shooting this week that left four dead in Georgia.https://t.co/mdz0617PDl
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 6, 2024
But the damage was done:
But the point of it is to mislead millions of people. It’s not a mistake; it’s doing what it was intended to do. https://t.co/iEF0duywBE
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) September 6, 2024
Nailed it.
And, as always, the original, deleted post received significantly more views than the correction.
Deleted post: 2.2 million impressions
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 6, 2024
Corrected post: 100k impressions pic.twitter.com/4Q5tpIoGXn
And that's the entire point.
As demonstrated by the response of the Kamala Harris campaign:
AP put out a false headline, deletes the post, but this was the entire point. Incredible. https://t.co/BTYbgrPRm0
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 6, 2024
Just incredible.
You don't despise the media enough.
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