Whoa. We can certainly understand @AJC’s desire to cover its tracks. But when a major news outlet with nearly 100,000 Twitter followers tweets out something like that, it’s really hard to cover it up after the fact.
Twitter, of course, let out a collective gasp:
Is this for real? RT @ajc: $1M GA Lottery winner Willie Lynch can get 40 acres and a whole lotta mules. http://t.co/51zjrFNrss
— Rand Getlin (@RandGetlin) October 23, 2013
https://twitter.com/DCTheState/status/393039692632825856
Ummmmmmmmmm RT @ajc: $1M GA Lottery winner Willie Lynch can get 40 acres and a whole lotta mules. http://t.co/Kf7lJeRdWp
— Hey I'm Matt (@thew1242) October 23, 2013
Hoo boy RT @edsbs WHAT THE FUCK RT @ajc: $1M GA Lottery winner Willie Lynch can get 40 acres and a whole lotta mules. http://t.co/qQGjG7JQlt
— Chris Jackson (@ChrisCJackson) October 23, 2013
https://twitter.com/mattorr/status/393039829232926720
So far, no apology or acknowledgement from @AJC.
https://twitter.com/BubbaBrown8/status/393045068765872128
Look on the bright side, @AJC. You have just won Twitchy’s coveted “Deleted Tweet of the Day” award!
Update:
This is unconfirmed:
https://twitter.com/SladeHV/status/393048384862314496
Actually, if it’s true it might help AJC quite a bit.
Update:
An apology tweet:
The AJC apologizes for & deeply regrets the tweet that was posted earlier today. We are working to address this situation internally.
— AJC (@ajc) October 23, 2013
Update:
Another:
AJC sincerely regrets an earlier Twitter message. http://t.co/3qtOQX9iTN
— Kevin Riley, Editor (@ajceditor) October 23, 2013
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sincerely regrets an earlier Twitter message that contained an inappropriate statement.
We took immediate action to apologize via social media and will issue an apology in Thursday’s print edition. We do not condone such offensive messages and are reviewing our procedures to ensure this type of error does not happen again.
“Immediate action”? Really?