Whoa: Politico publishes botched headline about troops killed in Afghanistan

Earlier this morning, at least two U.S. troops were killed when a firefight broke out at an Afghanistan police station. And when Politico published an AP report on the events, the story was accompanied by a very unfortunate headline gaffe:

What the … RT @lachlan: Interesting Politico (AP?) headline. http://t.co/aoFhifiXfc

— Cindy Cooper (@CindyCoops) March 11, 2013

Photoshop job? Nope:

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/311192419112734720

Yikes.

Heads should roll. But they won't. RT @lachlan: Interesting Politico (AP?) headline. http://t.co/5QlIJydz4u

— April Thompson (@oddlysaid) March 11, 2013

Via @lachlan, I'd REALLY like to hear @Politico's explanation of how this happened. http://t.co/fpso0vRx1f

— RBe (@RBPundit) March 11, 2013

So would we.

https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/311191780211191808

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/311191853972201473

The headline has been corrected:

It is unclear as to whether the initial mistake was made by the AP or by Politico, but regardless of who is responsible, we’re certainly interested in an explanation.

* * *

Update:

Politico has added an editor’s note explaining that the “haha” was not related to the story.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story included unrelated text that was inadvertently written into the headline field. The text was not connected to the story but part of a separate conversation. We regret the error.