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:
@sarahbellumd http://t.co/7WcfNfyFpv
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) March 11, 2013
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.
G-chatting into headline field? RT @lachlan: Interesting Politico (AP?) headline.http://t.co/jOJ2JgVORL
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) March 11, 2013
@aseitzwald Yeah, I'd imagine that's what happened.
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) March 11, 2013
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.
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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.