World
Washington Post Slammed For 'Dishonest', 'Austere Religious Scholar Level' Headline On The Wire-Meta Saga; Changes It Later
The Wire and Meta have been butting heads.
Billionare Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post changed its headline on a report, covering The Wire's suspension of its Meta stories, after huge online backlash.
The Wire in its report had claimed that Meta allegedly granted extraordinary power to BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya to censor Instagram posts that he didn’t like.
However, after many experts questioned the The Wire report, the news portal on Tuesday announced that it is undertaking an internal review of all its documents related to Meta amid a dispute with the social media company.
In a statement, The Wire said it will withhold the articles about Meta, which owns Instagram, and will conduct an internal review of all the information and material provided by its sources.
Covering the development in the Wire-Meta saga, Washington Post went ahed with a headline, which read as "Tensions rise in India over claim that Instagram let ruling party tamper with posts", for the article.
However, the Washington Post came under severe criticism from online users who slammed the Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper for the "dishonest" headline in the Wire-Meta report.
"Dishonest disingenuous headline! Wire got caught and this is how u write a headline?? Glad I canceled ur subscription! (sic)," a Twitter user wrote.
Later after the backlash, the newspaper changed the headline to "Indian outlet on defensive after its explosive claims of Meta political censorship".
Another Twitter user pointed out that the headline was of “Austere religious scholar” level, referring to Washington Post's headline on the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In its obituary of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, who was killed by the US forces in October 2019, Washington Post had reverentially described him an “austere religious scholar.”
After facing severe flak, the newspaper changed the headline to "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48".
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