Huffington Post Demonstrates How Not to Correct
The Huffington Post was one of the few major mainstream media outlets to run with Amy Klein’s erroneous — and now corrected — Oct. 24 report in Ha’aretz that singer Rihanna swapped the lyrics of her song “Pour it Up” to state “All I see is Palestine.”
On Thursday (Oct. 24), Ha’aretz removed the unfounded assertion from its online headline and article, and appended a clear correction. On Friday, in its print edition, the newspaper ran a correction on page 2.
And what about the Huffington Post, which ran with the initial incorrect story? Three days later, as of press time, the Huffington Post still features a completely false headline alongside an update.
Following an update at the top of the page noting that Ha’aretz has retracted the claim that Rihanna sang about Palestine, readers are told that “The original article continues below.” Indeed, it does. With the false claim about the lyrics intact.
To sum up: The Huffington Post runs an update which makes clear that their earlier headline and article were based on a false report. The Post leaves those incorrect headline and article in place, as if they have not received information to the contrary.
Is somebody asleep at the helm of the Huffington Post? Or this what now passes for accountability at the sixth-leading English news site?
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