Reuters deleted this doppleganger tweet.

Whoever runs the main social media account for news agency Reuters is having a bad day. The main Reuters account sent out several ill-advised tweets trying to promote their story about Charlottesville, Virginia shrouding Confederate statues in black cloth, which included a section on ESPN’s controversial decision to switch play-by-play announcer Robert Lee (who is no relation to the Confederate general) away from the Virginia game. They first called the announcer Lee a “doppelganger” for the general (he is not), then called him a “namesake” (he is not), and then eventually admitted they messed up and deleted their previous tweets. Here are the erroneous tweets:

Reuters deleted this doppleganger tweet.

 

 

Reuters deleted this namesake tweet.

 

 

 

Over an hour after the initial tweet, Reuters eventually sent out this clarification:

And added this:

They have now deleted the “namesake” tweet, but the “doppelganger” one is still up:

Not a great look there, Reuters. Tweet mistakes certainly happen, and we make them too, but this was one on a pretty major scale. For what it’s worth, the story was fine, saying “a play-by-play announcer also named Robert Lee.” But the tweets about it were a bad idea. And this wasn’t even the only tweet they had to correct and delete Wednesday:

How are things going in that social media office, Reuters?

 

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.