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:
In the span of a few tweets, Reuters revealed they have no idea what the words "namesake" and "doppelganger" mean pic.twitter.com/Zvs0K0olfT
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 23, 2017
You're right Reuters, the resemblance is uncanny. pic.twitter.com/dqVW8Bb7ZC
— Chuck (@ChuckSRQ) August 23, 2017
— Erik, just Erik (@gothlaw) August 23, 2017
— Jeff Yeah! (@JeffOutLoud) August 23, 2017
@MerriamWebster we've got a code red here.
— Crash (@dpheeney) August 23, 2017
"Mini-Lee"
"Similarly named chap"
"A different Robert Lee who was just minding his own business"
"Notorious Asian Confederate general"— Boviosity (@FlashHeart59) August 23, 2017
Over an hour after the initial tweet, Reuters eventually sent out this clarification:
CLARIFICATION: Announcer with same name as Confederate General Lee pulled from broadcast; not named after Lee https://t.co/ZY7xOJIjFl https://t.co/PmgCcDhBLW
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) August 23, 2017
And added this:
Please note our clarification. We will be deleting our previous tweet. https://t.co/C3NEWYtDKp
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) August 23, 2017
They have now deleted the “namesake” tweet, but the “doppelganger” one is still up:
Confederate General Lee doppelganger pulled from upcoming University of Virginia football broadcast: https://t.co/rRTtAmZ5lR pic.twitter.com/nEqAujm2Hk
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) August 23, 2017
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:
CORRECTION: We have changed the caption of this photo, which inaccurately characterized the anti-Trump protesters as 'peace activists' https://t.co/vWgZZRvYb3
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) August 23, 2017
Please see our correction. We will be deleting our incorrect tweet. https://t.co/H3aunhIPFg
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) August 23, 2017
How are things going in that social media office, Reuters?