CBS’ Jason La Canfora got fooled by a fake WWE account with just over 200 followers saying Ric Flair died

There have been several instances over the years of Jason La Canfora (previously with The Washington Post and NFL Network, with CBS since 2012) getting some criticism for his tweets, whether that’s feuding with Mike Florio, getting yelled at by fans for draft pick–tipping, telling Ian Rapoport “keep my name off your lips,” taking others’ graphics without credit, or getting called out by Jeff Fisher over a report that Fisher was “in line to coach Houston of the XFL” (a job that eventually went to June Jones). But on Thursday, La Canfora took criticism for something entirely different; spreading a false report from a fake WWE Twitter account that Ric Flair had died.

https://twitter.com/Donch_e/status/1129127169169477632

Yes, many get fooled by fake accounts, especially when they involve a minor username change like this. And there is an official WWE Universe account, which has a verified checkmark and 5.43 million followers. But still, La Canfora should have looked at this a little more closely before hitting that retweet button.

For the record, there have been dueling reports all day on just how serious Flair’s hospitalization is. But TMZ’s most recent update has a quote from Flair’s wife Wendy Barlow saying that a full recovery is expected. So the La Canfora retweet of the fake account looks especially egregious by that example.