The Washington Post faced backlash Saturday for a Twitter message promoting a story about joe-biden” target=”_blank”>President Biden< for former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who died Dec. 28 at age 82.
It was the seventh funeral Biden has attended since becoming president, the Post noted.
President Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attend the funeral service for former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, at the Washington National Cathedral, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, in Washington.
(Associated Press)
“Biden, who heads to Sen. Harry M. Reid’s memorial Saturday – his seventh as president – uses funerals to honor his friendships and make a point about bipartisanship,” the original Post tweet said.
“Not everyone thinks it’s the best use of his time,” the message added.
But after many readers defended Biden for attending funerals and objected to the tweet, the Post deleted the message.
“We’ve deleted a tweet that inaccurately represented the scope of the story,” the Post wrote.
The new tweet promoting the story simply used the headline from the story, “Biden, funerals and a bygone era,” without additional comment.
Twitter users took the newspaper to task.
“The Washington Post attacked Joe Biden for attending ‘too many’ funerals this year,” one write noted. “They say it’s ‘not the best use of his time.’ Wow! Do you know what’s not the best use of your time? Reading WaPo. Would you please do me a favor? Cancel your subscription to the Washington Post.”
“Afraid I don’t see the point of this piece,” another added. “There are plenty of valid reasons to criticize Biden’s presidency. Going to funerals of friends and colleagues isn’t one of them.”
The story itself said that attending funerals was “frequently caricatured as the purview of vice presidents,” but Biden as president has “made sure to go himself, and may have attended even more if not for the coronavirus pandemic.”
There are plenty of valid reasons to criticize Biden’s presidency. Going to funerals of friends and colleagues isn’t one of them.”
— Twitter user
The previous funerals Biden has attended as president have included those for former Secretary of State Colin Powell and for former U.S. Sens. Bob Dole and John Warner, the Post noted.
Other recent mishaps from The Washington Post have included Thursday’s correction of a fact-checking story about Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden touch the flag-draped casket of the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., at the Capitol in Washington, July 27, 2020. (Associated Press)
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The newspaper’s fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, had awarded Cotton two “Pinnochios” in March for predicting that convicted Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would receive coronavirus-relief funds from the federal government.
When that actually happened, Kessler was forced to “adjust” the Pinocchio rating, which he did Thursday.
In November, the Post issued corrections on more than a dozen previous articles related to coverage of the Steele dossier, which was central to the investigation of possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie and Brian Flood contributed to this story.
