The Washington Post deleted a tweet and corrected a reader submission form on their website after falsely claiming that George Floyd had been shot by police officers.
The now-deleted tweet included a link to the submission form in question along with the following text: “On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was shot and killed in police custody. His death sparked outrage, wide-scaled protests and calls to change policing. Two years later, what has — or hasn’t changed?”
The outlet posted another tweet explaining that the previous one had been deleted. “We’ve deleted a previous tweet for this form that included language that was changed after publish,” the new tweet read.
We've deleted a previous tweet for this form that included language that was changed after publish.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 24, 2022
The updated reader submission form reads, “On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died in police custody. His death sparked outrage, wide scale protests and calls to change policing. Two years later, what has — or hasn’t changed?”
Newsbusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck shared screenshots of the tweet and the original reader submission form, along with his own comments.
“Mannnn you guys just barely escaped the wrath of Nina Jankowicz and her Ministry of Truth,” he tweeted, adding, “Not only did The Washington Post mess this up in their tweet (left) about how George Floyd died, they did the same thing on their own website (right).”
Not only did The Washington Post mess this up in their tweet (left) about how George Floyd died, they did the same thing on their own website (right) pic.twitter.com/nWhNEAvFke
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 24, 2022
“Washington Post, which wants to restrict free speech to combat disinformation, can’t even get this well-known event right,” Max Abrahms added.
Tim Swain commented, “You may have deleted the tweet but the internet is forever @washingtonpost.”
“I can’t wait for next year’s @washingtonpost exposé on what George Floyd’s suicide tells us about ourselves,” Derek Hunter said.
George Floyd was killed while in the custody of Minneapolis Police officers, but he was not shot. He died after former police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck and remained there for over nine minutes.
Chauvin was convicted in April of 2021 of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death — and sentenced to 22.5 years behind bars — but he has since made it clear that he would appeal that conviction.
“The former officer is arguing that the judge ‘improperly denied requests to grant him a new trial, sequester the jury during trial and disqualify ‘clearly biased’ potential jurors during jury selection,’ adding that Judge Peter Cahill ‘erred in permitting prosecutors to add a third-degree murder charge shortly before trial and in concluding that the man who had been with Floyd on the day of his arrest could not be forced to testify,'” The Daily Wire previously reported.