CNN has corrected an article about the Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol last week, after dramatically claiming Rep. Ted Lieu fled his office with a “crowbar” during the incident. He had actually grabbed an energy bar.
In the correction, CNN admitted that a “previous version of this story misstated” that the Democratic congressman had “grabbed a crowbar before leaving his office.”
“He grabbed a ProBar energy bar,” it then clarified.
Correction of the day pic.twitter.com/UyvQmRCNXl
The correction, of course, drastically changed the tone of the sentence, with most readers having previously assumed that Lieu happened to have a crowbar at hand – and grabbed it for self-defence purposes against violent rioters.
CNN’s blunder hit social media on Thursday, with users questioning how such a large national news outlet could mistake an innocent snack for a potentially deadly weapon.
Mistaking a ProBar for a CrowBar is a LowBar for a reporter. https://t.co/qzsIQVt5Cv
“I’d like to think that, had I reported this story, that I would stop and think: Wait, why would Ted Lieu have a crowbar in his office?”tweeted Washington Post congressional reporter Mike DeBonis.
“His arm was the weapon after that probar,”joked one Twitter user, while another commented, “Stop, I have a ProBar and I know how to use it!”
both equally important in a siege, imho.
And here I thought @tedlieu was going the way of John Wick over there https://t.co/CglX059vE8
Rather than facing rioters with a deadly weapon, the CNN article goes on to explain that the congressman wandered the halls of the Capitol – ProBar in hand – and then hunkered down in a colleague’s office, where they watched the day’s historic events unfold.
If you like this story, share it with a friend!
