Democracy dies in darkness, or something. The Washington Post took it upon themselves to cover an effort to push Green Day’s “American Idiot” to the top of the charts in Britain for President Trump’s diplomatic visit later this week. Meagan Flynn, the journalist on the story, linked to an article on the satire website Clickhole, claiming that George W. Bush was the “idiot” being described in the song. Twitter user Jon Hanrahan was the first to catch the flippant mistake.
Flynn used the Clickhole article, written by front-man Billie Joe Armstrong, as a legitimate source, claiming Armstrong waited 13 years to reveal the secret:
The Washington Post tried to issue a correction, but could not seem to finish their sentence before reposting, as pointed out by AEI Scholar Grant Addison.
They did finally succeed, however, and the current article version has a correction listed at the bottom of the page. The original Clickhole link has been removed. If The Washington Post had felt the need to actually research the real meaning behind the song, they would have found that it’s a call for individuality and an anthem against power-hungry politicians, and greedy news media.
via NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias
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