Daily Caller corrects Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez nude selfie headline

by Sydney Smith , Sydney Smith January 11, 2019 05:00 AM EST

Tags: Daily Caller, Fake Photos, Photojournalism Ethics, U.S.

(Credit: The Daily Caller)

Conservative news site the Daily Caller published an article about fake naked pictures of the recently inaugurated Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

The tweet and article headline read, “Here’s The Photo Some People Described As A Nude Selfie Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.” The headline and story still appeared in our search on the Daily Caller‘s website yesterday morning, but the link went to an error page.

At a slightly different URL you can now find the story with the new headline, “Anthony Weiner Mistress stands up for AOC after Evil Internet Trolls spread fake nude photo.” That article carries this correction:

Correction: An earlier version of the headline for this story made an inaccurate implication. The story has since been updated for accuracy.

The Daily Caller‘s editor-in-chief Geoffrey Ingersoll told iMediaEthics the update was posted Jan. 9 at 3:06 PM, two days after publication.

Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that the Daily Caller posted the fake image “and refused to indicate it was fake in the title as well.”

After Ocasio-Cortez called out the article, the Daily Caller responded on Twitter, writing that it “deleted and fixed” the headline after editors saw it, and that “We regret the error, as the intent was to inform our audience that a fake image was circulating online.” Ocasio-Cortez responded that “this is not an apology” and claimed, “you’ve been posting hysteric, misrepresentative articles about me nonstop – many within 24h.”

The Daily Caller‘s editor-in-chief Geoffrey Ingersoll told the Wrap it was a “bad call on the headline side,” and argued the article was “actually a defense of her. The URL is literally ‘fake-nude.'”

Ingersoll also tweeted, “The story is about how your enemies – who Betsy describes as both horrible and evil – conjured up this fake nude and spread it online. You must just be trying to score cheap political points since there is no way you could have a real issue with her post https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/07/fake-nude-ocasio-cortez/ …“

For those out of the loop, Republicans began to circulate a fake nude photo of me. The @DailyCaller reposted it (!) and refused to indicate it was fake in the title as well.

Completely disgusting behavior from Conservative outlets.

No wonder they defended Kavanaugh so fiercely.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 10, 2019

As soon as editors noticed the twitter headline, we rapidly had it deleted and fixed. The story itself is otherwise no different than what HuffPo and Vice published.

We regret the error, as the intent was to inform our audience that a fake image was circulating online. https://t.co/aClyRLnjQZ
— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 10, 2019

The story is about how your enemies – who Betsy describes as both horrible and evil – conjured up this fake nude and spread it online. You must just be trying to score cheap political points since there is no way you could have a real issue with her post https://t.co/zvCitCHbKn https://t.co/rh621rVDlu
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) January 10, 2019

a) this is not an apology
b) you’ve been posting hysteric, misrepresentative articles about me nonstop – many within 24h.

The @DailyCaller, funded by @TuckerCarlson (at @FoxNews), has a well-documented relationship with white supremacy.

Unsurprising they’re targeting me. https://t.co/LcQuQYWdqk
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 10, 2019

UPDATE: 12/12/2019: Fixed typo in headline

Tags: Daily Caller, Fake Photos, Photojournalism Ethics, U.S.

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