USA Today was dragged over the coals for running a factually incorrect illustration explaining the MOAB dropped in Afghanistan.
The publication tweeted the illustration Thursday of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the “Mother of all Bombs,” to offer some comparative perspective. The MOAB was dropped by the U.S. on an ISIS tunnel compound in Afghanistan Thursday.
But USA Today got an important part of its math wrong.
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Sorry @USATODAY , you can delete but we aren’t done dragging you! pic.twitter.com/PYPZwwG3DB
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) April 13, 2017
You stupid, stupid bastards. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15 KILOtons. You are off by a factor of 1,000. https://t.co/gg165JFNTl
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) April 13, 2017
Twitter users scorched the publication for its misleading illustration.
This tweet is only off by a factor of 1,000 https://t.co/2Pt49Ta5oS
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY @JenniferJJacobs pic.twitter.com/qsOaU1yIEJ
— Chuck Graef (@chuckgraef) April 13, 2017
Hiroshima bomb was 15 THOUSAND tons, not 15. https://t.co/hCFn5qTFHe
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 13, 2017
@ComfortablySmug @USATODAY Anyone who doesn’t know better who saw that might think we just basically set off a nuke.
— Satan (@IAmReallySatan) April 13, 2017
@RadioFreeTom why let facts get in the way of a perfectly good visual aid? *cough*
— Clicky McBaity (@FOIAsaxa) April 13, 2017
@ComfortablySmug @PolitiBunny Common Core Math.
— Gregg Hart (@RGreggHart) April 13, 2017
@ComfortablySmug @chuckgraef @USATODAY @JenniferJJacobs Also this chart includes a human’s height but not how many tons of TNT a human’s explosive yield is.
— ?erry ??unleavy (@JerryDunleavy) April 13, 2017
@chuckgraef @USATODAY @JenniferJJacobs Leftists and numbers. Never ends well.
— David J Prowse (@prowseDavidJ) April 13, 2017
USA Today eventually deleted its tweet, which was saved forever by some Twitter users.
@RadioFreeTom aaaaaaaaaaand… it’s gone
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) April 13, 2017
@ComfortablySmug Heh deleted it but too late, the internet is forever
— Christopher R Taylor (@KestrelArts) April 13, 2017
Gee, I wonder what dumb thing @usatoday must have tweeted before they deleted it. #FakeNews https://t.co/nv0vIaGBk3
— The Bucket Shop (@TheBucketShop) April 13, 2017
@ComfortablySmug @redsteeze It was stupid, they deleted the tweet.
— Fred Nicolaysen (@phred47) April 13, 2017
@ComfortablySmug @USATODAY did they affirmatively retract or just delete?
— Jeff Stillman (@jstillman1960) April 13, 2017
An updated tweet was posted with a corrected illustration and a separate note about the “incorrectly stated” information.
A previous tweet incorrectly stated the yield of the Hiroshima bomb.
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 13, 2017
U.S. drops ‘Mother of all Bombs’ on ISIS tunnel compound in Afghanistan https://t.co/Frfg0jSkid pic.twitter.com/JogHi943sl
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 13, 2017
While the correction was welcome, the damage and resulting pummeling of the publication for its error, lived on.
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@USATODAY @ComfortablySmug I feel like you might’ve had something to do with this changed graphic.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY And that wasn’t accidental. Hardly anybody will see the correction that you got the yield of the nuclear weapon wrong by a factor of 1,000.
— Brandon Seers (@bseers1984) April 14, 2017
@USATODAY …but only when people on twitter pointed it out. Your editor took the day off? #MisleadingNews
— Daniel Doran (@danielktdoran) April 14, 2017
@USATODAY LOL. That’s one crack research team. Not so interesting now that you’ve corrected it.
— Maurice Cloutier (@DemotedHusband) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY This is incredibly misleading.
— Levi (@leviphillip) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY Size matters, @USATODAY . pic.twitter.com/3Z2k8I2fPt
— klarson (@kglarson) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY It just aint your day today. Like your tweet corrections are out of control. Maybe need to rethink the process, maybe, maybe, yea definitely
— JMU Politico (@JMU_Politics) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY https://t.co/LYUxMarahd pic.twitter.com/hJq8VFBVG6
— Herbal (@HerbCarmen) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY Maybe stop trying so hard to push a liberal agenda and focus on journalistic integrity and this won’t happen as often ??
— All The Fiends (@TylerDoor) April 13, 2017
(H/T: Twitchy)
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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