The non-apology apology
Washington Post reporter Annie Linskey got herself into some hot water this weekend with one of those jokes that went over like a pregnant pole vaulter. For those that don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, she essentially poked fun at Joe Biden’s trip through the cemetery to visit the graves of his family. Instead, she claimed he was visiting his domestic agenda.
According to Linskey, she did not know he was actually visiting his son’s grave. In the process, she learned two key things as it pertains to social media. First, once you hit send on a tweet it’s going to be out there. Sure, you can go back and delete the tweet, but someone has made a copy and will produce it on the ready.
Secondly, the urge to be first is strong, but an enterprising journalist has to remember it is more important to be right. Being first with a joke is even more pathetic. Exactly how many points does that get you? If she had taken the extra few minutes to figure out why he was there this could have been avoided. If she had taken the extra few minutes to realize she is a Washington Post reporter and not a comic at the local improv this could have been avoided.
As you might suspect, the outrage machine started up in full force. If Twitter is good for anything it is good for a nice ratio. The ratio is where numerous commenters and strangers get to pile on after an ill-advised tweet. So, hundreds of people commented with some saying they were canceling their subscription to the Washington Post. As of now she is still employed with the Post, but it doesn’t take a huge effort to see that changing before this story cycle ends.
As for Biden, he hardly reacted at all. If we can count on Biden for anything it is that he will always maintain his dignity. He will occasionally fumble through words or offer the occasional gaffe as any president would. Some of that is the stuttering. Some of that is a lifetime of not necessarily being a great orator. Heck, maybe some of it is age. What we do know is that he won’t do or say anything excessively mean. The last guy would have jumped at that opportunity.
We should keep that as our guide on what to do about Linskey. While it can seem fun to put someone through the ringer for a horrible mistake, we do have to remember she is human. We have to remember we all make mistakes. We have to remember that she has likely done 100 good things for every one bad thing she has done. While we can say that none of us has ever done THAT, we all can say we have done something awful that would have been ridiculed in public if any of us had a higher social media profile.
So, here’s hoping that Linskey learns something valuable from this experience and that she has the opportunity to demonstrate to us that she is a better person for it. Destroying a reporter for a bad joke doesn’t seem appropriate. At least it doesn’t seem any more appropriate than the bad joke she attempted to take back.
Sorry, no apology on this one. Any Reporter who knew the first thing about President Biden would know he had a family there!
Not just a Son, but a daughter and his first wife.
No excuses for this dumbo who thinks being smart makes her a good Reporter. She deserves it.
1I believe her apology was for herself and not an apology, certainly not a direct one the the president and his family. She’s a writer by trade, so she should have done better. And as far as I know, the WaPo has been silent about this so far. As far as I’m concerned, I hope they pay in the pocket book. If they want to keep her as a reporter, they better check her work.
2I believe her apology was for herself and not an apology, certainly not a direct one to the the president and his family. She’s a writer by trade, so she should have done better. And as far as I know, the WaPo has been silent about this so far. As far as I’m concerned, I hope they pay in the pocket book. If they want to keep her as a reporter, they better check her work.
3Sorry for the sort of duplication but I should have proofread my first comment before hitting submit.
4She’s a White House reporter. He makes this visit regularly. Therefore, either she knows this commonly known fact (something every WH reporter knows or should know) and was deliberately being am insensitive asshole, or she doesn’t know her job and has little interest in learning it. Either way, she shouldn’t be in that job.
5What next? WaPo becoming the apologists for the ninnyhammer’s non-apology apology. She is allegedly a writer, but she can’t write a sincere apology? ‘Nuff said.
6What Linskey said was “Biden goes to church and walks through a graveyard in Wilmington as his legislative agenda is dying in Washington.” I had a devil of a time finding it, although it’s more dumb than offensive. I’m more appalled at the people threatening to cancel their WaPo subscriptions — this was a tweet, not something approved by her editors. And this is why I have never done social media: it’s too easy to share the first thing that comes to mind with the whole world when, on reflection, you would rephrase or delete. Yes, Biden’s agenda is threatened by the idiot caucus (Sinema and Manchin) — no, it has nothing to do with the graves of his family.
Let’s all take a deep breath.
7Sorry to disagree- it was offensive AND insensitive AND a dumb thing to say. That was more like something you’d expect from Fox News mouthpieces and the like. Any writer for a high profile paper/online news source knows that when they speak about news on social media, they’re going to be held accountable and are representing their newspaper. Her apology was not good enough and her employer needs to comment more than they have- which is zero.
8Notably, she’s not good at her job. She covers the President of the United States but is unfamiliar with his long and public history of lost family members? This isn’t even the first time his visits to their graves have been fodder for bad journalism. Aim higher journos.
9Steve…100%!
10Linskey’s special talent as a journalist (sic) is sneering at politicians. She tried it on Warren and WaPo hired her to do it to Biden. Suggest you save your sympathy for a worthier subject.
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