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  • 2021-01-24 (xsd:date)
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  • Did The Washington Post Remove a Quote That Painted Kamala Harris in a Bad Light? (en)
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  • On July 23 2019, Washington Post reporter Ben Terris published a profile of Maya Harris — Vice President Kamala Harris' younger sister and adviser. The article opened with a widely derided comparison made by then-Presidential candidate Harris about how campaigns are like prisons. The anecdote included a poorly received joke about prisoners and water: On Jan. 22 2021, as part of a series of features prepared for the Biden Inauguration, The Washington Post republished the Terris piece with a new lead and a new co-author, removing the controversial comments from the 2019 version of the story. Absent that change, the rest of the story remained largely the same. Further, clicking the link to the 2019 version of the article initially redirected to the newer, sanitized version, making the old version effectively disappear. The outlet Reason first reported the change, accusing the Post of making politically motivated editorial decisions. In response to Reason's critique, Molly Gannon Conway, the Post's communications manager, told Reason that they repurposed several biographical features for the inauguration, but that they should have communicated their change better, and also allowed the original 2019 version to remain online without the redirect: Now, however, the newly repurposed story includes a link to the original version of the story with the original lead intact. In a second statement, Kris Coratti, the Post's vice president for communications, told Reason the redirect on the 2019 version of the profile was a mistake. Erik Wemple, the Post's media critic, argued that the incident at his paper was surely a screwup and that the Post should have left good journalism alone. He did, however, take issue at the assertion that the motivation for the change in lede was political: Because a change was made to an article that put Harris in a more flattering light by removing a poorly received joke, as reported, the claim is True. (en)
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