Politico’s media reporter Dylan Byers declared Monday that the “week in media” had begun with a “bang” after an ex-Fox employee shot and killed himself outside the Manhattan headquarters of media conglomerate News Corporation.
Twitter users quickly jumped on that language:
Really? pic.twitter.com/3tM6ZcruQn
— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) January 26, 2015
The sentence was removed, apparently after Twitter users directly pointed out the insensitivity to Byers. An update on Byer’s post originally read only that the article had been updated to include the ex-Fox employee’s name.
Byers emailed TPM the following statement:
Shortly after posting, a few readers notified me that they were offended by the lede. I understood their argument, so I got rid of it, chiefly because the passage in question had no bearing on the facts. For the same reason, I did not see it necessary to highlight the absence of the offending text. To do so would require either reinstating the offending text in the piece or engaging in ambiguity. That said, transparency certainly trumps readers’ sensibilities, and so per your inquiry I will update the item’s update to read, “The lede of this item has been removed.”