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Washington Post mercilessly trolled for saying Waukesha tragedy was 'caused by SUV'

Washington Post tweet about the Waukesha incident causes a stir, as people debate over the publication's journalism

The Washington Post (WaPo) caused major controversy on November 24 after a tweet about the Waukesha tragedy. The tweet, which is still up at the time of reporting said the incident was "caused by an SUV", leading social media to debate about what exactly happened. Others were quick to slam The Post's journalism, but it appeared to be for naught. At the time of reporting, WaPo hasn't taken down its tweet or issued an apology.

This isn't the first time WaPo is landing in trouble for its tweets. Following the deadly shooting of Ma'Khia Bryant by officer Nicholas Reardon in Columbus, Ohio, The Post was slammed for omitting the fact Bryant had a knife in her hand. In 2020, the Trump administration hit back at a WaPo story titled 'Trump’s lost summer: Aides claim victory, but others see incompetence and intolerance'. Later in September 2020, The Post was left red-faced after being fooled by conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman, who claimed his house had been raided by the FBI. 

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In fact, The Post is no stranger to controversy, ever since it was bought by Jeff Bezos. It's been a frequent punching bag of the former President, but on November 24,  it became a major punching bag of social media users for its tweet that appeared to omit key details from the Waukesha tragedy.

'one day you’re all going to jail'

The tweet that caused the uproar was worded as, "Here's what we know so far on the sequence of events that led to the Waukesha tragedy caused by a SUV." It links to a story chronicling the events leading up to, and after Darrell Brooks drove his SUV into a Christmas parade on November 21. Brooks has since been arrested and charged with five counts of intentional homicide, with a possible sixth charge. 

Users were furious WaPo omitted the fact Brooks' name wasn't mentioned, omitting a key piece of detail from the story. They slammed the tweet with reactions like, "“SUV” is a weird way to spell racially-motivated domestic terrorist," and "SUV’s don’t drive themselves. The problem with this view is it places no responsibility on the criminal. Do better." One furious user replied, "Caused by a SUV? I swear one day you’re all going to jail."

"When are we going have common sense SUV laws??!!!" one person mocked. Another noted, "Gaslighting has become so surreal I wonder if I've slipped into another dimension." One user dryly noted, "The car is not sentiant. It could not do anything without a driver behind the wheel." "Good God, your social team sucks," another replied.

"“Caused by an SUV” Y’all are just trolling us now, huh?" one person asked. Another user mocked, "We have sentient cars now? When did this happen? I thought true AI hadn’t been achieved." One person snapped back, "Caused by a SUV??? Are you hiring news staff straight out of high school? You do realize you're the Washington Post, not The Onion, right?"

At the time of publication, the tweet has garnered over 4.3k comments, as compared to just 1.8k retweets and 247 likes. It's been followed up by several more WaPo stories, but so far, no sign of an apology or correction. 

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.