One representative’s Twitter poll did not go as planned (in the best possible way)
Image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore
In case you haven’t heard, Republicans are hell-bent on dismantling the Affordable Care Act, but they have yet to offer plans for a viable replacement. On Tuesday, Representative Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., posted a poll for her nearly 28,000 Twitter followers that asked, “Do you support the repeal of Obamacare?” She added instructions for respondents who chose “yes” to retweet the poll along with what they’d like to see replace Obamacare, because apparently congressional Republicans are running low on ideas of their own.
Considering Blackburn is a staunch opponent of the ACA, it’s safe to assume she expected her followers to voice a resounding “yes” for its repeal. Unfortunately for Blackburn, her social media stunt backfired epically, when 84 percent of the roughly 8,000 Twitter users polled voted “no” on repealing Obamacare—showing that not too many people share Blackburn’s zeal for depriving millions of Americans of health care coverage.
Do you support the repeal of Obamacare? RT if you do, and share what you want to see as the replacement.— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@Sen. Marsha Blackburn) 1483458450
Blackburn isn’t the only one to make an embarrassing gaffe this week. On Thursday’s cover of The Washington Post’s Express, a crowd of people is arranged in the standard sex symbol for men. The only problem is that smack-dab in the center of the symbol is the title for the cover story about the Women’s March on Washington. Considering a significant amount of effort goes in to producing a magazine cover, it’s fairly clear not too many women were included in the process constructing of a story about women’s rights.
The Washington Post Express nailed it so hard this morning. Give it a second, you'll figure it out... #WomensMarch… https://t.co/oj4YulizPO— Tim Young (@Tim Young) 1483630597
The Verge’s Kaitlyn Tiffany pointed out that, in addition to having the wrong symbol, most of the people in the image weren’t even women. And when Express editors quickly scrambled to correct their error, they tweeted a misspelled apology along with a poorly edited photo correction featuring chopped-off midsections and scattered limbs to fill in the female symbol. If only this wasn’t such a perfect metaphor for the reality of being a woman in America.
This is how the cover should have looked. We apologize for the mistake. https://t.co/MKKOkHPV8T— Washington Post Express (@Washington Post Express) 1483630992
On the bright side, the story itself features some excellent reporting by two female writers. Let’s just hope the Express Photoshop team steps up their game so the cover can reflect the professionalism of the magazine’s contents.
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