Depending on how much coffee you had this morning or what kind of evening you had last night, it might have taken you a second to put your Where’s Waldo hat on and spot the mistake on the cover of today’s Washington Post Express(if you looked at it, that is). But then you did, and boy, was it a big one.
Around 8:30 this morning, The Washington Post Express posted a message on Facebook along with the cover of today’s newspaper, meant to be a revolutionary one about the Women’s March on Washington and how it first got its start ( The Little Engine That Could, if you will). It read: “Today’a cover: The Women’s March on Washington started on Facebook. Now it’s expected to be the largest rally linked to the inauguration.”
While we didn't manage to get a screen capture of that Facebook post (replete with typo, hi, we see you!), several Twitter users were quick to start saving the receipts.
Did @washingtonpost figure nobody'd notice or care it used male symbol to hype story on women's rights march? #media #gender #fakenews #oops pic.twitter.com/Qo9OYyuppT
— Scott Steepleton (@ScottSteepleton) January 5, 2017
Elsewhere on Twitter, people expressed some befuddlement over the cover. Some were confused:
@WaPoExpress How does that even happen?
— Jess [GuerillaGirl] (@guerillagirl) January 5, 2017
Some asked the questions we were all asking ourselves:
@WaPoExpress do you have any women on your edit team
— sara david (@SaraQDavid) January 5, 2017
Others took matters into their own hands:
Hi @WaPoExpress! I fixed it pic.twitter.com/aqfe6GWarL
— Giulia Rozzi (@GiuliaRozzi) January 5, 2017
There were also some logical responses:
Listen, everybody makes mistakes. But perhaps this is a sign that @WaPoExpress needs to hire more women in the art dept. ♀ pic.twitter.com/GDHYN5xuy7
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) January 5, 2017
Though by the time of publication, The Washington Post Express hadn’t responded directly to our request for comment, the newspaper was pretty swift to post its apology on Twitter.
“We made a mistake on our cover this morning and we’re very embarrassed. We erroneously used a male symbol instead of a female symbol.” And in a separate tweet with a revised cover: “This is how the cover should have looked. We apologize for the mistake.”
We made a mistake on our cover this morning and we’re very embarrassed. We erroneously used a male symbol instead of a female symbol.
— Express (@WaPoExpress) January 5, 2017
This is how the cover should have looked. We apologize for the mistake. pic.twitter.com/MKKOkHPV8T
— Express (@WaPoExpress) January 5, 2017
Is this a sign of the secret sexism that seeps through everything all the time and cannot be contained? Maybe (probably?). Is a sign that the safety nets we used to have in journalism — fact-checkers and copy editors, for instance — are dwindling and there is more of this to come? Perhaps. (Though we hope not!)
We’re just glad this didn’t go to print. Oh wait…
@WaPoExpress it got to PRINT. pic.twitter.com/4ZGF0qNH9v
— Elizabeth Grattan (@egrattan) January 5, 2017
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