USA Today updated a story tying the Trump campaign to a Nazi symbol of an eagle when critics condemned the paper, pointing out that eagles are prominent in America emblems, too.
Last weekend, the paper published a “fact-check” claiming “Trump's campaign website recently unveiled a T-shirt that has come under fire because of design similarities between its logo and a Nazi symbol” and coming to the conclusion that the claims are “true.”
USA TODAY DRAGGED FOR 'FACT CHECK' CLAIMING TRUMP CAMPAIGN SOLD SHIRTS WITH NAZI SYMBOL
After widespread backlash, the paper declared on Wednesday that the claim wasn’t true after all.
“Update: The rating on this article has been changed to inconclusive. It was updated to reflect further reporting and analysis,” the verified Twitter account for USA Today wrote.
The USA Today website added an editor’s note, informing readers that the original fact check is now inconclusive.
“The claims that a Trump campaign T-shirt has come under criticism for using a symbol similar to a Nazi eagle is TRUE, based on our research,” USA Today’s Will Peebles initially wrote.
USA Today corrected a “fact check” that first claimed it was true that “Trump's campaign website unveiled a T-shirt that has come under fire because of design similarities between its logo and a Nazi symbol."
Many critics pointed out that eagles are also used prominently by American groups such as the United States Marine Corps, which forced the USA Today to first clarify that “the eagle is a longtime US symbol, too,” but the clarification didn’t stop critics from mocking the paper and the story has now been updated.
“The U.S. government has many uses of eagle imagery in its official seals and emblems including on the ‘Great Seal of America,’ on the presidential seal and on the mace of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Trump campaign's T-shirt includes the use of an eagle that some claim bears resemblance to a Nazi eagle. We rate the claim that the Trump campaign is using Nazi imagery as INCONCLUSIVE, based on our research,” Peebles wrote in the updated version.
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USA Today’s initial tweet claiming the ruling was “true” received over 3,000 likes, while the update received less than 200 by Friday afternoon.
“If you have to keep updating and changing the results of a 'fact check,' maybe you should be doing them,” author Derek Hunter responded.
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