People took to social media to decry the Wall Street Journal’s poorly-crafted headline that it published Wednesday when describing Japan’s red ant problem.
The WSJ changed it’s original headline – “Kon-ouchy-wa! Japan is freaking out about fire ants” – to “Evacuate the Sandbox! Japan Is Freaking Out About Fire Ants” after it received heavy backlash on social media. Both headlines do however, set up the article’s loquacious description of the “powerful fangs” belonging to the “miscreants now terrorizing Japan,” namely, fire ants.
The first title isn’t the only pun in the WSJ’s article, however, with lines like “as more marauders breached the nation’s borders, television-news shows began fanning concerns of a crippling attack,” and “to some outsiders, however, this island nation may be making a mountain out of an anthill.”
Readers were most disgusted with its Twitter title, and took to social media to express their feelings.
Kon-ouchy-wa! Japan is freaking out about fire ants https://t.co/GeJgAwJ1nD
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 26, 2017
One Twitter user wrote, “This is an awful title. Don’t be patronizing,” while another wrote “Hahaha hahaha” above a meme of Judge Judy sighing and putting her hand to her forehead.
What the actual fuck? pic.twitter.com/QxMt8dmG92
— James Brooks (@hannibalsbuffet) July 26, 2017
One commenter wrote, “I have a feeling people are going to react poorly to that title. Just saying,” while another anticipated that sensitive readers might not appreciate the headline, saying, “Please be prepared to change that headline for the loser SJWs of the world.”
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