The Washington Post falsely suggested that Georgetown Preparatory School was hiring a new employee to deal with fallout from the Kavanaugh hearings, despite the school directly contradicting WaPo’s report.
Emily Heil reported on October 18 that Georgetown Prep was hiring a director of alumni relations, and wrote that the school posted the advertisement for the position this week. The article further suggested that the school was adding the position because of the news surrounding the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Georgetown Prep alum, to the Supreme Court.
However, Heil was informed prior to publication of her article by a spokesperson for Georgetown Prep that the position was posted back in July.
Heil specifically asked spokesperson Patrick Coyle when the alumni director job was posted, according to a copy of the email posted by @AG_Conservative.
“Just thought it was interesting, given all the attention that your alums have been getting recently,” Heil wrote to Coyle. “I wondered if the job had been posted before or after the Kavanaugh hearings, and anything else you can tell me about it.”
Coyle responded within eight minutes telling Heil that it was “posted in July 2018,” and pointed Heil to a group of other statements from Georgetown Prep.
As you can see from the email exchange below, a representative for the school responded to the Washington Post reporter, Emily Heil, 8 minutes after she first contacted the school. He clearly told her the position was posted in July.
WaPo chose to run with their story anyways. pic.twitter.com/eH3dNnjKdl
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) October 20, 2018
After Heil’s article was posted with the false claim that the job was posted this week, Coyle followed up asking for a correction.
“I noted in my message below that the Director of Alumni Relations position was posted in July 2018,” Coyle said. “Your article says, ‘The listing went up after Georgetown alumni were very much in the news.’ This is not true and I, in fact, gave you the month in which the position was posted.”
“Please correct your story immediately,” Coyle demanded.
WaPo added a correction to the top of the story that said, “A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Georgetown Prep posted a job listing this week for a director of alumni relations. The school began advertising for the position in July.”
Washington Post Correction (Screenshot Taken October 20, 2018)
Heil claimed on Twitter that the error was “unintentional” and that she inadvertently looked past the July date in Coyle’s first email.
This was a completely unintentional error-I read right over the date in haste. Story was corrected and correction is noted. Have a great weekend, all!
— Emily Heil (@emilyaheil) October 20, 2018
Heil’s corrected story still tied the alumni director position to the Kavanaugh hearings, and she claimed the job post is newsworthy regardless of when it was posted.
-I would have written the item no matter the date the job was posted
-I really did miss the response about the date-I KNOW I shouldn’t have, but that’s what mistakes are
-I don’t mean to sound blasé about a correction. Believe me, I hate them\have kicked myself plenty over it— Emily Heil (@emilyaheil) October 20, 2018