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welp an embarrassing number of music outlets ran an incorrect billie eilish story today. a thread and cautionary tale:
in august, billie eilish performed at the DNC, stating "donald trump is destroying our country and everything we care about." https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/billie-eilish-says-donald-trump-is-destroying-our-country">https://www.bustle.com/entertain...
today, the washington post ran a story about the trump administration& #39;s last-ditch effort to recruit celebs for a "public health campaign." an internal document flags billie eilish as "not a trump supporter" and quotes her DNC comment - again, about trump. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/10/29/trump-covid-advertising-celebrities/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/20...
but here& #39;s the problem: the washington post took billie eilish& #39;s DNC comment out of context as if the trump administration was saying billie eilish - not trump - is "destroying our country and everything we care about." that& #39;s incorrect.
here& #39;s a screenshot of the document with billie eilish& #39;s DNC quote. this is what the washington post framed wrong. https://twitter.com/JackFeerick/status/1321864698527158273">https://twitter.com/JackFeeri...
music media aggregated this incorrect take anyways, surely excited they had A Traffic Hit on their hands! if the washington post reported it, it must be true! https://twitter.com/stereogum/status/1321832980344700930">https://twitter.com/stereogum...
here are more outlets that failed to catch this is billie eilish’s DNC comment about trump, not the other way around
how could this& #39;ve been avoided? if any writer or editor took one second to google billie eilish + trump for background, they could& #39;ve caught the DNC quote was out of context. unfortunately, staff are under constant pressure to shave off that "one second" in the race for traffic
my advice: if you& #39;re working in the music media content machine of doom (my sympathies) do your best to rewire your brain from "react for traffic!!" to "that& #39;s wild let me check if it& #39;s true"
outlets are starting to correct their stories but a lot of billie eilish misquotes are still standing. stereogum just deleted theirs.
