WaPo calls Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIS an ‘austere religious scholar’, then changes it to ‘extremist leader’

Yesterday, The Washington Post published an obituary on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader who was killed during a raid in northern Syria on October 26. The Post faced backlash when its headline described Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State”.

Curiously, this wasn’t the first iteration of the headline. The obituary was first published with the headline “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s ‘terrorist-in-chief’, dies at 48”. This was changed to “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48”.

The headline was finally set at “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48”.

On Twitter, Kristine Coratti Kelly, the vice-president of communications and general manager of Washington Post Live, posted that the headline “should never have read that way”.

The Post received immediate flak on Twitter, including from Donald Trump Jr, and former press secretary in the White House, Sean Spicer.

Shortly after, the hashtag #WaPoDeathNotices began trending on Twitter.