The Washington Post is considered a bastion of good journalism, and one would think the same standards apply to their free daily, the Express. And yet today, it embarrassed itself with a cover story on the Women’s March on Washington featuring the male symbol.
Screengrab via WaPo Express
The Daily Dot has reached out to Express for comment and will update if we get a response, but it’s hard to imagine just how many editors it went through with no one noticing it was the wrong symbol. Then again, I stared at it for a while without noticing anything was wrong, maybe because there was so much pink. Either way, Express removed the cover from Twitter and posted an apology.
We made a mistake on our cover this morning and we’re very embarrassed. We erroneously used a male symbol instead of a female symbol.
— Washington Post Express (@WaPoExpress) January 5, 2017
This is how the cover should have looked. We apologize for the mistake. pic.twitter.com/MKKOkHPV8T
— Washington Post Express (@WaPoExpress) January 5, 2017
Naturally, they’re getting roasted pretty hard.
Prince's symbol would have been closer https://t.co/aeQk2iv0dW
— Akilah Hughes (@AkilahObviously) January 5, 2017
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/817033328498974721
https://twitter.com/VanessaAJohn/status/817039592528318468
Both the WaPoExpress's original tweet and its apology had misspellings, too. pic.twitter.com/aQKcUxnZX4
— Tyler Coates (@tylercoates) January 5, 2017
While we’re unsure of the gender makeup of the Washington Post‘s art department, in 2014 they were close to having an all-male masthead. Better luck next time, folks.