A Twitter comment from the Associated Press, the international wire service begun in the 1800s to enable newspapers to share stories with each other, blasting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for using a private jet for her travels has bounced back.
It seems the AP's criticism – "Education Secretary DeVos uses a private jet to fly around the country to tour schools and attend other work events" – failed to mention that the jet in question is owned by DeVos.
And she doesn't even ask for or accept lodging expenses or per diem when she's doing the taxpayers' work.
The wire service eventually corrected itself, stating: "The AP has deleted a tweet on DeVos using a private jet for work because it didn't note that she owns the plane. A new tweet is upcoming."
The AP eventually updated its headline to read, "On work trips, DeVos flies on her plane at own expense," and deleted the misleading tweet, reported the Washington Free Beacon.
The Beacon's Alex Griswold reported the AP's tweet was accompanied by a story with the same message.
"The story comes in the context of a controversy over Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's use of private chartered planes to travel at taxpayers' expense. The AP's reporting was widely shared by angry liberal readers, including one Democratic delegate and supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who suggested that DeVos should be the prisoner of a rapist for her use of a private plane," the report said.
"But as the AP's own story admits, DeVos pays for the jet out of her own pocket and the travel adheres to all federal guidelines."
It quoted a statement from a DeVos spokesman: "The secretary neither seeks, nor accepts, any reimbursement for her flights, nor for any additional official travel-related expenses, such as lodging and per diem, even though she is entitled to such reimbursement under government travel regulations. Secretary DeVos accepted her position to serve the public and is fully committed to being a faithful steward of taxpayer dollars."
On Twitter, the news agency was offered a number of suggestions, including, "Might want to ask Hillary how she made close to $200mil AS A PUBLIC SERVANT."
And the sarcastic: "So sorry. We just happened to leave out the part of the story that renders it a non-story. Whoops!"