Updated Monday, Jan. 1, 2018, 5:04 p.m. EST: Shortly after this post went live, Newsweek issued an apology to Bernice King for the insensitive photo from its Twitter account:
Earlier:
Newsweek is catching hell on the first day in 2018, and it all stems from a photo accompanying a tweet for an article titled, “Has Anyone Seen My Old Friend Martin?”
Instead of tweeting out a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. when he was alive, some idiot social media editor decided to tweet a photo of King in his casket. And of course social media was livid.
King’s daughter Bernice King couldn’t believe what she was seeing:
The article the photo referenced was a repost of an article that first appeared on the Council on Foreign Affairs site, which listed historical anniversaries of note for 2018.
April 4 will mark the 50th anniversary of MLK’s assassination. There are tons of other photos of King on Getty Images and AP Images (like the one used at the top of this post), but who would pick such a tasteless photo of King in a casket?
Newsweek’s tweet was eventually deleted, but no explanation or apology was issued. Of course.
DISCUSSION
I’m actually a bit traumatized by this. I hope the King family sues the ish out of them for disrespecting him.
This was the work of some deeply angry and “I’m entitled” SOB.