Actress Jenna Fischer, famous for her role in “The Office,” apologized for her viral tweet claiming that the Republican tax bill got rid of the ability for teachers to deduct schoolroom supplies on their taxes.
In Fischer’s original tweet, she claimed that under the Republican tax plan, “school teachers can no longer deduct the cost of their classroom supplies on their taxes.” She likened the scenario to one in which nurses would need to purchase their own syringes to use on patients.
The tweet went viral, garnering over 65,000 retweets and 221,000 likes. It did, however, not go unchallenged. Even PolitiFact scored Fischer’s remark as “false,” which seemingly prompted her apology.
At first, Fischer attempted to dodge the fact that the deduction was still in place by merely tweeting that teachers often spend more than $250 on classroom supplies:
Thanks for your tweets! I had some facts wrong. Teachers surveyed by Scholastic in 2016 personally spent an average of $530 on school supplies for students. Teachers who worked at high-poverty schools spent an average of $672. The tax deduction was capped at $250.
— Jenna Fischer (@jennafischer) December 25, 2017
However, in a lengthy apology, Fischer owned up to her mistake. She wrote that she was sorry and she “did not mean to spread misinformation.” She claimed she deleted the tweet because she feels “accuracy is important.”
While Fischer wrote that she considered leaving the inaccurate tweet up in order to start a dialogue, she admitted that a dialogue should not be started with a false point. Ultimately, after thanking her parents for teaching her the importance of honestly, Fischer wrote, “I’m not ashamed to say I was wrong and I’m not ashamed to correct it”:
I've deleted a tweet and would like to issue an apology. Please read and re-tweet to help me spread the word! Thanks! pic.twitter.com/R6CNyn4bVV
— Jenna Fischer (@jennafischer) December 27, 2017
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