"#WaPoDeathNotices" quickly hit Twitter's "trending" section after the Washington Post published a bizarre headline in its obituaries section describing deceased ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a U.S. military raid Saturday, an "austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State."
"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48," the WaPo headline read.
If that weren't bad enough, the actual article went on to lament, "The man who would become the founding leader of the world’s most brutal terrorist group spent his early adult years as an obscure academic, aiming for a quiet life as a professor of Islamic law,” moving on to focus on the terrorist leader's academic background rather than his infamous record of brutality as the leader of the Islamic State.
Disgusted with the Post's description, Twitter quickly began mocking the publication with other suggestions for their obits.
Ted Bundy, unconventional pickup artist, dies, shockingly, at 42 #WaPoDeathNotices
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) October 27, 2019
Attila the Hun, world traveler and government administrator, dies at 47. #WaPoDeathNotices
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) October 27, 2019
Mussolini, community service volunteer renown for getting the trains to run on time, dies at 61. #wapodeathnotices https://t.co/vS5FNSaHlD
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 27, 2019
Nero, emperor who helped Christians bring light to Rome, dies at 30. #WaPoDeathNotices
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) October 27, 2019
Adolf Hitler, passionate community planner and dynamic public speaker, dies at 56.#WaPoDeathNotices
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) October 27, 2019
Jeffrey Dahmer, student of human anatomy and connoisseur of unique cuisine, dies at age 34. #WapoDeathNotices
— Brittany Hughes (@RealBrittHughes) October 27, 2019
John Wilkes Booth, noted thespian, dies at age 24. #WaPoDeathNotices
— Justin (@trojanjustin) October 27, 2019
Charles Manson, devout family man and Beach Boys super fan, passes away at 83. #WaPoDeathNotices
— The Red-Headed Libertarian (@TRHLofficial) October 27, 2019
As of 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, the trending hashtag had more than 130,000 related tweets.
WaPo spokesperson Kristine Coratti Kelly tweeted that the headline “should never have read that way and we changed it quickly.”
Too little, too late.