Boston Globe roasted for 'flat out lie' headline

Update: The Boston Globe has issued an apology and correction for its headline.

Accurate headlines are crucially important, especially in a social media age where they’re not just the first but often the only thing many see. But there are particular challenges there for wire services and the journalists who work for them; while their stories get published on the wire services’ own sites with headlines from the reporters and/or editors involved, the newspapers and other clients that subscribe to them can rewrite headlines as they choose. And sometimes, those new headlines blatantly contradict the story.

That happened with The Boston Globe this week. In the wake of the controversy about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif advancing in the Olympics after opponent Angela Carini quit after 46 seconds Thursday, the Globe covered that with an Associated Press story from Greg Beacham in both their print edition and in their mobile edition. On the AP’s site, that story from Thursday has the accurate headline of “ Algeria boxer Imane Khelif wins first Olympic fight when opponent Angela Carini quits .”

But when the Globe picked it up, both their print and mobile editions went with the inaccurate “transgender boxer.” And they got called out for that:

As Beacham (who has taken far too much Twitter/X flak over this, something he had nothing to do with) noted, yes, he did not write that headline, nor include that word in his story:

And yes, that is a completely inaccurate headline. There has been nothing to suggest that Khelif is transgender: her birth certificate and passport both have her categorized as a woman, and her country prohibits gender transition. And even the claims of secret tests for testosterone or “XY chromosomes” by the International Boxing Association that led to the disqualifications of Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan at their 2023 world championships should come with extreme skepticism.

As Beacham explained well in a separate story Saturday , there’s a lot of important context to those claims. That includes the Russian-based IBA’s ban from the Olympics over corruption, their lack of a clear process or explanation for those tests, Russia’s overall feud with the International Olympic Committee, and the IBA’s involvement in Russia’s competing “World Friendship Games” (and vow to offer Carini the financial prize associated with an Olympic medal).

But even that organization does not appear to have specifically claimed that either boxer is transgender. Instead, they merely claimed that the boxers “failed to meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors” (which could be about high testosterone levels, difference of sex development characteristics, Swyer syndrome, or many other things , and it has not been proven that these athletes have any of that).

Still, many have inappropriately muddied the waters here by pairing their commentary on Khelif with discussion of transgender athletes. That includes Pat McAfee on his ESPN and YouTube platforms. And while the Globe did subsequently change their online headline for this to “Imane Khelif, Algeria boxer who had gender test issue, wins first Olympic bout,” they were a big part of the spread of misinformation here.

The really rich part of this? A featured story on the Globe homepage Saturday was columnist Tara Sullivan’s piece correctly noting that many covering the Khelif and Yu-ting saga were missing the facts.

Sullivan is quite right there. But the people missing the facts include whoever at the Globe inserted the “Transgender” headline atop Beacham’s piece. And many noted that, especially in responses to the paper’s tweet of Sullivan’s column:

As with Beacham, that’s not Sullivan’s fault (it does not seem likely she’s the person who put “transgender” in the Globe’s headline for the AP story). But it’s unfortunate for her to see her work submarined by the erroneous editing of a colleague. And it’s unfortunate for Beacham and the AP to have an accurate story draw flak thanks to someone at one client making the decision to dramatically alter the headline with an inaccurate term.

Meanwhile, Khelif won her semifinal bout against Anna Luca Hamori Saturday in the women’s 66-kilogram division, guaranteeing she’ll win an Olympic medal. You can read Beacham’s coverage of that at the AP site . And perhaps that’s a good place to go for his coverage of this saga (which he’s done an excellent job with overall ), as it can’t be misrepresented by someone at a client paper. However, the Globe did at least present his headline accurately this time around:

[Image via Alejandra Caraballo on X/Twitter]

The post Boston Globe roasted for ‘flat out lie’ headline of ‘Transgender boxer advances’ on AP story that didn’t say that appeared first on Awful Announcing .