The Washington Post in 2011 (Credit: Flickr/Daniel X. O'Neil)

The Washington Post upset many readers with its headline for a news story about the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last weekend.

The headline identified al-Baghdadi, the terrorist ISIS leader, as an “austere religious scholar.”

What’s unusual is that the first headline for the article read “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s ‘terrorist-in-chief,’ dies at 48.” Then it was changed to “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.” Finally it was changed to  “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48.”

In an Oct 27 tweet, Post spokesperson Kris Coratti Kelly wrote, “Regarding our al-Baghdadi obituary, the headline should never have read that way and we changed it quickly.”

https://twitter.com/kriscoratti/status/1188522256810631170

Coratti told CNN, “Post correspondents have spent years in Iraq and Syria documenting ISIS savagery, often at great personal risk. Unfortunately, a headline written in haste to portray the origins of al-Baghdadi and ISIS didn’t communicate that brutality. The headline was promptly changed.”

iMediaEthics has written to the Washington Post for more details.