Just so no one says we’re burying the lede here: The Huffington Post‘s UK edtion published a story detailing how Indonesia’s chief of police claims to know what happened to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Here’s a screencap of the headline, even:
Theories of what happened to Flight MH370 aren’t rare, although to be sure, Indonesia’s Kapolri Jenderal (Inspector-General of Police) Sutarman of Indonesia is a notable person to be putting forth such a theory.
Sutarman also claims to have consulted with former Malaysian Inspector-General of Police Tun Mohammed Hanif Omar, which we suppose lends another layer of credibility to his investigative process, if not for his actual theory – which he hasn’t deemed fit to share with the media just yet. A bit iffy.
But this isn’t about Kapolri Jenderal Sutarman, or his theory on what happened to Flight MH370; this is about HuffPost’s report itself. Quoting heavily from a Kompas article, the HuffPost decided to add a photo of Sutarman to its own report:
Uh, dudes? That’s not Kapolri Jenderal Sutarman of Indonesia.
That’s actually Malaysia’s current Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, who up to this point hasn’t even been part of the discussion. But thanks to the HuffPost, we have three national chiefs of police from two different countries involved in a report on a theory about a missing jetliner that wasn’t actually revealed to the public because of reasons.
Look, HuffPost UK, a sketchy story about an air crash theory that hasn’t even been disclosed is bad enough. But when you start mixing people’s identities, it only serves to weaken your claim to verified information.
We’re sure readers in the UK wouldn’t be amused if we ran a story titled “British Prime Minister David Cameron decides to invade the Falklands again” and accompanied it with a photo of Benedict Cumberbatch looking prime ministerial.
Or maybe they would be, if we published it as the UK edition of The Huffington Post.
