The IDF’s Twitter feed has been having a bit of fun at the expense of the Iranian regime leadership. A clever meme caught the attention of, among others, Newsweek:
Does that look like Benjamin Netanyahu to you?!
In fact, the figure next to Khameini and Rouhani is actually Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force.
A pretty embarrassing error given that Netanyahu is one of the most recognizable leaders on the world stage and not something that you’d expect from a credible news outlet.
We contacted Newsweek, which promptly fixed the error and printed the following correction:
Correction (10/4, 2:30 p.m. EDT): This story has been updated to correct the identities of the men in the original meme.
Newsweek wasn’t the only one to get it wrong though. Spare a thought for the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik, a fine purveyor of fake news and clickbait. Given the chummy Russian relationship with the Iranians, you’d think maybe they’d get it right?
Pretty embarrassing when Russian propaganda outfit @SputnikInt can't tell the difference between the Israeli prime minister and the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force in an @IDF tweet. 😂😂 https://t.co/lGIJw9oOBj pic.twitter.com/hSCiuw5VAg
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 4, 2019
So unprofessional is Sputnik that it appears that it looks to actual media outlets such as Newsweek for its stories. This time it didn’t pay to plagiarize.
We aren’t going to hold our breath for a correction from Russian President Putin.
