Politico Headline Reportedly Read: ‘2 U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan Insider Attackhaha...\

A Politico headline that briefly read "2 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan insider attackhaha i" is making the rounds on Twitter and conservative media, and the screen grabs appear to be legitimate.

Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon was one of the first to catch the error:

(Photo: Twitter/@lachlan)

The headline was almost immediately changed to "2 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan," but a Google search of the story indicates that it was originally published with the botched title.  Google takes a bit longer to update story titles than the original publisher.

(Photo: Google screen grab)

Politico has issued a psuedo-apology at the top of the story, saying the "haha" element of the title was part of a separate conversation and certainly not meant for publication.

"Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story included unrelated text that was inadvertently written into the headline field. The text was not connected to the story but part of a separate conversation. We regret the error,"the statement reads.

Online writers often communicate online through Google Chat or some other instant messaging service, and it's quite possible the text accidentally made it into the title.

Still, quite an unfortunate place to make such a mistake.

(H/T: WeaselZippers)

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