Alt-right website Breitbart .com has had more than its share of controversy over the years. They certainly have gotten a lot wrong along the way too. This time, their mistake was to include a picture of former Arsenal FC flop Lukas Podolski in a story entitled “Spanish Police Crack Gang Moving Migrants on Jet-Skis.”
Podolski, a Polish born German international who now plays his club ball for J-League sideย Vissel Kobe, has absolutely nothing to do the subject matter of the story. The only connection he has to the Breitbart “article” is the fact that he’s on a jetski in the photo.
That photo by the way was taken back in 2014, near Germany’s training camp for the World Cup that summer. Podolski is actually retired from international football these days. Breitbart took a lot of heat, as they often do for most things, on this one; with the ex Arsenal man being widely recognized all across the world wide web.
The backlash forced Breitbart to issue a retraction, apology and remove the photo.
“A previous version of this story included an image of Lukas Podolski on a jet ski,” the publication explained.
Breitbart published a story about migrant gang members, using a photo of a major soccer star https://t.co/DlukEMiuHF
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 21, 2017
“This image appeared as an illustration of a person on a jet ski. Breitbart London wishes to apologise to Mr. Podolski. There is no evidence Mr. Podolski is either a migrant gang member, nor being human trafficked. We wish Mr. Podolski well in his recently announced international retirement.”
Paul M. Banks runsย The Sports Bank.netย and TheBank.News, which is partnered withย News Nowย and Minute Media.ย Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times,ย NBC Chicago.comย andย Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly toย WGN CLTV andย Chicago Now.
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