Bloomingdale’s apologized and said it was pulling a shirt that said “fake news” from its stores after a complaint by two reporters, a change cheered by a number of other journalists.
Allison Kaden, a Pix11 reporter, was shopping at a store when she saw a yellow shirt on a mannequin that had the words emblazoned across the chest. She snapped a picture and took to Twitter to complain.
“Hey @Bloomingdales, this isn’t funny or fashionable. It further delegitimizes hard-working journalists who bring REAL news to their communties [sic],” Kaden wrote on Feb. 10.
“What the [expletive] is this?” Keith Olbermann, an ESPN analyst, added.
Bloomingdale’s wrote back the next day to say that it was working to remove the shirt and any others from its stores.
Hey @Bloomingdales, this isn’t funny or fashionable. It further delegitimizes hard working journalists who bring REAL news to their communties. pic.twitter.com/NedoHMAZfs
— Allison Kaden (@akadennews) February 10, 2019
Thank you for bringing this to our attention and we apologize for any offense we may have caused. We take this feedback very seriously and are working quickly to remove this t-shirt. Again, thank you for taking the time to alert us.
— Bloomingdale’s (@Bloomingdales) February 11, 2019
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention and we apologize for any offense we may have caused. We take this feedback very seriously and are working quickly to remove this t-shirt. Again, thank you for taking the time to alert us.”
For some reporters, though, just removing the shirt wasn’t enough.
Pamela Wood, a reporter with the Baltimore Sun, lambasted the store, claiming that the shirt did serious damage.
“Apologizing ‘for any offense we may have caused’ is not a sincere apology. This is not about journalists’ hurt feelings. This is about damage done to our democracy when your brand joins in perpetuating and celebrating the idea of ‘fake news.’ Please try again,” she wrote.
A number of other reporters cheered the removal of the shirt. Katie Rogers of the New York Times said Kaden’s complaint was a “public service” calling the shirt “[expletive] hideous.”
Hi, @bloomingdales. Apologizing “for any offense we may have caused” is not a sincere apology. This is not about journalists’ hurt feelings. This is about damage done to our democracy when your brand joins in perpetuating and celebrating the idea of “fake news.” Please try again.
— Pamela Wood (@pwoodreporter) February 11, 2019
David Clinch of Storyful, which chooses and distributes videos to news outlets around the world, added: “Ick. What a bad taste. Not funny at all.”
Kim Bellware, a reporter for City Bureau, said that Kaden’s role as a journalist was irrelevant and that she was just a customer complaining about a shirt. “It wasn’t … this larger, coordinated effort among a band of reporters,” she argued.
Other Twitter users slammed reporters for taking the time to complain about t-shirts when the industry is under heavy pressure amid rampant bias against President Donald Trump.
“You can tell journalists are very concerned at the erosion of our First Amendment when they band together to get a T-Shirt banned,” wrote Stephen Miller, a Fox News commentator.
You can tell journalists are very concerned at the erosion of our First Amendment when they band together to get a T-Shirt banned. https://t.co/akafK8Phnj
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) February 12, 2019
“This response is actually more discouraging than the fact that someone earnestly complained about the shirt to begin with,” added another user about Bloomingdale’s apology.
“Thanks for telling me never to shop at you [sic] stores. This shirt is not hate speech it is freedom of speech and expression. You just oppressed the rights of millions for 1 tweet,” added another.