Breaking News, MSNBC-Owned Twitter Account, Tweets News From 1985

The MSNBC Breaking News Twitter feed, appropriately called @BreakingNews, made a rather odd blunder today -- tweeting something out from 1985 as breaking news.

Posted at approximately 3:25 p.m. EST, the tweet read, "Gunfire erupts as police surround Philadelphia rowhouse occupied by activists from radical group MOVE http://bit.ly/9RhJSi"

Sure, this was a big story. The only problem? It was breaking news in 1985.

The story linked to has a clear dateline on it: "Mon, May. 13, 1985"

Twitter users quickly reacted to the mistake:

allen099: @BreakingNews Thank you for proving that yet again, research is not done much of the time. It's all about who's first. Thanks MSNBC.

PRStoetzer @BreakingNews This is a story from nearly 25 years ago!

stevehuff: Funnier than @BreakingNews accidentally tweeting a 25-yr-old news story - the stunning number of idiots unironically RT-ing it Twitter-wide.

Moments later, @BreakingNews caught wind of the error and posted a correction tweet: "Correction: Report of police confrontation with MOVE activists in Philadelphia is wrong; old story moved in Philly.com rss feed." Here's context on the 1985 bombing.

Comments

[bibimimi]

03:33 PM on 04/18/2010

News broken.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

01:16 PM on 04/18/2010

If this had happen on Fox they would be saying that is was liberal sabotage, that is if any of their fans noticed.

However, I will be interested to hear what happened.

[radiclib]

02:33 PM on 04/18/2010

.
.
Prez Lcln shot in theater by actr speaking Latin!
.
.

[bibimimi]

03:34 PM on 04/18/2010

This Day in Twitter History:

[PollyTics]

09:53 AM on 04/18/2010

It sounds like someone was either NEW or stayed out late the night before...wonder if this gets them fired?

[collies1]

08:55 AM on 04/18/2010

MSNBC is a joke. The network should just close up.

[Melizzy]

02:14 PM on 04/19/2010

Yes, many Americans have a hard time hearing politics in context with actual facts.

[ZDuck]

04:29 AM on 04/18/2010

Slow news day?

[Mark Estrada]

11:35 PM on 04/17/2010

older than the internet...literally...

[Lucifuge]

01:32 AM on 04/18/2010

Well, older than the internet as we now know it. But the internet was around long before 1985.

[Slash14]

09:50 PM on 04/17/2010

Ha Ha Ha. What a messed up news organization. These guys dont even know what decade it is. Ever see all the mess ups that happen on the Chris Mathews show?? These guys are the most incompetent place for politics.

[studmoose]

03:10 PM on 04/17/2010

They did that for the Tea Party crowd!

They are still living back in 1985 with Ronald Reagan.

[Jboz63]

01:18 PM on 04/17/2010

A few months back, Twitter had a trending topic of tweeting as if it were 1999. People were tweeting news and advertisements from 1999. Not that that is what is going on here. More likely MSNBC was commemorating the anniversary of the MOVE tragedy--after all it was 25 years ago--seems likely--esepcially since other news organizations also do this. (*Usually they put the note that it was 20 years ago today, somewhere). Mistakes happen. If it wasn't malicious and wasn't skewing things one way or the other politically, I'd say let it go.

[hey0there]

01:06 PM on 04/17/2010

Another 'let's make a silly mistake on purpose for free advertising of *insert feature here*

Sites should catch on to this nonsense because they are just giving away ad revenue

[hagagaga]

12:19 PM on 04/17/2010

YARRR

[Jboz63]

02:56 PM on 04/17/2010

Is it National Talk Like a Pirate Day already? ;-)

[Jboz63]

11:18 AM on 04/17/2010

Kind of a strange thing--I think they must have been trying to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sad event. Possibly they just hit send a little too quickly. Either that, or a time warp swept through MSNBC--quick check to see if the staff is sporting acid washed jeans, A Flock of Seagulls hair and giant jewelry.

[PhillyQuaker]

04:23 AM on 04/17/2010

A very sad time in Philadelphia's history. I'll never forget it.

http://claremarketreview.com/current/archives/639

[bibimimi]

03:37 PM on 04/18/2010

I moved there in late '86. There were still this reassuring banners touting it's urban renewal:

"PHILADELPHIA IN ON THE MOVE!!"

More precisely, I'd say they were all over them.

[bibimimi]

03:40 PM on 04/18/2010

...IS on the Move, dammit.

[General Public]

01:58 AM on 04/17/2010

This is what happens when you can't properly do Time Control. Only trained Bulldada Time Control Laboratories technicians have truly mastered this art.

[shirleyfeeney]

11:45 PM on 04/16/2010

msnbc isn't the only news source on Twitter. I've seen this happen with several that I follow, including BBC.

[Jboz63]

01:18 PM on 04/17/2010

Yup--I think they often do it on anniversaries of events/news stories.