George Soros speaks at a conference in Berlin, April 2012. (photo credit: AP)
Reuters news agency apologized Thursday night for mistakenly publishing a pre-written obituary of Jewish financier and philanthropist George Soros.
The obituary was posted on the Reuters news feed with the headline “George Soros, enigmatic financier, liberal philanthropist dies at XX,” and was removed shortly afterwards — but not before attracting considerable social media ridicule for the news agency.
“A spokesman for Soros said that the New York-based financier is alive and well. Reuters regrets the error,” read a later post on the Reuters news feed.
Reuters mistakenly published a pre-written obituary of financier George Soros (photo credit: screen capture Reuters.com)
The 1,100 word obituary, penned by Todd Eastham, described Soros as “a predatory and hugely successful financier and investor,” going on to discuss his possible role in triggering the Asian financial crisis of 1997, his investment philosophy influenced by the teachings of Karl Popper and his global and political financial contributions.
News of the Reuters mistake spread across the Internet like wildfire, with thousands of mentions on Facebook and Twitter.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
Reuters reporter Mathew Keys wrote that “George Soros is living every man’s dream: Reading what people might say about him at his funeral.”
Earlier this week, Forbes Israel ranked Soros, 82, as the world’s seventh-richest Jew, with an estimated fortune of $19.2 billion.
Advertisement
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
