Actress Jenna Fischer apologized on Twitter after she shared inaccurate information to her followers about the new GOP tax bill that was just signed into law.
A few days after one of her tweets went viral, she deleted it and offered a lengthy and transparent explanation behind what went into removing it from her Twitter account.
“I made a mistake and I want to correct it,” she wrote. “After reading your feedback and doing additional research, I discovered that I tweeted something that was not accurate,” Fischer wrote on Twitter.
I’ve deleted a tweet and would like to issue an apology. Please read and re-tweet to help me spread the word! Thanks! pic.twitter.com/R6CNyn4bVV
— Jenna Fischer (@jennafischer) December 27, 2017
Last week, Fischer tweeted to her followers how appalling it was that the just-passed GOP tax bill included a provision to repeal a $250 deduction for teachers who pay out of pocket for school supplies. The post went viral as many were also outraged.
Except there was a problem with Fischer’s initial tweet: While the repeal on the $250 tax deduction was in an earlier version of the GOP tax bill, the deduction itself made it into the final version of the bill, which was signed into law by Donald Trump.
Immediately, people took to Twitter to correct Fischer about her tweet. She back-peddled on the repeal part of her tweet, but then called the $250 limit that made it into the bill “woefully insufficient.” However, that was wrong too. The $250 deduction limit for teachers was in effect before the GOP tax bill became law, a deduction that was made permanent in 2016.
She took the criticism she received to heart, and a couple days later posted more information she had learned about the tax deduction. (According to Politifact, Fischer’s correction was liked and retweeted significantly less than her initial and inaccurate tweet.)
Thanks for your tweets! I had some facts wrong. Teachers surveyed by Scholastic in 2016 personally spent an average of $530 on school supplies for students. Teachers who worked at high-poverty schools spent an average of $672. The tax deduction was capped at $250.
— Jenna Fischer (@jennafischer) December 25, 2017
While Fischer acknowledged that she was behind on her research and shared inaccurate information, she initially hesitated in removing the original tweet because of the dialogue it started. But she ultimately decided that it was more important for her to listen and admit that she was wrong and thus deleted it.
“I’m not ashamed to say I was wrong and I’m not ashamed to correct it,” Fischer wrote. “I was taught that taking responsibility is the right thing to do. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) Please accept my apology.”
H/T NY Daily News
