The Associated Press made a funny foul up on Monday, mistaking Pope Francis advisor Cardinal Reinhard Marx with 19th century intellectual and the founder of Marxism, Karl Marx.
In a story about the Pope’s recent statement that gays and other people the church has marginalized deserve an apology, the AP noted that Francis was asked if he agreed with “one of his top advisers, German Cardinal Karl Marx.”
Whoopsie!
The AP corrected its mistake — but not before the Washington Free Beacon’s Matthew Walther finagled a screen grab.
https://twitter.com/matthewwalther/status/747192662990565377
Karl Marx, of course, was a philosopher, economist, sociologist and journalist who died in 1883 after founding Marxism.
Reinhard Marx, meanwhile, is one of the Pope’s closest advisors. He serves as chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference. And he is still very much alive.
The AP is normally so accurate that a tiny mental lapse is newsworthy from a media perspective. The story is now correct and featured a note stating that the story was fixed to indicate the cardinal’s name is Reinhard, not Karl.
“Francis was asked Sunday en route home from Armenia if he agreed with one of his top advisers, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who told a conference in Dublin in the days after the deadly Orlando gay club attack that the church owes an apology to gays for having marginalized them,” the updated AP story notes.