USA Today under fire for allowing Stacey Abrams to retroactively edit op-ed to downplay boycott support

USA Today is facing intense backlash for allowing prominent Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams to retroactively make changes to a March 31 op-ed that watered-down her support for boycotts after Major League Baseball (MLB) moved its All-Star game out of Atlanta days later.

"Can’t say I’m surprised. The left spends weeks spreading lies and promoting boycotts, and their pals in the national media cover their tracks," Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted on Tuesday after Fox News first reported on the controversial USA Today op-ed. "Stacey Abrams can’t have it both ways. Hardworking Georgians deserve the truth."

"Stacey Abrams called for boycotts of Georgia—then when the MLB fell for her lies, she tried to rewrite her own words and cover it up with help from @USAToday," former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler reacted. "Now, hardworking Georgians are set to lose $100 million—and they know exactly who’s to blame."

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark, who has been the subject of various "fact-checks" after accusing Abrams of emboldening the boycotts against the Peach State, wrote, "The media is trying to cover up Stacey Abrams's role in MLB's boycott of Georgia."

It wasn't until last week that USA Today included an editor's note to the op-ed, which was "updated" by Abrams on April 6.

A spokesperson for Gannett, USA Today's parent company, told Fox News, "We regret the oversight in updating the Stacey Abrams column. As soon as we recognized there was no editor’s note, we added it to the page to reflect her changes. We have reviewed our procedures to ensure this does not occur again."

"Wow -- USA Today admits to letting @staceyabrams edit her op-ed after the MLB move to make it look like she had always been staunchly against boycotts but the problem isn't just that they didn't include a note, it's that they let someone edit an op-ed to cover their tracks!" exclaimed GOP strategist Matt Whitlock, who first spotted the stealth edits to the USA Today op-ed.

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