As Twitchy told you earlier, the Economist ran with a disgusting, straight-up lie sliming Ben Shapiro as “alt-right.” Shapiro — and plenty of others — called the Economist out on their B.S.

Well, Economist senior editor Anne McElvoy would like to clear things up:

Hello Ben – in fairness I think we said sth like a figure in Alt-right thinking, but not really a "label" — anne mcelvoy (@annemcelvoy) March 28, 2019

Did you read the article’s headline, Anne? “Alt-right sage” is what it said. Everyone saw it. And if that wasn’t a label, we don’t know what was.

But it’s OK, because the Economist has issued a correction:

Added note, but tweet not deleted. Ratio growing…

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"This article has been changed. A previous version mistakenly described Mr Shapiro as an "alt-right sage" and "a pop idol of the alt right". In fact, he has been strongly critical of the alt-right movement. We apologise." https://t.co/zUXE8FcoEM — Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) March 28, 2019

In fairness, as Anne would say, we really shouldn’t expect journalists to do research.

.@TheEconomist has now changed their headline — now I'm a "radical conservative." At least that's defensible. Here's their correction and apology. pic.twitter.com/oGxv6iXuq1 — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 28, 2019

Yeah, just to show that they’re willing to act in good faith going forward, they’ve changed their headline to something a little less inflammatory. Ben’s just a “radical conservative” now. Baby steps!

Good on @TheEconomist for changing this.

Let's not do this again. pic.twitter.com/GRV8qcIanK — Señia (@ayasgirl) March 28, 2019

um radical conservative wth does that mean though https://t.co/i71xeeDGdY — Charles (@repub9989) March 28, 2019

Radical isn't great either, but I'm curious as to why they think Ben is radical.

Is it because he's an actual conservative who walks the walk? Bc Ben is really just an old school conservative.

Do they know what a conservative is? https://t.co/uPweI8qfkV — Señia (@ayasgirl) March 28, 2019

Better question: Do they care what a conservative is?

As you said, it's all relative. From where they stand, he's way out there. It really says more about them than it does about @benshapiro — Chris Wilson (@mrbodo69) March 28, 2019

It really does.

This is quite the …. correction. Seems like it warrants a retraction of the whole article, honestly. pic.twitter.com/PMIznuE7km — Corie Whalen (@CorieWhalen) March 28, 2019

This was not a 'mistake' by the @TheEconomist about Ben Shapiro. It was ignorant wishcasting that any editor should've caught. It's as if they are trying to prove their critics right. pic.twitter.com/qBrMRmY2sd — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) March 28, 2019

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with an additional tweet.

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Update:

Aaaaaaand now it's gone. Retreat complete. https://t.co/XEy8tpyqVL — Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) March 28, 2019

Their retreat may be complete … but their beclownment continues.