As we told you earlier, two oil tankers were reportedly attacked in the Gulf of Oman near Iran. The Washington Post’s Beirut bureau chief put it this way:

Big escalation in the Persian Gulf. Two oil tankers struck and on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, focus of US-Iran tensions. Comes after Trump failed to heed the last tanker warning & imposed more sanctions https://t.co/zrEiVf5eIK — Liz Sly (@LizSly) June 13, 2019

That tweet sparked more than a few huge eye rolls:

Wait…. you’re blaming Trump for Iran blowing up tankers?? — EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) June 13, 2019

Failed to heed warnings? He did heed warnings and imposed more sanctions. Now he has to do more as the Iranians failed to heed warnings. — Julia (@TurtledoveJB) June 13, 2019

How much did the Iranian government pay you for this tweet? Holy crap you couldn't be more of a shill for Iran if you tried. https://t.co/LN1F9PRM35 — Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) June 13, 2019

Honestly if we sent more pallets of cash things would be fine. Ransom is actually good. — Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) June 13, 2019

I'm just here for the ratio for this dumpster fire of a take. pic.twitter.com/phls2AXCoo — Dan Goldwasser (@dgoldwas) June 13, 2019

After a few hours, the WaPo correspondent obviously felt a “clarification” was in order. Here it is:

I posted a clarification to this but it seems people didn't see it. I meant failed to only in the sense of "didn't." Or simply “It comes after the last warning was followed by new sanctions”. No intent to blame anyone, just describing a sequence. — Liz Sly (@LizSly) June 13, 2019

Does that make everything better? Not everybody thought so:

This #CYA attempt is a miss. — SmirKing Revenge (@InvisibleHand78) June 13, 2019

I don't think this is going to help. https://t.co/ibfKaY65j1 — ❌NotASpookyFeminist (@No3rdWaveFem) June 13, 2019

What a farcical response. I read "failed" as "didn't" in your original tweet – your clarification changes nothing. You are advocating appeasing our enemies and blaming Trump for the actions of Iran. For that, you are being rightfully criticized. Take your medicine. https://t.co/zDWJ387ILF — Girl_Grimly (@ed_grimly) June 13, 2019

Ah, “journalism” in the Trump era.