Twitter Slams The Office‘s Jenna Fischer For Inaccurate Tweet About GOP Tax Bill
Pam from The Office has been getting flack on Twitter for an inaccurate tweet she made over the weekend.
On Saturday, actress Jenna Fischer weighed in on recently passed GOP tax bill, putting a focus on teachers who supposedly can “no longer deduct the cost of their classroom supplies on their taxes.”
I can’t stop thinking about how school teachers can no longer deduct the cost of their classroom supplies on their taxes…something they shouldn’t have to pay for with their own money in the first place. I mean, imagine if nurses had to go buy their own syringes. #ugh
— Jenna Fischer (@jennafischer) December 23, 2017
Fact check: The $250 school supplies deduction was actually kept in the bill.
And several conservatives and reporters on Twitter took issue with her “factually wrong” tweet.
This isn’t true. Even @CNN says so. pic.twitter.com/hUiOVsl494
— Austen Fletcher (@fleccas) December 24, 2017
It was capped at $250 before the bill. It’s still capped at $250. Nothing changed. You are misleading people.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) December 24, 2017
.@jennafischer‘s tweet is factually wrong. Teachers will still enjoy these deductions. Jenna should do her homework before tweeting. https://t.co/QjRbrOmFnw
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) December 25, 2017
Me, direct to camera: “Maybe this fact will put @jennafischer‘s mind at ease, and maybe she’ll correct her tweet for her followers.” ::shrugs adorably:: https://t.co/IhoOhkWPsZ
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) December 24, 2017
I don’t want to fight with Pam from The Office, but this is not true. Final tax bill kept the $250 school supplies deduction https://t.co/8ZavNj5V5z https://t.co/c6AMoVqcg3
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) December 24, 2017
This deduction was not eliminated in the bill that passed. Given that you have hundreds of thousands of followers, don’t you have a responsibility to make sure you’re not giving them false information?
Please consider at least deleting and tweeting a correction.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) December 24, 2017
On Christmas Day, Fischer followed up by saying she “had some facts wrong.”
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
It’s worth noting that her initial tweet had over 65,000 retweets and over 219,000 likes. Her correction has only roughly 450 retweets and roughly 4,000 likes.
[image via screengrab]
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