Kind of reminds me of the "motte and bailey"[0]. The misleading but technically accurate claim gets all the play and all the reaction. The author goes on Twitte

Kind of reminds me of the "motte and bailey"[0]. The misleading but technically accurate claim gets all the play and all the reaction. The author goes on Twitter and says "golly gee I didn't mean for you take it like that, all I really meant was [much weaker claim that wouldn't have gotten all this attention in the first place]." The correction bounces around but never takes hold the way the initial claim does and people quietly go on believing their initial interpretation. Sad. [0] http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Motte_and_bailey http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Motte_and_bailey