Vanishing headlines: Left-wing outlet rewrites Trump Coke story without a trace
Op-ed | By Easton Martin | July 17, 2025
On Wednesday night, President Trump made a statement on Truth Social, claiming that Coca-Cola will go back to using real cane sugar in its original Coca-Cola formula.
The Daily Beast published a story about Trump’s statement and the brand’s response. In the original version, TDB claimed that Coca-Cola “called BS” on Trump’s assertion that the beverage company would return to using cane sugar in its flagship soda.
Coca-Cola, however, said nothing of the sort. An official statement from the brand read:
“We appreciate President Trump’s enthusiasm for our iconic Coca-Cola brand. More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon.”
Evidently, Coca-Cola did not “call BS” on Trump’s claim. While his statement remains unconfirmed by the company, that hasn’t stopped many on social media from echoing the sentiment of left-wing outlets like TDB.
The next day, July 17, The Daily Beast appeared to have completely revised the article, replacing it with one titled, “Trump’s Promise on Coke Recipe Fizzles Out Immediately as Coca-Cola Blanks Him.”
The article on The Daily Beast website is timestamped July 17 at 9:16 a.m. EDT, while the X post promoting it was published the night before, on July 16 at 7:54 p.m. EDT.
It’s understandable that TDB might want to retract or revise the piece due to its misleading headline. However, doing so without preserving the original or leaving an editorial note amounts to a form of media gaslighting.
This isn’t the first time the news outlet has been caught quietly deleting stories. Earlier this year, it published a piece alleging that Trump had been recruited by Soviet spies, only to delete it shortly after:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/daily-beast-publishes-then-deletes-234051086.html
Deleting or rewriting articles without follow-up or acknowledgment fosters public distrust, especially for a profession already suffering from a credibility crisis.
It is better for news organizations to avoid stealth edits and instead include clear editorial notes when stories are updated. Media gaslighting of this sort does nothing to restore faith in mainstream journalism.
