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CORRECTION: The Truth About Max Boot's 'Fancy Top Hat'

The Free Beacon regrets the error

July 25, 2022

A note from the Washington Free Beacon ombudsman:

Max Boot and other Free Beacon readers flooded my inbox in response to our July 20 story on Boot's inflammatory comments about U.S. military veterans. The Washington Post columnist denounced the "typically juvenile and distorted piece … from your propsposterous [sic], fact-free publication."

READ MORE: Wannabe Soldier Max Boot Insults Army Veterans

The vast majority of reactions were positive. "That was a good article on a piece of garbage," wrote James K., who was one of several readers to take issue with a key detail in the piece: our use of the phrase "fancy top hat" to describe the headpiece Boot wears to cover his giant bald head. Some insisted Boot's hat was actually a fedora, while others suggested it be more accurately categorized as a trilby—the style of hat worn by Inspector Gadget, among others. The two styles are often conflated, which is technically wrong but only a massive nerd would know the difference.

Nevertheless, our characterization of Boot's headwear as a "top hat" was factually incorrect. It's probably a trilby. We couldn't care less, really, and do not intend to amend our original story in any way. We just wanted to let you—our readers—know that we take your feedback seriously and thank you for holding us accountable. Consider yourselves thanked. The Free Beacon regrets the error.

READ MORE: I Forced a Bot to Read 1,000 Max Boot Columns and Write a Max Boot Column of Its Own

Published under: Washington Post