On Tuesday, Baltimore news radio WBAL filmed and reported on multiple children who broke into and swam in a closed public pool. “Several children were caught breaking into one of the many Baltimore City pools that remain closed with their gates chained,” they tweeted. 


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The tweet was framed to make the kids look like criminals, but the rest of Twitter quickly rose to their defense. “So we’re supposed to think the problem is kids swimming in a pool, and not cities defunding kids’ summer activities and lifeguards and enrichment?” @JoshuaPHilll argued.


Public backlash against the report was so strong, that WBAL quickly posted another tweet clarifying their position. 



The tweet came just a day after multiple outlets reported on the extended closure of many public pools in Baltimore throughout the summer months. “It hasn’t been open all summer,” one local resident told CBS News. “I moved here before the summer so I thought they were working on it and preparing it for the summer, but there’s been no updates.”


@RGSahawneh was happy to point out how WBAL could better hone their judgment: “Closing pools while harassing kids with helicopters? Yeah, that’s definitely newsworthy. Kids wanting to go swimming in an abnormally hot summer, is not.”


In the end then, it was really the news station that needed to cool down.