diff --git a/plugins/RSS/plugin.py b/plugins/RSS/plugin.py
index 66f556f16..9482598a1 100644
--- a/plugins/RSS/plugin.py
+++ b/plugins/RSS/plugin.py
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ class RSS(callbacks.Plugin):
                 try:
                     import charade.universaldetector
                     u = charade.universaldetector.UniversalDetector()
-                    u.feed(s)
+                    u.feed(headline[0])
                     u.close()
                     encoding = u.result['encoding']
                 except ImportError: