After there was an explosion near a hospital in Gaza City about a week ago, Hamas claimed that 500 civilians were killed and the hospital was leveled.
Much of the media, including the Associated Press, New York Times and others, ran with that claim even though Israel denied involvement. As it turned out, the rocket had been fired from inside Gaza and landed in a parking lot near a hospital. By then, however, the original Hamas spin had been served up and many protests/riots erupted as a result of bogus reporting.
The New York Times is going for another "too little too late" backpedal award with this editor's note they published this morning:
The New York Times has published an editors’ note about its early coverage of an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City. Read the note in full here.https://t.co/v5zQmY0euN
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 23, 2023
The editor's note is five paragraphs, and here's part of it:
The Times’s initial accounts attributed the claim of Israeli responsibility to Palestinian officials, and noted that the Israeli military said it was investigating the blast. However, the early versions of the coverage — and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels — relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified. The report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was.
"Relied to heavily on claims by Hamas." Why would they rely on claims from Hamas at all?
In any case, that note could have been so much shorter:
This editors’ note should be the top story on your homepage, like the one the screwed up on, not buried somewhere else. The headline should be “Editor’s Note: We Will No Longer Publish Hamas Propaganda” and it should be sent out via push notification just like the original one. https://t.co/1mIUZbc3ci
— Tali Goldsheft (@TaliGoldsheft) October 23, 2023
"The NY Times relied too heavily on the word of baby murderers and a terrorist group who zip tied innocent people to their kids and set them on fire." https://t.co/z0Gcen5PxK
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 23, 2023
Those are much more accurate.
People used to get fired over things like this, now it's just "oopsies" https://t.co/toagL3mob9
— Alec Sears (@alec_sears) October 23, 2023
Shouldn't this report also include a large headline at the top of The Times’s website and the same prominence in news alerts and social media channels? #shame
— Todd Harrison (@todd_harrison) October 23, 2023
The early "reporting" served its original purpose:
Too little, too late. Journos to gitmo. pic.twitter.com/YDh08BJkaa
— Calamity Jen (@realCalamityJen) October 23, 2023
The original story appears to have been intentionally deceptive, up to and including the photos used:
How about the photo of the destroyed building that *wasn't the hospital* that you used again the *next day* on the front page of your print edition? https://t.co/KcOe3eZ77v pic.twitter.com/gWauNCjpy0
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) October 23, 2023
"Journalism" had already been on life support in the last couple of decades but it appears in recent years somebody pulled the plug entirely.
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Related:
NY Times Continues to Reel Their Original Gaza Hospital Reporting Back In
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