In an editor’s note, the paper said it 'relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified'
By now, everyone knows that Israel had nothing to do with the tragic explosion outside a Gaza City hospital last week. The evidence is, quite simply, overwhelming.
With that being said, what The New York Times did nearly a week ago was inexcusable and perhaps unforgivable.
When the banner headline on your website reads, "Israeli Strikes Kill Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say," you’re swallowing a monstrous lie. "Palestinians Say" really means "Hamas Says," since the terrorist group that commits unthinkable atrocities controls the Gaza government and has a long history of deception.
The Times was, in effect, spewing Hamas propaganda around the world, and on Monday, the paper essentially apologized.
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The New York Times Building in Midtown Manhattan. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)
In an editor’s note, the paper said it had "relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified," which "left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was."
What’s more, given the sensitivity of the issue, "Times editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation, and been more explicit about what information could be verified."
But the damage was done. While President Biden was in Israel, the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority canceled a planned meeting with him and furious anti-Israel protests broke out across the Middle East in response to the blame incorrectly placed on Israeli forces.
U.S. and Israeli intelligence confirmed that the deadly blast was the result of an errant rocket fired near the hospital by the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In addition to other forms of proof, Israel also released an intercepted call between two Hamas operatives acknowledging this reality.
And Israel’s Channel 12 posted footage of that misfired Jihad rocket, with the explosion seen moments later.
The New York Times admitted "editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation" of the explosion that occurred at a Gaza hospital last week after the paper "relied too heavily on claims by Hamas." (DAWOOD NEMER/AFP via Getty Images)
Of course, Hamas, Hezbollah and other Arab groups are perfectly happy to ignore the facts. They believe, or say they believe, that the explosion was Israel’s fault because that serves their political purposes.
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There were other news organizations that ran similar headlines: the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, Reuters and CNN.com to name a few, but the Times – which boasts 55 million followers on X, formerly Twitter – is the largest and most influential.
I give the Times credit for belatedly admitting its massive mistake, but it came after bowing to pressure from many critics, including me. That’s a very rare development, especially since the Times (and the Washington Post) dumped their ombudsman positions.
Riot police use tear gas against protesters during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, near the U.S. embassy in Awkar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday. (AP/Hassan Ammar)
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I’m sorry, but you don’t have to be pro-Israel to see that the evidence of Israel's noninvolvement is definitive.
What I find inexplicable is that some Western news organizations are continuing to cast this as a dispute, with each side blaming the other.
That is either journalistic ignorance or journalistic cowardice, and it helps groups like Hamas and Hezbollah continue to argue, as they will for months and years, that Israel deliberately targeted a hospital that was doubling as a shelter for evacuees.
Why on earth would Israel do that?
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Western intelligence also says Hamas greatly exaggerated the death toll as more than 500 when U.S. intel has suggested it could be as low as 100, according to Reuters. Still absolutely tragic, but not as deadly as claimed.
Most journalistic errors can be alleviated by corrections, but in this case, it’s too late to undo the consequences.
Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX News Channel's MediaBuzz (Sundays 11 a.m.-12 p.m. ET). Based in Washington, D.C., he joined the network in July 2013 and regularly appears on Special Report with Bret Baier and other programs.
