New York Times Acknowledges Problems in Its Reporting on Israel–Hamas War - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
New York Times Acknowledges Problems in Its Reporting on Israel–Hamas War
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The New York Times acknowledged Monday that its coverage of an explosion last week at a Gaza hospital was primarily based on unverified claims made by Hamas terrorists and that its editors should have been more careful. 

Following the deadly explosion at the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on Oct. 17, Hamas immediately accused Israel of bombing the hospital in an airstrike and killing 500 people, while the Israeli government said that it was still investigating the cause of the explosion.

Despite the fact that no evidence had been provided by Hamas, the New York Times featured the terrorist group’s claims at the top of its website and failed to mention that the allegation had been neither verified nor substantiated. 

The initial coverage “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified,” the New York Times said in an editors’ note on Monday. “The report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was.”

The publication’s admission of error came after the Israeli government presented evidence showing that the explosion had resulted from a rocket that was misfired by the Palestine Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group often allied with Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a recording of an intercepted call allegedly between two Hamas officials.

“I am telling you this is the first time we see a missile like this falling, and so that’s why we are saying (the rocket) belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad…,” one alleged Hamas official said.

“It’s from us?” the other official asked.

“It looks like it… They are saying that the shrapnel from the missile is local shrapnel and not like Israeli shrapnel.”

“It couldn’t have found another place to explode?”

“They shot it from the cemetery behind the hospital and it misfired and fell on them.”

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said, “According to our intelligence, Hamas checked the reports, understood it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that had misfired, and decided to launch a global media campaign to hide what really happened.”

During his recent trip to Israel, President Joe Biden also corroborated Israel’s conclusion, citing U.S. intelligence, and told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “the other team did it.” 

Shortly after Biden’s claim, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the agency’s current assessment was that “Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday.”

Furthermore, the Senate Intelligence Committee said it had reviewed intelligence reports and felt “confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.”

While the New York Times did not apologize for the misleading reporting, it concluded the editors’ note by acknowledging that its editors “should have taken more care with the initial presentation, and been more explicit about what information could be verified.”

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