The New York Times has corrected an article that falsely reported Israel had demolished entire Palestinian communities along the West Bank in 2018. In reality, Israeli authorities considered tearing down a few specific homes, none of which were ultimately destroyed.
Other than that, some solid work by the Times!
The article, titled “Ilhan Omar’s Criticism Raises the Question: Is Aipac Too Powerful?,” stated originally:
The above passage has since been corrected to read:
The Times has also affixed an editor’s note to the story and to its corrections page Thursday that says [emphasis added]:
“Referred imprecisely” is such generous characterization for a passage that was 100 percent false. This is the difference between razing Washington’s entire Petworth neighborhood on the one hand, and considering but then declining to knock down a handful of its row houses on the other.
Interestingly enough, that’s not the only problem with the article. If the story’s headline sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve already tackled one major issue in this Times report. This is the same article that incorrectly portrayed a lone, pro-Israel activist as an “AIPAC activist,” suggesting the man either represented or spoke for the national group in some capacity. In reality, the activist cited by the paper, Stephen Fiske, “has not been associated with the pro-Israel lobbying group for several years,” the Times of Israel reports.
It adds, “The hardball he counsels in dealing with those who depart from centrist pro-Israel orthodoxies is not the style of the lobby, which discourages alienating safe incumbents.” Fiske himself told the Times of Israel in a phone interview that he hasn’t been associated with AIPAC for “three or four years.” He also told the same paper he is no longer a member, which is all rather astonishing considering he’s one of the main sources cited in answering the question posed in the report’s headline.
Yet, the New York Times reports that Fiske is “a longtime activist with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,” that “Aipac … managed to harness the passions of thousands of people like Mr. Fiske,” and that “Mr. Fiske’s Florida Congressional Committee is one of a string of political action committees with anodyne names … that operate independently of Aipac but whose missions and membership align with it.”
The Times’ false citation of Fiske as a supposed AIPAC authority even led Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to claim last week — falsely, but through no fault of her own — that the group is targeting her over her support for anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Omar are being targeted by AIPAC, though you’d think otherwise from reading the Times’ coverage.
Serious question: Between the Fiske and “demolished Palestinian communities” errors, at what point does the Times cut its losses and simply retract this story?
(h/t Jeryl Bier)
