In a recent development, the New York Times has acknowledged that it “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas” in its reporting on an explosion near a Palestinian hospital. The admission came after several media outlets, including the Times, reported claims made by Hamas that an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.
The initial accounts published by the Times attributed the claim of Israeli responsibility to Palestinian officials and highlighted the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. However, the Times now recognizes that it failed to independently verify these claims before publishing them.
The admission by the New York Times follows criticism from various sources, questioning the credibility and accuracy of the initial reporting. The outlet has acknowledged that it relied on incomplete information and failed to provide a balanced perspective.
“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,” an “editor’s note” from the site read. “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 Times admitted “the report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was.”
Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), has removed the gold “verified” badge from The New York Times‘ account. This move follows the publication’s sharing of misleading information about the Israel-Hamas conflict, which included a false report that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza.
The New York Times shared Hamas’ narrative of the hospital bombing, using a photograph of a different building to support the claim. However, subsequent reports revealed that the information was incorrect, leading to widespread criticism of the publication for spreading disinformation.
In response to this, Musk took action by stripping away the gold verification badge from The New York Times‘ official X account. The billionaire tech entrepreneur has previously emphasized the responsibility of media outlets to share accurate information and has been critical of those that fail to do so.
This is not the first time that The New York Times has lost its verification badge on the social media platform. Earlier this year, the publication’s badge was removed after it refused to pay a monthly $1,000 “verified organization” fee. Yet, the current removal seems to be a direct result of the misinformation spread during the Israel-Gaza war.
