One of the more newsworthy moments of the war between Israel and Hamas was the explosion at al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City on Oct. 17.
The shocking news generated many knee-jerk reactions, headlines and tweets — all pointing fingers at who was to blame well before we had the details. That included plenty of finger-pointing, or more like wagged fingers, at media organizations and journalists who might have been too quick in assuming who was responsible for the explosion.
Among the news outlets doing some serious self-examination was and is The New York Times. As my colleague, Ren LaForme, wrote, the Times even put out an extended editor’s note trying to explain its coverage, including an early headline that read, “Israeli Airstrike Hits Gaza Hospital, Killing 500, Palestinian Health Ministry Says.”
In the time since the blast, the U.S., U.K. and French military intelligence have all said they believe the missile likely was fired from within Gaza.
In its note, the Times admitted its coverage “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified.” Vanity Fair’s Charlotte Klein wrote that Slack messages at the Times immediately following the explosion showed there were internal debates about the paper’s coverage.
Now add another to the list of detractors of the Times’ early coverage: President Joe Biden.
Semafor’s Max Tani and Liz Hoffman reported that Biden blasted the Times, in particular its initial headline, following the attack. Tani and Hoffman wrote, “The president told a small group of Wall Street executives in the White House’s Roosevelt Room early last week that he thought the headline was irresponsible and could have triggered military escalation in the Middle East, two people briefed on the conversation told Semafor. He fumed in particular that the headline had appeared ‘in an American newspaper.’”
Also interesting is this passage from Tani and Hoffman:…
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