On Tuesday evening, The New York Times quietly added an editors’ note amending their front-page story on hunger in Gaza from last week. The note and what it admits—about the story, the paper, and how this war has been covered by the media—deserves a lot more attention than it’s received, as does the actual state of hunger in Gaza.
The initial story, titled “Gazans Are Dying of Starvation,” quickly rocketed around the internet when it was published on July 24. It was featured on the front page of the paper the following day, with a photo of a sick child being cradled in his mother’s arms.
The gist of the article is a now-familiar one: Israel is immiserating Gazans, leading to famine-like conditions in Gaza. The Gaza Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas and has lied repeatedly throughout the war, is used as a key source in the story. But the most memorable detail, far and away, was that picture.
The story’s reach was tremendous. It was posted to X by former president Barack Obama, who said that it “underscore[s] the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation.”
“This is a horror and Israel is to blame,” wrote former senator Al Franken of Minnesota. “There needs to be a ceasefire and Gaza flooded with food and water.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, said the story showed “the children who are paying the price for [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s war by starvation in Gaza, just as the families of Israeli hostages are paying the price for his abandonment of their loved ones.”
Then the story began to unravel. The New York Times had not reported crucial information about one of its key subjects. It cropped photos in such a way that pushed a deceptive narrative.
