In fairness, to date both Michelle Goldberg and (today) Bret Stephens have written about the MSM misinformation debacle. Of course, Goldberg was mostly trying to downplay the incident, and Stephens was trying to spread the blame. Both went out of their way to make "what about" comments regarding the tendency for political and military le…
In fairness, to date both Michelle Goldberg and (today) Bret Stephens have written about the MSM misinformation debacle. Of course, Goldberg was mostly trying to downplay the incident, and Stephens was trying to spread the blame. Both went out of their way to make "what about" comments regarding the tendency for political and military leaders to lie.
If you want an easy red flag for likely misinformation, look for the phrase “[so and so] say” tagged at the end of a headline. The original NYT headlines for the Gaza hospital blast (Bari Weiss documented at least three) all ended with “Palestinians say.” So now we know who spread the misinformation about the hospital blast: it was “Palestinians” (according to the NYT, if you trust them). Of course, "political and military officials sometimes lie," Stephens says. But sometimes journalists lie, too. It wasn’t “Palestinians.” It was the Gaza Health Ministry, an arm of Hamas.
From the headlines in today’s digital edition (going back about four days) of the NYT I found these:
“Complaint says”
“Police say”
“Authorities say”
"Experts say"
“Officials say” in three separate articles on different topics (what “officials”?)
And on the issue of the Gaza hospital blast? Today, in a front page subheader, the NYT says: “A widely cited missile video does not shed light on what happened, a Times analysis concludes.” Well, according to yesterday’s NYT, “U.S. Cites ‘High Confidence’ That Palestinian Rocket Caused Hospital Blast” (make note of the scare quotes around High Confidence).
It just goes to show that MSM journalists have become lazy and complacent, and reinforces the need to find out what more than one person or group of people are "saying."
In fairness, to date both Michelle Goldberg and (today) Bret Stephens have written about the MSM misinformation debacle. Of course, Goldberg was mostly trying to downplay the incident, and Stephens was trying to spread the blame. Both went out of their way to make "what about" comments regarding the tendency for political and military leaders to lie.
If you want an easy red flag for likely misinformation, look for the phrase “[so and so] say” tagged at the end of a headline. The original NYT headlines for the Gaza hospital blast (Bari Weiss documented at least three) all ended with “Palestinians say.” So now we know who spread the misinformation about the hospital blast: it was “Palestinians” (according to the NYT, if you trust them). Of course, "political and military officials sometimes lie," Stephens says. But sometimes journalists lie, too. It wasn’t “Palestinians.” It was the Gaza Health Ministry, an arm of Hamas.
From the headlines in today’s digital edition (going back about four days) of the NYT I found these:
“Complaint says”
“Police say”
“Authorities say”
"Experts say"
“Officials say” in three separate articles on different topics (what “officials”?)
And on the issue of the Gaza hospital blast? Today, in a front page subheader, the NYT says: “A widely cited missile video does not shed light on what happened, a Times analysis concludes.” Well, according to yesterday’s NYT, “U.S. Cites ‘High Confidence’ That Palestinian Rocket Caused Hospital Blast” (make note of the scare quotes around High Confidence).
It just goes to show that MSM journalists have become lazy and complacent, and reinforces the need to find out what more than one person or group of people are "saying."