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Why the New York Times Gaza Correction Fell Short

(Jerusalem Post) Zvika Klein - This week the New York Times gave the world a painful lesson in how an explosive narrative can travel far and wide while a quiet correction barely leaves the room. The Times published a Gaza feature dominated by a heartbreaking photograph of an emaciated toddler cradled in his mother's arms. The caption stated that the child was suffering from severe malnutrition. The story instantly became a symbol of Gaza's suffering. Only later did physicians clarify that the child had been born with profound neurological and muscular disorders that left him unable to swallow food properly. His condition was tragic, but it was not the result of wartime shortages. The Times eventually added an editor's note acknowledging the pre-existing illnesses. The correction appeared solely on @NYTimesPR, a lightly followed public-relations feed, not on the main @nytimes account that launched the original story to tens of millions. The updated note reached about 1/6 of 1% of the audience that absorbed the first version. The paper did correct the record, but it whispered where it once shouted. Professional integrity demands a proportionate response. If a headline ran on page one, the correction belongs on page one. If a story was blasted to every social-media follower, the clarification should follow precisely the same route, with the same visibility. Modern conflicts are fought as fiercely on the battlefield of public opinion as on any physical front. One photo of an apparently starving child can become a moral cudgel yielding headlines and even votes in international forums. When that image is later revealed to be only half the story, the damage is already entrenched. By omitting critical medical context in the first place and then opting for a low-profile correction, the Times reinforced suspicions that it privileges narratives of Israeli culpability.
2025-07-31 00:00:00
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