(TargetDailyNews.com) – The New York Times is in a bit of a tight spot after someone at the famous paper leaked details regarding an upcoming exposé for its podcast, “The Daily.” Director of Policy and Internal Investigations Charlotte Behrendt is heading up the team at the outlet attempting to discern who tipped off The Intercept regarding criticism of the explosive allegations of sexual violence weaponized by Hamas during the October 7th attacks last year.
The internal debate stems from oversights in reporting alleged by staff members. As covered in The Intercept, the debate revealed that the family of one of the sources for the story denounced the article, while another witness made contradictory remarks after it was published.
The original article was hailed by members of the media and penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jeffrey Gettleman with help from fellow coauthors Adam Sella and Anat Schwartz. The details were scandalous: tales of Hamas weaponizing sexual violence in a systemic and coordinated fashion to terrorize their enemies in Israel, but was the reporting accurate?
The Intercept revealed that concerns over the social media backlash and criticism of the reporting resulted in “The Daily” shelving the episode, at least for now. Descriptions of the internal debate revealed that there was a divide over affirming the original report, potentially earning more critical backlash, or updating the story to include caveats and leaving more uncertainty in the narrative.
If they affirmed the original report, they risked repeating past mistakes and opened themselves up to more criticism, whereas if they added caveats and open-ended questions it would suggest that the original report wasn’t as accurate as claimed by its authors.
Staffers at The New York Times called the internal probe “a witch hunt” and suggested the investigation was highly irregular while hinting that it’s simply not something they’ve experienced while working at the paper.
Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said that “trust and collaboration” are required at the outlet, and colleagues are expected to conform to those values.
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