The Washington Post is receiving substantial backlash for numerous problems linked to alleged anti-Israel bias in its coverage of the country’s war against terrorist group Hamas, Jewish Insider reported.
Jewish leaders, foreign policy experts and some of the Post’s staff members have criticized the outlet for its alleged anti-Israel bias and errors when covering the conflict, according to Jewish Insider. The Post published a front-page article riddled with inaccuracies on Nov. 17 that highlighted the turmoil of premature Palestinian babies born in the West Bank and Israel who had been separated from their parents during the war. (RELATED: Videos Of People Sympathizing With Bin Laden’s ‘Letter To America’ Go Viral)
The outlet added a three paragraph editor’s note on Dec. 28, acknowledging that it “mischaracterized some aspects of Israeli rules for permits that allowed some Palestinian women, before Oct. 7, to travel from Gaza to give birth at hospitals in the West Bank and Israel.”
Success! Well, at least partial success.
Late this afternoon, @washingtonpost finally published an “editor’s note” & an updated version of the flawed Nov 17 article on #Palestinian mothers separated from their newborn infants because of the #Israel–#Hamas war.…
— Robert Satloff (@robsatloff) December 29, 2023
“The article incorrectly said that all Palestinian mothers who received authorization to leave Gaza for humanitarian reasons had to return to Gaza to reapply after their permits expired,” the editor’s note states. “In fact, it was not always necessary for mothers to return to Gaza. The article has been updated to specify that it was hospital officials who told two Palestinian mothers that they needed to return to Gaza to apply for new permits … In addition, The Post neglected to seek comment from Israeli officials for this article, an omission that fell short of The Post’s standards for fairness.”
Staffers at the Post were privately concerned about the article’s issues, a source with knowledge of the situation told Jewish Insider.
The errors in the article are part of a larger pattern with the Post’s Middle East reporting, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Executive Director Robert Satloff told Jewish Insider.
“I believe the egregious violations of journalistic standards I highlighted in my critique of the Nov. 17 story is regrettably not limited to this article,” Satloff told Jewish Insider.
Two other stories written by the Post’s foreign correspondent, Louisa Loveluck, also received notable updates, according to Jewish Insider, including one with a correction about bombing data.
“A previous version of this story said 7,423 bombs were the most dropped by the U.S.-led coalition in any year during the war in Afghanistan,” the correction states. “It was the highest number since the U.S. Air Force Central Command began releasing strike data on a monthly basis in 2006, not since since the start of the war. The article has been corrected.”
The Post’s coverage of the Middle East has stood out as the most biased among competitors such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, detractors have asserted, according to Jewish Insider.
Unlike other outlets, the Post has chosen to cover Israel’s conflict with Hamas as the “Israel-Gaza war,” according to Jewish Insider. It also characterized Palestinian inmates that Israel traded for Hamas hostages as “captives” in November.
“Describing children and elderly people kidnapped from their homes as ‘captives’ is an editorial choice. Describing inmates who committed acts of terror as ‘captives’ is explicit, indefensible bias. Absolutely shameful,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Israeli Embassy officials met with the Post’s leadership to voice their issues with the outlet’s coverage, a source with knowledge of the situation told Jewish Insider. The Post has faced pushback for allegedly expressing distrust of claims from Israeli intelligence while accepting assertions of Palestinian death numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry and spreading unproven statements by Hamas’ media office.
The Post did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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