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MAHMOOD SANGLAY reports on the now-discredited NYT story alleging ‘systematic’ rape by Hamas.
SO how do you function as a journalist when your role is not to present evidence in your reporting?
How do you retain your credibility when you fail to disclose that before your December 28, 2023 story on alleged systematic rape by Hamas on October 7, the Israeli police advised you that they had zero evidence of rape by Hamas?
How does one of the world’s leading newspaper titles manage to ignore or cover up its misreporting that Gal Abdush, an Israeli woman killed in the Hamas attack, was raped? The family of Abdush publicly denied that she was raped, and they accuse the publication of manipulation in the interests of a dubious editorial agenda.
These are relevant questions to be answered by The New York Times (NYT) and its lead reporter on the story, Jeffrey Gettleman. The latter makes the rather startling claim that the role of a journalist is not to present evidence, even in an investigative news story. Really? Since when?
Evidence is essential in credible journalism as it ensures accuracy, credibility, objectivity and accountability. Ignoring vital evidence undermines these principles and diminishes the integrity of journalism. Gettleman compromised trust when he fundamentally misrepresented the facts of the story.
Beyond the unprofessional conduct of Gettleman, the NYT must also explain how Anat Schwartz, who had never worked as a journalist, but rather as a former Israeli intelligence officer, and who has genocidal anti-Palestinian prejudices, gets to co-author this front-page NYT news story.
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The NYT’s own ethical guidelines are particularly onerous and impose on their journalists not to ‘express partisan opinions, promote political views, endorse candidates, make offensive comments or do anything else that undercuts The Times’s journalistic reputation,’ yet it appears the publication has done nothing to remedy this instance of a gross breach of its ethics.
The NYT must further explain how 24-year-old Adam Sella, the nephew of Schwartz, whose only journalism experience is a few food reviews, also gets to co-author the same front-page story.
This is beyond misrepresentation and misleading reporting by Gettleman, Schwartz and Sella. It is a colossal failure to adhere to some of the most fundamental professional and ethical principles of journalism.
And it’s a colossal failure by the NYT’s editorial management and executive structures to ensure adherence to basic professional human resources checks and balances. It is their responsibility to ensure personnel have the required experience and qualifications to report high-value news content.
Is it possible that NYT did not fail, but knowingly committed this journalistic atrocity? We will not know until this publication of record, which claims to publish only news that is ‘fit to print’ publicly apologises and fully explains what had occurred.
Countless pro-Israeli news outlets relied on the now-discredited NYT story alleging ‘systematic’ rape by Hamas. Many of these media organisations have presented the NYT article contents as undisputed fact.
Electronic Intifada, The Grayzone and Middle East Eye are among scores of reputable alternative media platforms that have joined in debunking the NYT article and its findings.
The article suffers from ‘major inconsistencies and demonstrable falsehoods.’ Irrespective, this scandal is no different from the scandal, just over twenty years ago, when American mainstream media were complicit in propagating the myth of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. According to a 2006 study by The Lancet over 600,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed as a result of the US War on Terror.
It is fair to say that American corporate media, by relying mainly on State Department propaganda in 2003, are complicit in whitewashing US atrocities in Iraq. They helped lend greater credence to the official American government rationale for the war and they failed to fairly reflect the massive American public opinion opposing the war.
This time, despite the complicity of corporate media in the US support for the Israeli genocide, American national public opinion has powerfully expressed its condemnation of their government’s foreign policy. Similarly, American alternative and social media content producers are making it abundantly clear that there is a powerful people’s voice supporting the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation and no sinister corporate media agenda can silence that.
