The New York Times had to issue a correction about what they branded a “conservative conspiracy theory” in a report – after discovering that it wasn’t a conspiracy theory.
It had to do with the claim that Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that governs the Gaza Strip, pays money to the families of suicide bombers (even those not affiliated with Hamas). Given that Hamas launches rocket attacks, suicide bombings, and encourages terrorism against innocent Israel civilians, would it really have been much of a stretch to suggest that the group could compensate jihadists?
Hamas’ own founding charter says that “The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised” (among countless other calls for Jewish genocide).
In the Times article, which discussed the role of Campbell Brown as the head of news partnerships for Facebook, Times reporter Nellie Bowles inserted an example of the “far-right conspiracy programming” that is still found on Facebook. “…Ms. Brown wants to use Facebook’s existing Watch product — a service introduced in 2017 as a premium product with more curation that has nonetheless been flooded with far-right conspiracy programming like ‘Palestinians Pay $400 million Pensions For Terrorist Families’ – to be a breaking news destination,” the paragraph read.
Only one problem: it was 100% true. That resulted in what’s probably (thus far) the correction of the year. “…In fact, Palestinian officials have acknowledged providing payments to the families of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis or convicted of terrorist attacks in imprisoned in Israel; that is not a conspiracy theory.”
The correction was widely mocked all over social media.
If it was common practice for journalists to get fired after deliberately lying to the public, then there would be a revolving door at the @nytimes in Arab-Israeli conflict stories alone. https://t.co/0dBFkqcixl
— Elliott Hamilton (@ElliottRHams) April 24, 2018
Interestingly enough, the story uses “far-right conspiracy” interchangeably with “fake news.” There is no effort to explain the problem plagues both sides, and that left-wing conspiracies are definitely a thing. The way the report tells it, “fake news” is uniquely right-wing.
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) April 24, 2018
This error had to make it past both the reporter AND at least one editor, who apparently believed Palestinian payments to terrorists' families was a far-right conspiracy. Talk about your bubbles. https://t.co/tINTptwk1A
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) April 24, 2018
Hi @NellieBowles – This is an item written in to the Palestinian Authority's budget, not a "far-right conspiracy." You can quibble over the use of the word terrorists vs. prisoners (and I would defend my word choice) but not the fact that they're making the payments. https://t.co/ARuekscyjV
— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) April 21, 2018
It’s particularly embarrassing, because had this Times reporter decided to fact-check the alleged “right-wing conspiracy theory” by typing into Google “does Hamas pay families of terrorists?” there’s really no shortage of confirmation. It’s also apparent that Hamas isn’t the only Palestinian political party rewarding terrorists, as the Palestinian Authority has a “Martyr’s Fund.” Below are some of the results from just the first page of results:
Denying this is nothing short of a conspiracy theory!
Get the word out on the New York Times’ fake news. Share this post on Facebook and Twitter!