Four Publications Fix False Michael Oren Quote

The New York Times, Telegraph, Huffington Post, and Daily Caller have all corrected or pulled an inaccurate quote following communication with CAMERA and its British department, UK Media Watch.

The misquote of Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, originated on Twitter and quickly spread to the media organizations. (For details, see CAMERA’s fact check.)

The Telegraph, Huffington Post, and Daily Caller each pulled the misquote shortly after it was brought to their attention and replaced it with the actual quotation.

In The New York Times, the inaccurate quote had appeared in a column by Roger Cohen. The author originally stated that

Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, was quoted on Twitter hours after the massacre as saying: “If I were Trump, I’d emphasize the Muslim name, Omar Saddiqui Mateen. This changes race.” Later, he said Trump would do this, not that he had recommended it.

A correction is now appended to the updated article. It reads:

An earlier version of this column included an Israeli journalist’s tweet that quoted Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, as saying: “If I were Trump, I’d emphasize the Muslim name, Omar Saddiqui Mateen. This changes race.” In fact this was a paraphrase of Mr. Oren’s comment. Translated from Hebrew, the comment was: “If I were Donald Trump I’d come out the minute the F.B.I. decided to start leaking this morning that we are talking about a man who acted out of Islamic motives, with connections. First of all the name itself, Omar Siddiqui Mateen, a Muslim name, the son of immigrants from Afghanistan, who apparently was somehow in touch with extremist Islamic organizations. This already has a significant influence on the race for the presidency.”

Notwithstanding the multiple corrections, the source of the inaccurate quote continues to insist her version was “accurate.”

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