April 2 Update: Los Angeles Times Corrects
Following correspondence with Times editors, the paper commendably corrected the erroneous description of a Palestinian assailant, later shot dead by an Israeli soldier, as a “protester.” The first paragraph of the online article appears as follows:
In addition, editors commendably inserted a prominent correction close to the top of the article. It reads:
April 1 — Readers have expressed concern after the Los Angeles Times has described a Palestinian assailant who stabbed an Israeli soldier as a “protester.”
The article, which appeared online yesterday and in print today, begins with a description of Fatah Sharif as follows:
When video emerged last week of an Israeli soldier apparently shooting a wounded Palestinian protester in the head, killing him instantly, the condemnation was almost instantaneous — from within and without Israel.
Only in the seventh paragraph do readers, or at least those who make it that far, learn that the man is not a protestor but a would-be killer. Sharif “is one of two Palestinian men stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier at the Gilbert checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron,” the report eventually admits.
CAMERA has contacted the newspaper and called for a correction to the egregious mischaracterization.
For additional Los Angeles Times corrections prompted by CAMERA, see here.