The New York Times corrected its erroneous claim that a senior State Department official had said civilian casualties in Gaza could be higher than reported.
A Nov. 10 story had claimed,
On Wednesday, Barbara Leaf, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, told a House committee that U.S. officials thought the civilian casualties were “very high, frankly, and it could be that they’re even higher than are being cited.” (Emphasis added)
CAMERA informed the newspaper that the comments by Assistant Secretary Leaf were not in reference to civilian casualties. As a result, the newspaper on Nov. 30 amended the language and added the following correction:
An earlier version of this post described imprecisely the comments made by Barbara Leaf, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. In her testimony to Congress about casualties in Gaza being “very high,” she was referring to casualties overall, and not specifically civilian casualties.
We commend the newspaper for clearing the record on this matter.
