After contact from CAMERA, The Washington Post has changed inaccurate wording in a June 14, 2018 online report.
That article, by WorldViews columnist Ishaan Tharoor, initially claimed that the Argentina soccer team had canceled a game in Jerusalem due to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians:
“Argentina arrived in Russia on the back of a diplomatic firestorm after canceling a warmup match with Israel, apparently as an act of protest against the treatment of Palestinians [emphasis added].”
However, that was not Argentina’s reason for canceling the match, as CAMERA pointed out to Post editors and staff. And The Washington Post itself, as well as members of Argentina’s football association, have said as much.
A June 6 Post report, “Argentine soccer team cancels match in Israel amid death threats against Messi,” noted:
“Argentina’s national soccer team announced Wednesday it was canceling a friendly match against Israel’s national team amid political pressure and after facing death threats that the Argentine foreign minister said were ‘worse than ISIS.’”
That report added: “the official reason for the cancellation, given by Chichi Tapia, head of the Argentine Football Association, was that his players had faced serious threats, which forced them to cancel [emphasis added]. He said the team would try to play in Israel at another time.”
Following contact by CAMERA, The Washington Post commendably and promptly changed the report on June 14, 2018:
“Argentina arrived in Russia on the back of a diplomatic firestorm after canceling a warm-up match with Israel, with both governments blaming death threats against Argentine players and activists demanding that Argentina pull out over Israeli treatment of Palestinians.”
For additional Washington Post corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.