New York Magazine’s Intelligencer news site says that since 2006 it “has offered a smart, playful understanding of the moment’s most interesting news and trends, along with the powerful people who shape them.”
What was it playing at when this week it published this woefully backwards caption alongside a photograph of destroyed residential buildings in Ramat Gan, Israel: “Damage from Israel’s strike on Ramat Gan in Iran”? (Archived here.)
Intelligencer, which promises “essential reporting and trenchant insight,” relocated Ramat Gan from central Israel to Iran. And it blamed Israel, not the Islamic Republic of Iran, for a strike on the Israeli neighborhood which wounded 30 and killed Etty Cohen Engel, in her 60s.
The media platform which boasts that it “reflects New York’s mission to inform and entertain with conversation-setting authority” can’t even accurately reproduce the prepared information it receives ready-to-go from news agency.
Thus, the photo in question originated from Agence France Presse photo service via Getty Images. Both AFP and Getty Images correctly identified the scene, identifying Ramat Gan as located in Israel, not Iran, and rightly attributing the strike to the Islamic Republic, and not Israel.
The AFP and Getty caption accompanying the image by photographer Jack Guez had correctly reported:
This aerial picture shows damaged buildings at a site hit by a missile fired from Iran in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv on June 14, 2025. Iran struck Israel early June 14, with barrages of missiles after a massive onslaught targeted the Islamic republic’s nuclear and military facilities, and killed several top generals. Jack GUEZ/AFP
After CAMERA called out New York Magazine for the error, the publication corrected, changing the caption (available here) to rightly report: “Damage from Iran’s strike on Ramat Gan in Israel.”
This is downright embarrassing & pathetic, @NYMag. This is an *Iranian* strike on Ramat Gan, *Israel.* Not an Israeli strike on RAMAT GAN, IRAN (!). How did you manage to screw up so badly when original @AFPphoto @GettyImages captions are correct h/t @ZehaviAlma (1/3) pic.twitter.com/6azgoe0AZX
— Tamar Sternthal (@TamarSternthal) June 18, 2025
In addition, editors appended the following correction to the bottom of the post:
This post has been updated. Due to an editorial error, a photo caption in the original version of this mistakenly stated that the city of Ramat Gat was in Iran. The photo shows damage from missile strikes in Israel, where Ramat Gan is located.
The corrective paragraph neglects to note that the damage is from an Iranian strike, and not an Israeli strike, as reported.
Notably, the article accompanying the embarrassingly unintelligent caption used many words to probe, in the words of the headline, “What’s Netanyahu’s Real Endgame With Attacking Iran?” Intelligencer’s Jonah Shepp dismisses the quite simple answer — Israel’s survival — and instead spins stories that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s electoral popularity or perhaps regime change in the Islamic Republic are the real endgame.
Since 2019, New York Magazine has been a part of Vox Media, which says a great deal about the publication’s unique brand of “incisive analysis,” “smart, playful understanding” and “essential reporting and trenchant insight.” Vox, as readers may recall, is the origin of a fantastical bridge connecting the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and the reimaging of Jews as “newcomers” in the holy city of Hebron. In this playful, kaleidoscope grasp of reality, why in the world can’t Ramat Gan be in Iran?
Hat tip to Sarit Zehavi and Ayelet Razin
This post was corrected on June 22 to note that editors appended a correction to the bottom of the article.