BOSTON, MA – On Aug. 19, an Associated Press correction appeared in more than 80 media outlets across North America, after the leading wire service wrongly reported that the civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip exceeded 40,000.
The Jerusalem office of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) prompted the AP correction, which was subsequently published or hosted on numerous news sites, from major national outlets like ABC and The Washington Times to local television stations and newspapers such as the Aspen Daily News and The Norwalk Hour in Connecticut.
In their Aug. 18 article highlighting differences in the platforms of U.S. presidential candidates, AP journalists Will Weissert, Jill Colvin, and Seung Min Kim falsely reported that the Gaza Strip’s “civilian death toll has now exceeded 40,000” (“Harris and Trump offer worlds-apart contrasts on top issues in presidential race”).
CAMERA pointed out to AP editors that not even Hamas has alleged that more than 40,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been killed in the war between Israel and the terror organization. While the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza has reported over 40,000 total deaths among Gaza’s residents, its data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israeli sources, meanwhile, estimate that over 17,000 of those killed are Hamas combatants.
“AP’s grossly inflated and unfounded civilian casualty figure fuels pernicious false narratives accusing Israel of genocide, further inflaming the conflict,” charged Tamar Sternthal, director of CAMERA’s Israel office.
As a result of CAMERA’s swift work, the AP issued a rare correction on Aug. 19. The revised text now states: “More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the territory’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says, but how many are civilians is unknown. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.”
The AP also commendably appended a correction to the bottom of the article, alerting readers to the original article’s misreporting of the civilian death toll.
Shortly after AP issued the correction, scores of media outlets — including Seattle Times, Yahoo, MSN, Galveston County News, and dozens of local CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox affiliates across the country — showed the corrected story with the appended note. The 83 corrections are the most that CAMERA has prompted at once from a single wire service story.
Yet, three days after CAMERA notified NBC of the extant error remaining on several local NBC affiliates in major markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, the network had failed to correct. Sternthal reports that NBC has promised to address the outlying sites.
“Associated Press, a leading wire service which promises to ‘expand the reach of factual reporting,’ distributes its content to countless media outlets across the world. It therefore has an added responsibility to report with the utmost accuracy and precision, especially when it comes to war coverage,” Sternthal commented. “AP’s misreporting has an immeasurable impact. One AP error can distort public understanding globally and contribute to an escalation of hostilities”
“We are pleased that AP corrected so promptly and responsibly, and are cheered by the vast and speedy dissemination of the correction. But we are also deeply concerned that such a basic error got past editors in the first place,” Sternthal added.
About CAMERA
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) is an international media-monitoring and educational organization founded in 1982 that works to promote more accurate, balanced and complete coverage of Israel and the Middle East. Aware of the vital role of the mass media and academia in shaping public perception and public policy, CAMERA seeks to educate journalists, news consumers, and students about the complex issues related to achieving peace in the Middle East. CAMERA is a non-profit, tax-exempt, and non-partisan organization under section 501 (c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code.