Accuracy and accountability are among the most important tenets of journalism. In combination, they mean media organizations are expected to publish or broadcast forthright corrections after sharing inaccurate information. The following corrections are among the many prompted by CAMERA’s communication with reporters and editors.
In response to communication from CAMERA staff, Reuters has updated a feature article by Cynthia Johnston to correct the misinformation that the Gaza Stip is the most densely populated place on earth. The original and improved versions of the report, entitled "In Gaza, Palestinians pitch tents to claim land," follow:
After erroneously claiming in an Oct. 13 story that the United Church of Christ "rejected divestment," Reuters and the Boston Globe have corrected the error.
CAMERA staff prompted the following correction Thursday in the Washington Post regarding an opinion piece which vastly inflated the number of Palestinians living in Gaza refugee camps:
In response to CAMERA's communication with Associated Press editors, the wire service today corrected an error and a misrepresentation about Ariel Sharon's September 2000 visit to the Temple Mount. The original and updated, improved versions follow:
After a news report in the Philadelphia Inquirer wrongly claimed that Gaza has been surrounded by a fence since 1967 and the New London Day published an op-ed falsely charging Israeli troops with killing Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, CAMERA alerted the newspapers to the errors and prompted them to publish corrections.
Reuters, CNN, and the Washington Times all misreported the amount of U.S. aid Israel to help compensate for damage caused by Iraqi missiles during the Gulf War. All three eventually corrected.
Letters with provocative ideas that threaten the status quo may be inflammatory, but thay are an entirely appropriate part of civil discourse. Such ideas should–and will–be published as letters to the editor in mainstream papers. There is, however, a line that most decent publications understand should not be crossed.
An egregious error in a June 28, 2005 Agence France Presse (AFP) story has been corrected. The report initially claimed that a 1969 arson attempt at the Al Aksa mosque was carried out by "Jewish hardliners," when in fact it was carried out by an Australian Protestant.
An AP article on Friday by Ali Daraghmeh misreported Israel's criteria for releasing Palestinian prisoners as stricter than they actually were. CAMERA staff intervened that day, leading to a corrected, updated version which was sent out to newspapers around the world. The error and corrected version follow: