Media Corrections

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.

 

CAMERA Gets Correction on Letter in Los Angeles Times

CAMERA prompts a correction on a letter by Marc Springer of Chantilly, Va., who falsely wrote that the majority of Israeli fatalities in the last four years have been soldiers, not civilians. The correction is an important reminder that letters to the editor, just like news articles, must be factually correct, and that media outlets have an obligation to correct erroneous information in letters and op-eds.

AP Revises Hansen’s Comments

A UN official stunned the world when he admitted Hamas members are on the UN payroll. His comments were sanitized by one AP reporter, and readers are kept in the dark.

UPDATED: September 27, 2004–Reuters: News Agency or PR Firm for Terrorists?

September 27 update follows. Ever since Reuter's notorious editorial decision not to call terrorists "terrorists" was affirmed following the 9/11 attacks, the news agency has zealously adhered to a policy of softening the face of terrorism. In reporting on the September 22 suicide bombing in Jerusalem's French Hill, it has gone a step further.

CAMERA Prompts Boston Globe Correction on Greenway Column

In an Aug. 27 Boston Globe column, H.D.S. Greenway erroneously claimed that in a 1996 report written for Benjamin Netanyahu, Richard Perle called for the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein "to increase Israel's strategic position." CAMERA alerted the Globe that Perle's report made no such suggestion, and a correction ran yesterday.

CAMERA Obtains NPR Correction on UN Vote

CAMERA prompted the following correction on a July 21 newscast by NPR's Carl Kasell, who erroneously reported that the U.N. vote against Israel's West Bank barrier was unanimous.

WASHINGTON POST-WATCH: Stand Corrected

So when is a correction not a correction? Often, when it's a Washington Post attempt to remedy a mistake in the paper's Arab-Israeli coverage.

‘Crossfire’ Fallout at AJR

In the June/July issue of American Journalism Review, Barbara Matusow covered the contentious topic of criticism of Middle East news coverage. In avoiding any substantive assessment of the content of the criticism, Matusow's overarching message was that journalists are a blameless, beleaguered group, assailed by propagandists and baseless accusations. Her implication was proven baseless when CAMERA prompted the following correction on Matusow's own report.

UPDATED: CAMERA Elicits Washington Post Correction

CAMERA prompted the following correction concerning a July 12 article by John Ward Anderson which erroneously reported on Palestinian attacks on Israel. The San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe later ran the correction. NPR also corrected the same error.