New York Times staffers are under a “witch hunt” by senior editors investigating the source of a leak about a podcast episode that was deleted following a dispute between the newsroom over reporting on an alleged gang rape by Hamas. claims.
Charlotte Behrendt, the paper’s director of policy and internal investigations, is overseeing management’s efforts to find out more about how deliberations about the Daily podcast were leaked. According to Vanity Fair magazine.
The Times is keen to investigate the underlying cause of the leak. Left-wing news site article the interceptsreported in late January that episodes of the podcast had spiked due to disagreements over an article alleging that Hamas militants systematically raped Israelis during a brutal assault on October 7.
Times staffers told Vanity Fair they were outraged that management was investigating the leak.
“That’s not what we do,” one Gray Lady staffer told Vanity Fair. “Such witch hunts are truly alarming.”
The Times canceled the podcast “amid an intense internal debate over the strength of the paper’s original reporting on the subject,” according to The Intercept.
Times staff reportedly over the Dec. 28 dispatch by an Israel-based freelancer who conducted research for the Gray Lady on allegations that Hamas terrorists raped an Israeli woman. Opinions are divided between them.
The accuracy of the story was called into question after discrepancies arose and contradictory statements were made by one of the people who allegedly witnessed the rape.
A family member interviewed by The Times later accused the paper of manipulating reporters into claiming that one of the victims of the October 7 massacre, Gul Abdoush, had been raped, backing up its claims. The newspaper was criticized despite the lack of evidence.
Anat Schwartz, one of the authors of the Dec. 28 article, said user X posted screenshots of social media messages she liked, including one calling on Israel to turn the Gaza Strip into a “slaughterhouse.” After doing so, he was recently investigated by the Times.
The Intercept reported that a January episode of “The Daily” was frozen as producers and editors faced a dilemma. “Publish a faithful version of a previously published article and risk republishing significant errors. Otherwise, publish a significantly toned down article.” This version ensures that the paper remains the same as the original. Questions have been raised about whether the report is upheld. ”
“There’s only one ‘version’ of audio journalism: the one we publish,” a Times spokesperson told The Intercept.
“The Daily episode was never removed due to a fact-checking failure.” A Times spokesperson told The Intercept.
When asked for comment on the Vanity Fair report, a Times spokesperson told the Post, “We do not comment on internal matters.”
“The work of our newsroom requires trust and cooperation, and we expect all of our colleagues to uphold these values.”
Hamas militants massacred approximately 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers in a cross-border raid in the early hours of October 7th.
In the months since then, an estimated 30,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas denies allegations that its militants committed sexual assaults.
