My latest in PJ Media:
When the New York Times audio documentary “Caliphate” won the Peabody Award, Times executive editor Dean Baquet took a victory lap, saying: “‘Caliphate’ was one of the best works of journalism of the year, created by a team of fearless journalists who shed new light on something as complex as ISIS and terrorism.” There was just one problem: “Caliphate” was largely based on the recollections of Shehroze Chaudhry, who admitted in Canadian court Friday that he made up the stories he told the Times’ “fearless journalists” about having been an Islamic State executioner. Rather than being “one of the best works of journalism,” “Caliphate” is actually the newest in a long string of object lessons proving that the New York Times is not a reliable news source. The newspaper is really a far-Left propaganda organ that cannot be trusted even when it is not retailing Democratic party agitprop.
In exchange for his admission, prosecutors dropped charges of a terrorism hoax against Chaudhry, apparently accepting the assertion of the fake terrorist’s lawyer, Nader R. Hasan, who said the stories Chaudhry told that fooled the Times were “mistakes borne out of immaturity — not sinister intent and certainly not criminal intent.”
Yes, of course. He likely became a fake terrorist because he knew that the Times, and particularly its star counterterror “journalist,” Rukmini Callimachi, would eat up the stories he would tell and publish them uncritically. After all, it wasn’t as if he was pretending to have been someone the Times really hates and fears, such as a right-wing Trump supporter. Nonetheless, Chaudhry’s lies caused a furor. According to the Times, “the release of that series in 2018, and other reports based on Mr. Chaudhry’s tales, created a political firestorm in Canada’s Parliament among opposition parties that repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government for seeming to allow a terrorist killer to freely roam the streets of suburban Toronto.”
No one knew it, since the revered New York Times, after all, had presented Chaudhry’s claims as fact, but the people of Toronto never had anything to worry about. The court heard on Friday that “Mr. Chaudhry has never entered Syria nor participated in ISIS operations anywhere in the world.”
After Chaudhry was arrested for his hoax, the Times took a new look at its award-winning documentary and, lo and behold, found “a history of misrepresentations by Mr. Chaudhry and no corroboration that he committed the atrocities he described in the ‘Caliphate’ podcast.” Danielle Rhoades Ha of the Times admitted that “Times journalists were too credulous about the verification steps that were undertaken and dismissive of the lack of corroboration of essential aspects of Mr. Chaudhry’s account.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Keith O says
The New York Times has finally sunk to the depths of tabloid “journalism”.
Next thing we know they will be doing prize winning stories about Elvis being seen coming out of a UFO.
Ah, how the mighty have fallen!
Terry Gain says
In our inverted world you are more likely to find the truth in tabloids than in broadsheets.
James Lincoln says
Terry Gain,
When tabloids like the “National Enquirer” prints more real news than the fake mainstream media, you know that something is very wrong.
A recent article in the “National Enquirer” accurately pointed out the cognitive decline in Sleepy Joe Biden. I actually read it in a supermarket while waiting for my groceries to be rung up…
gravenimage says
Failing New York Times Caught Publishing More Fake News
…………….
“All the news that’s fit to print” my *ss…
Yohannes says
This pro slavery media had stupid opinion article “Creeping Liberalism on American Muslims” where its writer clearly denies creeping Sharia (which is actually true, NYPD had Hisbah division called Muslim Patrol) while whining about American Muslims becomes more liberal and far from Pislamic values (Slavery, Woman’s beating and Jihad)
Janet Jones says
It’s ONLY about the GLOBAL caliphate .
Janet Jones says
The GLOBAL CALIPHATE is the goal from the squad (SQUAT) to the murdered Christians throughout the world. The Chinese DO have the islamists’ number.