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September 14, 2005

Palestinian Quote Clarified

After several Knight Ridder newspapers, including the Akron Beacon Journal, the Charlotte Observer, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the San Jose Mercury News quoted a Palestinian repeating the libelous canard that Israel destroyed the Al Aqsa mosque, CAMERA was informed that Knight Ridder commendably issued a clarification and asked its newspapers to run a correction.

The original quote read:

"I want to destroy everything here as they did the Al Aqsa Mosque," said Mahmoud Malahi, who told a reporter he had lost a leg to an Israeli tank when he was 15.

The clarification notes:

In a story on the Gaza Strip, included a quote from a Palestinian demonstrator that wrongly equated the destruction of a former synagogue at Netzarim in the Gaza Strip to Israeli actions regarding the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The story should have clarified that the Israelis have not destroyed or vandalized the mosque.

To its credit—or maybe simply because space considerations—another Knight Ridder newspaper which ran the story, the Philadelphia Inquirer, removed the inaccurate quote before publishing.

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Al Aqsa after arson attempt

Posted by GI at September 14, 2005 04:48 PM

Comments

I think you're being a little harsh on the Inky. Responsible newspapers really do read wire dispatches and clean up obvious fabrications. Not as often as they should, and the Inquirer is badly biased against Israel, but they were probably trying to be accurate in this case.

Posted by: dina at September 15, 2005 06:00 PM

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