UPDATED: Fabrications Sneak Past PRI Fact Checkers
A Palestinian health official blamed Israel for the death of Baraka al-Mughrabi, when he was in fact killed by a bullet fired by Palestinian gunmen.
Several mainstream news outlets — including the International Herald Tribune, The Atlantic and Time — continue to blame an Israeli airstrike for the death of Nayef Qarmut, even after Israel stated its military was not active at the time and place of his death, and an AFP reporter independently confirmed there was no sign of an airstrike. (Update: The Atlantic corrected its language after CAMERA informed editors of the doubts raised.)
And now, from a world away from the Middle East, we have another reminder of the need for, and occasional glaring lack of, journalistic diligence.
A highly popular episode of [Public Radio International’s] This American Life in which monologuist Mike Daisey tells of the abuses at factories that make Apple products in China contained “significant fabrications,” the show said today.
“We’re horrified to have let something like this onto public radio,” Ira Glass, the show’s executive producer and host said in a blog post today. “Our program adheres to the same journalistic standards as the other national shows, and in this case, we did not live up to those standards.”
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