NY Times Tunes Up Israeli Apology Story

A couple of days ago, we critiqued an early version of a New York Times story about Israel’s apology to Turkey, and contacted the newspaper about misleading language in the piece.
The article wrongly claimed Israel apologized for raiding the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship seeking to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip, when in fact the apology was not for the raid itself but for any mistakes that may have lead to the death of the passengers. The New York Times piece also mentioned that Israeli naval commandos killed several passengers on board, but failed to note that the commandos’ resort to force came as they were being attacked by passengers.
To the newspaper’s credit, the misleading passages were replaced with more precise language, so that the final version correctly notes Israel “apologized for deadly errors” and points out, somewhat more helpfully, that the passengers were killed ” in clashes on board.”
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