Not a Scoop: 448 Days Later, NY Times Reports Slur by Palestinian Leader
In January 2016, on the day Israel buried a pregnant woman stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel publicly criticized what he viewed as a double standard in Israelis law enforcement that allows for “unchecked” vigilantism in the West Bank. Israel’s prime minister responded that the remarks were “unacceptable and incorrect.” (The ambassador later expressed regret for the timing of his comments.)
It took the New York Times only hours to report that the Israeli prime minister had critiqued the U.S. ambassador to Israel, and four days to slam that critique as “unusually personal and unfair” in an editorial.
Two years later, in March 2018, the Palestinian leader slurred the American ambassador as a “son of a dog.”
The time it took for the newspaper to report on that “unusually personal” slur can also be counted in days: 448 in all.
Yes, well over a year after Mahmoud Abbas hurled curses at Ambassador David Friedman’s mother, the New York Times has finally ended Abbas’s undiplomatic immunity and printed his words for all to see — even if only because Friedman recounted them in an interview with the newspaper.
It wouldn’t be “unusually personal and unfair” to point out that this wasn’t a scoop by the New York Times.
For our original coverage of the Times double standard relating to the ambassadors’ statements, see here.
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