Ira Stoll writes for the Washington Free Beacon about the latest journalistic failures from a major legacy media outlet.
A month after lawyers complaining about Nicholas Kristof’s “dog rape” fantasy sent a letter demanding to inspect New York Times Company board records and warning that “sustained editorial failure” could cause the Times to become “a newspaper the public comes to regard as a propaganda operation,” the Times has published two additional corrections acknowledging editing errors on Israel-related news. …
… The second concerns a line that, while technically accurate, infuriated a lot of Times readers who were vocal in their dismay about it. That article now carries this appendage: “Editors’ Note: Sept. 16, 2026 Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article included a statement that was intended to convey Israelis’ perception of the government’s military response to the Oct. 7 terror attack in relation to the attacks, but inadvertently suggested that Israelis’ experience as terror victims was a matter of perception. It has been removed from the article.”
A social media post by Eitan Fischberger highlighting the original line—”But Israelis still largely view themselves as the victims of Oct. 7,” with Fischberger’s comment, “What the f**k is this, @nytimes”—had 1.5 million impressions on X, highlighting the way that the X platform has helped to level the playing field between the legacy or “mainstream” media outlets such as the Times and individuals such as Fischberger.
Fischberger is the grandson of Rabbi Avi Weiss, a heroic grassroots activist on behalf of Soviet Jewry and other causes and the founding rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in the Bronx. Fischberger, who is based in Israel and called Weiss his mentor, inspiration, and role model, told the Washington Free Beacon, “Apparently the Times needed a viral backlash to be reminded that the victims of a terrorist massacre are, in fact, victims.”
