What a stupid correction this is. On Friday, The Guardian posted a photo — Jerusalem light rail passengers observing a national moment of silence for the Holocaust.
The problem? The original caption referred to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Here’s the correction:
The caption on a photograph featuring passengers on a tram in Jerusalem observing a two-minute silence for Yom HaShoah, a day of remembrance for the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, wrongly referred to the city as the Israeli capital. The Guardian style guide states: “Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel; Tel Aviv is” (Eyewitness, 20 April, page 24).
It gets even more ludicrous. The Guardian’s style guide on Jerusalem actually says:
It would be one thing if al-Guardian called Jerusalem the “disputed capital.” But Tel Aviv isn’t Israel’s capital anymore than Haifa, Manchester, or New York City. This correction and style guide are further examples of the editors’ heads buried in the sand.
This also reconfirms why The Guardian won our 2011 Dishonest Reporter Award.
UPDATE: 3:20 pm: Gotta like this Twitter response:
