The Guardian’s “Capital” Offense

What a stupid correction this is. On Friday, The Guardian posted a photo -- Jerusalem light rail passengers observing a…

By April 23, 2012

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:

 

© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025

Pesach Benson

Pesach Benson

A Baltimore native, Pesach was with HonestReporting from 2011 to 2020. He edited the Israel Daily News Stream and authored the e-book, Red Lines: HonestReporting’s 8 Categories of Media Bias. Before moving to Israel in 1995, he worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times. Pesach has a B.A. in political science from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where he was executive editor of the campus newspaper.

Discover More

Get clear, reliable Israel news and tools to fight media bias.

Subscribe