“Click bait” is one way to describe coverage of the recent Gaza flare up in the Daily Mail’s Mail Online, which merged the serious news with a repackaged story from the Christian-oriented Breaking Israel News site.
While Breaking Israel News did quote former IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz in its story, Rabbi Pinchas Winston, contrary to the Mail Online’s version, has never been an IDF chief rabbi.
Breaking Israel News also noted that its story had been picked up by numerous media outlets but some had not reported it accurately.
Though most media reposting the story did so in a faithful manner, other media that cited the BIN article were not so careful. The British tabloid Daily Mail online version described “Rabbi Wilson” [sic] as a “former Chief Rabbi of the IDF.” Rabbi Winston has never served as a rabbi in the Israeli army. After being contacted several times, the editors at the Daily Mail still have not corrected the error.
HonestReporting also contacted the editors several times over the course of two weeks. We are pleased to say that our persistence paid off as the Mail Online finally informed us that it has corrected the errors.
Mail Online did not offer an excuse for its unprofessional behavior and the length of time it took to fix the problem. While the correction is welcome, it is nonetheless disappointing that such an obvious mistake was not dealt with at a far earlier stage.
