Inexplicably, a list of previous Nobel peace prize winners at The Guardian omitted Israel's three laureates: Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.
After Harry's Place,Melanie Phillips and Tom Gross called Al-Guardian onto the carpet, editors added the names to the list. A spokesperson for the paper was quoted in the Jewish Chronicle explaining the mishap:
For the Nobel Peace Prize winners list, we used data from Nobelprize.org. However, there was a technical issue during the data transfer from the site, which meant that many of the names of the joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize were accidentally omitted, although the country of origin of the winners was not. This has now been corrected.
In other words, blame fact checkers and/or tech geeks.
I'm open to accepting that explanation from some newspapers. Troubleshooting computer problems and their unforseen results offers amples proof that to err is human. Fact-checking can reduce the most eagle-eyed pro to bleariness.
But I'm not yet willing to be so kind to this paper. When it comes to Israel, The Guardian has a history of axe-grinding. (For example here, here, here, here, here, and here . . . need I go on?) There's a real problem at The Guardian, and their explanations wear thin.
