On April 23, we called the Irish Times to task for an interview with Juliet Casey “originally from Walkinstown, Dublin, but now lives in Palestine, where she teaches ballet.”
It became quite clear, however, that Casey lives not in Palestine, but in Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, and teaches in Nazareth, also in Israel, seriously compromising the accuracy of the article and ensured a nasty politicized anti-Israel bias in the piece.
Following an email from HonestReporting to the Irish Times editor, an asterisk now appears at the top of the article with this “correction” at the end:
* This article was amended on April 24th, 2020
The first thing to point out is the lack of transparency on the part of the Irish Times. A proper correction in any media should include some brief description of what and a reason for why something has been changed. Instead, the Irish Times leaves no record for the reader.
Related reading: Defining Bias #8: Lack of Transparency
Here’s what the Irish Times amended (The original cached version can be viewed here):
The original headline was:
The headline now states “working in Palestine”:
As for the textual amendments:
Before: “Juliet Casey is originally from Walkinstown, Dublin, but now lives in Palestine, where she teaches ballet”
After: “Juliet Casey is originally from Walkinstown, Dublin, but now teaches ballet in Palestine.”
Before: “I live in Palestine with my fiancé Fadi, who is from Jerusalem.”
After: “I live in Haifa with my fiancé Fadi, who is from Jerusalem.”
So far, some minor edits and Casey appears to no longer live in “Palestine.” Noticeably, however, it is not made clear that Haifa is actually an Israeli city.
But then an insult to the intelligence as the Irish Times flatly refuses to correct a blatant lie:
Before: “Gaza, the self-governing Palestinian territory, suffers from almost constant bombardment.”
After: “Gaza, the self-governing Palestinian territory, suffers from bombardment.”
Spot the difference? Does the Irish Times really believe that the removal of “almost constant” fixes this libel? Gaza doesn’t suffer from “bombardment” in any sense.
We also pointed out to the Irish Times that Casey teaches ballet in Nablus, Ramallah, Nazareth and Haifa yet gave the impression that the latter two Israeli cities were Palestinian. Yet there appears to be only one minor edit to a question:
Before: “Has Covid-19 affected you in Palestine?”
After: “Has Covid-19 affected you?”
Other questions referring to Palestine remain as they were with no clarifications that Nazareth and Haifa are Israeli leaving the casual reader with little clue that Casey lives in one place but teaches in both Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Casey is still asked: “How is it being ballet teacher in Palestine?” and answers with a reference to her work in Nazareth. Further questions still include: “Ballet is not something we associate with Palestine. Is it popular?” and “Does being Irish count at the moment in Palestine?”
Ultimately, any edits to the piece are, at best, aesthetic and for the most part fail to address the serious underlying issues in the article. Juliet Casey lives in Israel but evidently considers it to be “Palestine.” The Irish Times has done as little as possible to allay that misconception, instead allowing her anti-Israel bias to shine through while spitting in the faces of those who have made legitimate complaints.
Please let the editor of the Irish Times know that the “corrections” to the article are unacceptable and need to go much further to address the real issues. Send your considered comments to [email protected].
