When breaking news occurs, media outlets sometimes attribute information to third parties until an incident becomes clearer or journalists arrive at the scene.
This, however, fails to explain the first headline of the New York Times in response to a brutal terror attack on Sunday in the Barkan Industrial Zone where a Palestinian murdered Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, 28, and Ziv Hagbi, 35.
Note that the caption of the accompanying photograph from the scene states that “three Israelis were shot by a Palestinian co-worker.”
Yet, according to the New York Times headline, “Israel Says” that it was a Palestinian attack, potentially casting doubt on the facts in the minds of the readers.
Indeed, why come up with that in the headline at all when the story below the headline before any further updates included the following in the opening paragraphs?
So not only is the New York Times’ own correspondent reporting accurately on the attack but Hamas and Islamic Jihad were praising it.
While the headline was later updated and the words “Israel Says” removed, HonestReporting says that there is something insidious about the first reaction of the NY Times’ headline writers.
And that’s a fact.
© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
