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Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Mirror finally corrects claim that kid was killed by Israel

On November 17, I published the news that  Mahmoud Sadallah,  cradled by the Egyptian premier, reported as a victim of an Israeli airstrike in the photo caption at The Mirror, was in fact killed by a Hamas rocket.

On November 23, the Mirror quietly deleted the article without any admission that it made a mistake. As I said then:
Instead of admitting the mistake, the Daily Mirror consigned the article to the proverbial "bit-bucket." It simply erased the article and pretended that it never made the mistake to begin with.

Puts your faith back into journalism, doesn't it?

It always amazes me that major, reputable media act with such immaturity when faced with their mistakes. They don't realize simple psychology: properly issuing corrections does not detract from their reputation, it enhances it.
Finally, on the day after Christmas when news readership is at an annual low, the Mirror issued a correction:
On 16 November we reported that the Egyptian Prime Minister kissed a Palestinian boy who had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. We would like to make clear that the cause of the boy's death is unknown.

The Egyptian PM claimed that the boy died in an Israeli airstrike but many others have claimed he died as a result of a Hamas rocket. We are happy to set the record straight.
They sure sound happy, don't they?

Notice that they wrote that the cause of the boy's death is unknown even after Human Rights Watch admitted that it was in fact a Hamas rocket that killed him.

(h/t Emet)