‘Wrong and misleading’: New York Times blasts ‘mediacide’ allegations from UN’s Albanese

The New York Times rejects a report criticizing its coverage by UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinians Francesca Albanese.

Albanese’s report, “Truth under the rubble: media in the time of genocide,” alleges killings of Palestinian journalists, media restrictions by Israel, and collusion by “influential international media” in order to “legitimize atrocities.”

Albanese dubs the “assault on truth” a “mediacide.”

Albanese publicizes the report online before she presents the findings to the General Assembly this evening.

The report lashed The New York Times for advising editorial caution when using terms such as “genocide”; for providing “humanitarian camouflage” to Israel via coverage of “safe zones” in Gaza; for referring to Hamas’s use of “human shields”; and for mentioning sexual violence against Israelis too often.

Albanese also alleged that The New York Times “downplayed Israeli responsibility” in 65 percent of relevant headlines, citing a media analysis by an activist group.

A New York Times spokesperson says Albanese’s report “is not impartial, nor are the sources she relies on.”

“Fact-based journalism by The New York Times and other independent news organizations has shed critical light on the issues that Ms. Albanese is reviewing, and no pressure campaigns or biased criticism will deter us from that work,” the spokesperson tells The Times of Israel.

The paper says Albanese “offers no proof” for her assertion that Israeli officials and pressure groups influence editorial guidance.

Albanese’s criticism of the newspaper’s “safe zones” coverage is “wrong and misleading,” the spokesperson says.

“If Ms. Albanese read our coverage of ‘safe zones’ in context, rather than relying on studies with flawed methodologies, she would see that in the majority of cases, our coverage refers pointedly to ‘so-called’ safe zones,” the spokesperson says, adding that the coverage often questions whether the areas are actually safe.

“Ms. Albanese does not present any legitimate evidence to show ‘a pattern… of attribution of civilian deaths to Hamas’s tactics rather than to Israeli military actions’ or ‘downplaying Israeli responsibility’ as her report claims,” The New York Times says.

Albanese’s claims about the newspaper’s coverage of sexual assault “ignores our repeated investigations on sexual violence against Palestinians,” the spokesperson says.

The New York Times has previously described Albanese as an “expert on the occupied Palestinian territories,” a legal scholar and an expert on human rights issues.