David Frum wrote an apology Wednesday about tweets he sent out last week calling photos taken in a Gaza hospital fake.
The mistake involves a series of photos from Khan Younis hospital in Gaza. AP, Reuters, and The New York Times posted images of two blood-covered men. The men were identified as brothers who had just seen their father killed in an Israeli strike. In three tweets, I expressed disbelief in the authenticity of the images. Michael Shaw at the Bag News blog painstakingly argues that I was wrong to do so.
On review, I agree that Shaw is right and that I was wrong. These images do appear authentic, and I should not have cast doubt on them. I apologize especially to Sergey Ponomarev of The New York Times, whose work I impugned.
Frum goes on to write that he’s skeptical because “there is a long history in the region of the use of faked or misattributed photographs as tools of propaganda.”
On Tuesday, Poynter wrote about the tweets and BagNews’ coverage of it. Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy told Poynter “David Frum’s claims are false.”
Atlantic spokesperson Anna Bross says Frum isn’t facing any repercussions from the company.
Comments