NYT Retracts the Core of Its 'Caliphate' Podcast
The Times' award-winning podcast Caliphate centered on a Canadian man who said he had joined ISIS in Syria and taken part in executions.
A sourcing failure on a terrorism story with no clear partisan beneficiary.
What was reported
The Times' award-winning podcast Caliphate centered on a Canadian man who said he had joined ISIS in Syria and taken part in executions.
What actually happened
Canadian police charged the man with a terrorism hoax in September 2020. On December 18, 2020, after an internal review, the Times said it had ignored red flags, had no evidence he had joined ISIS or killed anyone, and that the episodes did not meet its accuracy standards. The paper returned its Peabody Award and reassigned the lead reporter.
The proof
The Times' own December 18, 2020 editors' note and the Canadian hoax charge against the source.
The receipt. Copy this and paste it anywhere:
NYT Retracts the Core of Its 'Caliphate' Podcast — Retracted. The Times' own December 18, 2020 editors' note and the Canadian hoax charge against the source. Full file: https://www.thepropagandafiles.com/case/nyt-caliphate-podcast-retraction/
Original reporting
- Secondary: Wikipedia, Caliphate (podcast), with episode historyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate_(podcast)
Corrections, findings & records
- The New York Times: Caliphate editors' note (Dec. 18, 2020)https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/podcasts/caliphate-editors-note.html
- NPR: New York Times retracts hit podcast series Caliphatehttps://www.npr.org/2020/12/18/944594193/new-york-times-retracts-hit-podcast-series-caliphate-on-isis-executioner
- Axios: NYT returns Peabody after finding falsehoods in podcasthttps://www.axios.com/2020/12/19/new-york-times-peabody-falsehoods-caliphate-podcast
Archived copies
Stories get edited after publication. These open the Internet Archive's earliest saved copy of each original.
- Archived copy: Secondary: Wikipedia, Caliphate (podcast), with episode historyhttps://web.archive.org/web/2/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate_(podcast)