Non-for-profit media watchdog iMediaEthics has slammed The New York Times’ coverage of Egyptian affairs, citing fact checking failures and heavy reliance on anonymous sources. The latest reports comes amid an investigative series run by iMediaEthics, part of Art Science Research Laboratory, which is cofounded by Rhonda Roland Shearer from the University of Iowa and the deceased Stephen Jay Gould from Harvard University. In the report, iMediaEthics found that The New York Times’ Cairo Bureau Chief David Kirkpatrick has often relied on anonymous sources and has failed to contact officials from various institutions, including the Coptic Church, Al-Azhar, Universities and government officials, to fact check stories and for interviews. In a summary, iMediaEthics found that 25 percent of Kirkpatrick’s 12 stories about Egypt from October 26 to December 2, 2014, required corrections. The media watchdog also found that 12 stories relied on 38 anonymous sources, double the number of named sources. For example, in one story, there were just three named sources and 14 anonymous sources. Additionally, iMediaEthics found that nearly half of the stories named no sources interviewed by the New York Times. In regards to fact checking and covering…
The New York Times’ Coverage of Egypt Slammed By Media Watchdog
December 21, 2014
