White House: NYT Admitting It Relied Too Much on Hamas ‘Shows How Seriously They Take Their Obligations’

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby commended The New York Times for its editors’ note on its coverage of the Gaza hospital blast where the paper acknowledged it “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas,” and stated that the note “shows how seriously they take their obligations in reporting news and information, particularly in fast breaking events.”

Kirby said, “I think it’s a commendable effort by The New York Times to do that. I think that shows how seriously they take their obligations in reporting news and information, particularly in fast breaking events. And, again, we find that commendable. As I think you and I talked about last week, when things are moving fast like this, it really is important to not get out ahead of things, not talk about things before you know them, take a breath, take a knee, make sure that you’ve got the information right before you contextualize it, because a group like Hamas very much understands the disinformation war, Nicolle. They understand the power of propaganda. They understand that it is not just a battle of bullets and bombs here that they’re fighting, that it is a battle of the narrative. And if they can win the public narrative, they can have strategic success. And we’ve just got to make sure we don’t give that space to them, that we don’t cede that territory. And if that means being a little slower and a little bit more careful, it’s better for everybody that the truth can come out and facts can be represented appropriately.”

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