William Rainer
Last week, Elon Musk removed the New York Times’ verification badge on Twitter (X). While it may not sound like too much of an issue, Musk certainly ruffled some feathers.
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Earlier this year, the news outlet and Musk had a dispute over the badge from a strictly financial standpoint, however, Musk let the New York Times have the golden badge regardless. According to the Washington Post, X and Musk have not specified any reasoning behind taking away the golden badge.
As the Washington Post pointed out, the golden badge is meant to help distinguish established and therefore more trustworthy news, from the average Joe who may simply pay for the less expensive blue badge.
All of that to say, it is believed that the New York Times lost their golden badge due to spreading false information. NYTimes, followed by several others, pushed the claim that Israel bombed the Gaza hospital. That is now confirmed a lie. Hamas is believed to have shot a faulty missile that blew up near their own hospital. Then they blamed the explosion on Israel.
Elon Musk Removes The New York Times Verification Badge
It's like the "Homer into the Bushes" meme just with NYT pic.twitter.com/w2lOIwUgTc
— American Prometheus (@daniopp) October 17, 2023
Hamas’ misinformation, magnified by the New York Times, has aided in the rise of Middle Eastern tension, along with wildly misinformed individuals protesting against Israel when in reality they are clueless to the truth that Hamas is responsible for the atrocity, not Israel. As reported by Breitbart, this is not the first mass misinformation that the New York Times has spread, and so they lost their gold badge.
Thankfully, Bret Stephens from the New York Times has since pointed out that information spread by institutions in Gaza should all be thoroughly checked. He explained that they all are forced to answer to Hamas, and since there is no such thing as ‘free press’ under Hamas, claims like ‘Israel bombed the hospital,’ should be “triple checked.” Hopefully next time the New York Times will do their homework, and avoid flaring up division across the US. As for now, they will have to prove themselves before they become verified again.
Read More: Gaza Hospital Deception Leads To Risky Escalation
