Albanese Says NYT Helps ‘Legitimize Atrocities,’ Newspaper Rejects Claims
By The Media Line Staff
UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinians Francesca Albanese accused The New York Times of favoring Israel in its Gaza coverage and helping “legitimize atrocities,” allegations the newspaper rejected as unsupported and based on sources that are not impartial.
The accusations appear in Albanese’s report, “Truth under the rubble: media in the time of genocide,” published online ahead of its presentation at the UN General Assembly. The report alleges killings of Palestinian journalists, Israeli restrictions on media access and collusion by “influential international media” in what Albanese describes as an “assault on the truth” and “mediacide.”
Among the international outlets addressed in the report, Albanese specifically criticized several New York Times editorial and reporting practices.
She objected to guidance urging caution when employing terms such as “genocide” and accused the newspaper of providing “humanitarian camouflage” for Israel in its reporting about Gaza “safe zones.” Albanese also criticized references to Hamas’s use of “human shields” and what she considered disproportionate coverage of sexual violence against Israelis.
Citing an analysis conducted by an activist group, Albanese further claimed that 65 percent of relevant New York Times headlines “downplayed Israeli responsibility.”
The newspaper disputed the basis for those conclusions.
A New York Times spokesperson told The Times of Israel that Albanese’s report “is not impartial, nor are the sources she relies on.”
“Fact-based journalism by The New York Times and other independent news organizations has shed critical light on the issues that Ms. Albanese is reviewing, and no pressure campaigns or biased criticism will deter us from that work,” the spokesperson said.
Albanese also asserted that Israeli officials and pressure groups exert influence over the newspaper’s editorial guidance. The New York Times responded that she “offers no proof” for that claim.
Her assessment of its reporting on Gaza “safe zones” is “wrong and misleading,” the spokesperson said.
“If Ms. Albanese read our coverage of ‘safe zones’ in context, rather than relying on studies with flawed methodologies, she would see that in the majority of cases, our coverage refers pointedly to ‘so-called’ safe zones,” the spokesperson said, adding that its reporting frequently questions whether those areas are actually safe.
The newspaper similarly disputed Albanese’s claims about how responsibility for Palestinian civilian deaths is presented.
“Ms. Albanese does not present any legitimate evidence to show ‘a pattern… of attribution of civilian deaths to Hamas’s tactics rather than to Israeli military actions’ or ‘downplaying Israeli responsibility’ as her report claims,” The New York Times said.
Responding to Albanese’s objections over its coverage of sexual violence against Israelis, the spokesperson said her criticism “ignores our repeated investigations on sexual violence against Palestinians.”
The New York Times has previously characterized Albanese as an “expert on the occupied Palestinian territories,” a legal scholar and an expert on human rights issues.
Israeli politicians and watchdog organizations have long made their own accusations against the newspaper, alleging systemic anti-Israel bias, weaponized editorial standards and the minimization of Israeli terror victims’ accounts while disproportionately portraying Israel as the sole aggressor.
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