Nate Silver hit out at The New York Times and NBC reporter Ben Collins over their coverage of the explosion near a Gaza hospital that was initially blamed on Israel.
Silver, the former head of FiveThirtyEight data and polling news site, said The Times “screwed up” by not changing its headline about the hospital incident after more details emerged suggesting that it was an errant Palestinian rocket that caused the blast.
The Times headline that was initially posted on Tuesday afternoon read: “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinian Officials Say.”
“Almost every word of that first clause is now disputed,” Silver wrote in a blog posting on his Substack page.
Silver noted that the Israeli military claimed the explosion was “the result of a misfire from a Hamas rocket” and that the claim was backed by President Joe Biden, who cited data from the Department of Defense.
The explosion apparently happened in a parking lot adjacent to the hospital, which remains largely intact. Silver also noted that the death toll “remains unclear” given that “forensic evidence doesn’t seem to be particularly consistent with a three-figure number.”
“Shouldn’t newsrooms just be more careful in these situations? The short answer is ‘yes,’” Silver wrote.
He dismissed The Times’s “excuse” that it was “just passing along a newsworthy claim made by a Palestinian spokesperson.”
“I don’t think that really works, however,” wrote Silver, whose site partnered with the Times from 2010 to 2013.
Once it became apparent that the headline was incorrect, The Times failed to admit error, according to Silver, who accused The Times of being “disingenuous” in a subsequent story about media coverage of the incident.
Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel
“Many Western news organizations, including The New York Times, reported the Gazan claims in prominent headlines and articles,” The Times’ media reporter Katie Robertson wrote in a story on Wednesday.
“They adjusted the coverage after the Israeli military issued a statement urging ‘caution’ about the Gazan allegation.”
Silver wrote that The Times “frames itself as an innocent, passive actor” who was “neglecting its role in trying to steer” the coverage.
“That’s complete bulls–t, because the Times is extremely and often somewhat proudly self-conscious of this role,” Silver wrote.
“We report what we know as we learn it,” a Times spokesperson was quoted as telling the newspaper’s own reporter, Robertson.
Silver wondered why Robertson “couldn’t even get a comment from an editor in the Times newsroom” and instead “head to rely on the PR department.”
A New York Times spokesperson told The Post: “During any breaking news event, we report what we know as we learn it.”
“We apply rigor and care to what we publish, explicitly citing sources and noting when a piece of news is breaking and likely to be updated,” the spokesperson added.
The Times representative told The Post that the newspaper “makes explicit the murkiness surrounding the events there.”
On his X social media account, Silver also took aim at NBC’s Collins, accusing him of having an “unfortunate habit of constantly spreading disinformation that confirms his political priors.”
Silver linked to a critique of Collins that was written by Reason, which noted that the NBC reporter “failed to correct the Gaza hospital story.”
Collins, who covers disinformation and extremism for NBC News, reposted several X posts that amplified the initial Hamas claims of hundreds dead.
In one X post, Collins linked to a Sky News headline which read: “Israel-Hamas war: At least 500 people killed in hospital bombing in Gaza, Palestinian officials claim.”
When Collins was urged to show caution as to which posts to amplify, he responded: “I think people should know hundreds of people died at a hospital immediately, actually.”
“That’s why I picked that [Sky News] headline specifically.”
Collins made news earlier this year when he was suspended from covering Elon Musk after mocking him following his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company that was known at the time as Twitter.
Earlier this month, he took to social media to declare that he was “irrevocably depressed and anxious” in the face of “death threats” he was receiving for his reporting.
The Post has sought comment from Collins and NBC News.
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