NY Times Admits ‘Caliphate’ Podcast Fell for Subject’s Hoax
An internal review of the New York Times’ “Caliphate” podcast revealed one of its subjects — a man who claimed to have participated in Islamic executions — lied about his involvement. The primary reporter on the project, Rukmini Callimachi, is being reassigned.
The subject of the podcast that underwent review was Shehroze Chaudhry, a Canadian resident who said he took part in Islamic State executions. The internal review came about after his arrest by Canadian authorities on charges of perpetrating a terrorist hoax prompted the Times to look into his accounts on the podcast. Ultimately, the investigation concluded the reporters involved gave too much credence to his accounts, which were false or exaggerated.
In a Friday podcast — portions of the transcript for which appear in the Times’ write-up — Times executive editor Dean Baquet acknowledged the investigation’s findings, saying, “When the New York Times does deep, big, ambitious journalism in any format, we put it to a tremendous amount of scrutiny at the upper levels of the newsroom.”
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He added, “We did not do that in this case,” then took personal responsibility: “I did not provide that kind of scrutiny, nor did my top deputies with deep experience in examining investigative reporting.”
An editor’s note was added to the 2018 premiere of the podcast that highlighted how Chaudhry’s September arrest led to the investigation that found content based on his testimony did not meet the Times’ standards. An audio correction will also be added to “Caliphate” for future listeners.
Baquet raised the suggestion that Chaudhry is a “con artist” who “duped” the company. He noted that Callimachi is “a fine reporter” who will be moved from covering terrorism to covering a new beat for the Times.
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