The NYT's Gaza Tempest

Inside the Times, according to people familiar with the matter, leadership believed the move to update the story demonstrated transparency. But outside the newsroom, the update has been seized upon by critics—particularly on the right—to cast doubt on both the story and the broader reality of starvation in Gaza. Fox News devoted multiple segments to the episode Wednesday, with one on-screen banner reading, “New York Times issued correction to Gaza famine story”—even though no correction was issued, only an update to the article. In one of the segments, right-wing and vehemently pro-Israel talk show host Mark Levin raged on-air that the boy’s suffering “has nothing to do with the Israelis,” pointing to his pre-existing condition, but negating the fact that his health had been unquestionably made worse by a lack of food.

Elsewhere, the New York Post ran a headline declaring the paper had “stunningly rolled back claims about viral photo of starving Gaza boy.” And online, there were viral posts blasting The Times and accusing it of printing pro-Hamas propaganda. “This is blood libel in 2025,” former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on X. “Propaganda mission fulfilled,” declared CNN’s dishonest MAGA commenter Scott Jennings. “Stories like this lead lunatics to kill. It’s not just the reputational smear of a country, it’s a call to violence against Jews,” wrote Bill Ackman.

Of course, the attacks have ignored a crucial fact: the boy’s severe malnutrition, exacerbated by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, remains undisputed. But the additional detail about his condition has provided ammunition for those eager to undermine coverage of the war by The Times and the news media at large.

“Starvation is real and happening in Gaza and the attacks over this photo and the editors’ note are just the latest instance that we have experienced where truthful, independent reporting gets weaponized by groups representing these biased perspectives,” a senior Times staffer told me on Wednesday. “It just gets weaponized by partisans to suggest this is propaganda or bias or somehow negates the idea that starvation and suffering is happening in Gaza.”

The controversy highlights a dynamic that has repeatedly surfaced during the Israel‑Hamas war: activists and commentators search for any flaw in coverage to try to discredit an entire body of reporting, no matter how truthful it is. Even small updates, like the one published Tuesday, can be distorted into narratives that accuse journalists of bias or pushing propaganda.

“We used the photo in the story because it showed a child, when we talked to her mother and our understanding of the child, had a diagnosis of severe malnutrition,” the Times staffer explained. “This isn’t about The Times—it’s about the children in Gaza—but people try to use our reporting and our effort to do the right thing by making a transparent update in the story to suggest that the truth is not true, that people aren’t starving and dying of starvation in Gaza.”

The paper has also taken fire from some voices on the left, who have accused it of effectively capitulating to Israel by amending the story, underscoring the difficult position The Times finds itself in while covering one of the world’s most hot-button and polarizing conflicts. According to the people familiar with the matter, Times leadership has been dismayed by the reaction to the editors’ note, but stands firmly behind the reporting. Inside the newsroom, I’m told that staffers see the blowback as representative of how bad faith actors can exploit transparency for their own ends.

“This is the reality we’re dealing with now,” the senior staffer said. “Any update, any new context, gets twisted into a narrative that the original story was false or that we’re pushing propaganda. It becomes less about facts on the ground and more about undermining journalism as an institution.”

For The Times, the vandalism at its headquarters and the online firestorm is just the latest reminder that even a well‑intentioned update can be used to sow doubt about its reporting. And as the debate rages on cable news and social media, the paper’s journalists continue to report from Gaza, where, far from the noise, children remain malnourished and in urgent need of help.

The Post in Peril: Who will even be left standing at The WaPo after this latest round of buyouts? On Wednesday came yet another wave of high-profile departures: deputy managing editors Mike Semel, Ann Gerhart, and Monica Norton; deputy opinion editor Stephen Stromberg; veteran sports columnist Sally Jenkins; and renowned media critic Erik Wemple. (Jenkins will head to The Atlantic and Wemple will take his enormous talents to The NYT.) It’s an astonishing exodus that has left media executives and Posties alike bewildered. As one Postie told me Wednesday, “The core of the paper is now going to be people who were too junior to take the buyout, and people who were too mediocre to get jobs elsewhere.”

What exactly is chief executive Will Lewis’ endgame here, other than to run off nearly every marquee byline and hollow out one of the nation’s most storied newsrooms? As The WSJ's Joe Flint sarcastically posted on X, "So the strategy is pay good people to leave and they go somewhere else and compete against you.” At this point, no one believes Lewis is a visionary leader. But by the day he looks more like an arsonist gleefully setting fire to the institution he was entrusted to steward. The result is a newsroom depleted of its soul, all while owner Jeff Bezos turns a blind eye to the five-alarm fire he set off.

► Chris Cillizza's smart point: "Ironically… what WaPo (and most of the rest of the legacy media) is doing is driving nails into their own coffin. Because by getting rid of everyone who can contextualize and analyze the news, they are making themselves into more of a bland commodity."

Correction: A previous version of this item said Sally Jenkins is heading to The Athletic; Jenkins is, in fact, heading to The Atlantic.

Loomer’s Loot: Far-right media personality and proud Islamophobe Laura Loomer was in celebration mode on Wednesday. Loomer repeatedly boasted on her X account that she was responsible for the firing of National Security Agency general counsel April Falcon Doss and the resignation of Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine official, Dr. Vinay Prasad. "It's called getting Loomered," she wrote in one post. "So many scalps this week!" Loomer boasted in another post. "Stacking them up!" It goes without saying that the fact an extremist with a record of bigotry and conspiracy-mongering is influencing those who hold some of the country’s most sensitive national security and public health positions should disturb everyone.

► The Daily Beast put together a list of “every Trump administration scalp” Loomer “has taken so far.”

Meta's Momentum: Shares in Meta jumped 12% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the Mark Zuckerberg-led company blew past Wall Street’s Q2 expectations. The company reported revenue of $47.52 billion, compared with the $44.80 billion analysts had projected, representing 22% growth from a year earlier. Meta also raised its outlook for Q3, forecasting sales of up to $50.5 billion, well above The Street’s estimate of $46.14 billion.

► Zuckerberg also published a letter outlining his vision for "personal superintelligence," saying that developing the technology "is now in sight" and that he believes "strongly" in offering it to "everyone." Zuckerberg wrote that "in some ways this will be a new era for humanity, but in others it's just a continuation of historical trends."

Warner Woes: Warner Bros. endured a bruising day as layoffs rippled through the studio ahead of David Zaslav’s planned split of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. The division, led by Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca, cut roughly 10% of its workforce following what executives described as “a thoughtful assessment of our current structure.” The reductions hit across departments, from marketing and distribution to production, marking one of the studio’s most significant restructurings in recent years. “We know news like this is never easy,” Abdy and De Luca wrote in a note to staff.