Last week I posted about the Fairfax story by Madison Reidy, in which she had fabricated a quote by Jordan Williams, the New Zealand Taxpayer’s Union executive director, who opposed an innovation agreement that would see technology firms from NZ and Israel fast-tracked to receive funding from their respective government grants agencies. By reflecting part of her question to Williams as his response, and then including that with an image showing Israeli forces engaged in conflict with palestinians, she was suggesting his objection was BDS-related, based on Israel’s conduct.
After posting about it, I contacted my friends at HonestReporting, who have experience dealing with media bias. And lo and behold, their contacting Fairfax worked, with the latter correcting the story. Here is the new photo and caption:
And this now appears below the story:
* This story has been corrected to more accurately reflect Jordan Williams’ comments about tax payer support for the Government’s proposed innovation agreement with Israel.
In responding to Honest Reporting, Fairfax described Madison Reidy as having “unintentionally reflected part of her question to Mr Williams as his response.” As I wrote in my previous post, I believe Reidy is biased against Israel, and this was not inadvertent at all. But I am glad Fairfax did the right thing here.
