Albanese Accuses the New York Times of Supporting Israel

Albanese criticized the NYT’s references to Hamas’s use of “human shields” and coverage of sexual violence against Israelis.

By Shula Rosen

UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinians Francesca Albanese accused The New York Times of coverage favorable to Israel in a report alleging that influential international media have helped “legitimize atrocities,” prompting the newspaper to reject her findings as biased and unsupported by evidence.

Albanese singled out The New York Times in “Truth under the rubble: media in the time of genocide,” which was published online ahead of its presentation at the UN General Assembly.

Her criticism focused on editorial decisions that she portrayed as benefiting Israel, including caution over the term “genocide,” reporting about Gaza “safe zones,” references to Hamas’s use of “human shields” and coverage of sexual violence against Israelis.

Albanese also accused the newspaper of providing Israel with “humanitarian camouflage” and alleged that 65 percent of relevant headlines “downplayed Israeli responsibility,” citing an analysis by an activist group.

More broadly, her report alleges killings of Palestinian journalists, Israeli restrictions on the media and collusion by “influential international media” in an “assault on the truth” that she calls “mediacide.”

The New York Times disputed both Albanese’s conclusions and the evidence behind them.

A newspaper spokesperson said the 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 told The Times of Israel.

The newspaper said Albanese “offers no proof” that Israeli officials or pressure groups influence its editorial guidance and called her characterization of its reporting on Gaza “safe zones” “wrong and misleading.”

“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 the newspaper has frequently questioned whether such areas are safe.

“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.

The spokesperson also rejected Albanese’s criticism of the newspaper’s coverage of sexual assault, saying it “ignores our repeated investigations on sexual violence against Palestinians.”

The New York Times has previously described Albanese as an “expert on the occupied Palestinian territories,” a legal scholar and an expert on human rights issues.

Israeli politicians and watchdog organizations, meanwhile, have long accused the newspaper of systemic anti-Israel bias, weaponized editorial standards and minimizing accounts from Israeli terror victims while disproportionately depicting Israel as the sole aggressor.