NYT Deserves a Duranty Prize for This One--Misrepresenting Abbas's "Talking Points" as the Truth

There's a difference between saying you want to restart peace talks--because your communications experts have told you that that will play well with credulous reporters who are on your side to begin with--and manifesting a genuine desire to restart peace talks. Not so subtle a distinction, really. Except for the New York Times:

A recent story by David D. Kirkpatrick explains that Abbas's true, inner desire is to restart peace talks, which until now he has assiduously avoided. Or as the headline to Kirkpatrick's March 21 article puts it, "Document Shows Abbas's Desire to Resume Israeli Talks."

 

The story's lede likewise informs readers that Abbas is "so eager to return to peace talks with the Israelis that he may soften his demand that Israel's president [sic] publicly pledge to halt construction of new settlements on Palestinian land [sic] before such negotiations can resume." 

The problem is, the newspaper's certainty about Abbas's inner hopes is based entirely on a document, prepared for the Palestinian leader by strategists at his Negotiations Affairs Department, which suggests certain talking points for the Palestinian leader to use during his meeting with the U.S. president. A correction published by the newspaper two days after Kirkpatrick's article was published accurately described the document as "a set of draft talking points prepared for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, which suggested that in his meeting with President Obama, Mr. Abbas express a strong desire to resume peace talks with Israel...." 

In other words, New York Times journalists saw a document meant to help Abbas promote Palestinian intersts (sic) and position himself as desirous of the peace talks he has long shunned, and they accepted the premise of those carefully designed talking points as fact...

Oops! I bet its journalists are even-handed, though, and extend the same courtesy to the Zionist, right?:

To be sure, the newspaper isn't always so trusting about leaders intentions. When describing Netanyahu's assertions that he wanted peace talks, for example, Times reporters have cast it as mere spin. "Mr. Netanyahu's office seemed eager to sound open to renewing talks," a September 18, 2011 article asserted.

Okay, maybe not.