CNN’s Stelter Calls Out NY Times Over Caliphate Podcast Debacle: ‘A Blow to the Credibility’ of the Paper

CNN’s Brian Stelter took a deep dive into The New York Times’ troubles in connection to the paper’s “Caliphate” podcast scandal.

Stelter held a segment on the podcast for Reliable Sources, noting that it was a major hit back in 2018 for shedding light on the crimes committed by members of ISIS. He quickly noted, however, that the podcast has been discredited after investigations and external scrutiny detected major flaws and concerns about its journalistic integrity.

The segment explains how the podcast’s biggest revelations were reliant on the confessions of a Canadian man who claimed that he carried out executions for ISIS. The man was arrested and charged with conducting a terrorism hoax, and the Times had to issue a major correction on Caliphate in the aftermath that followed.

“Now Caliphate has come undone with a major retraction,” Stelter said. “It is a blow to the credibility of the New York Times and a wakeup call about the booming business of podcasting.”

As Stelter highlighted the backlash that the Times witnessed, he shifted to the public outrage about why Caliphate producer Andy Mills was not penalized like Rukmini Callimachi was for the podcast’s failings. He eventually got to the news that Mills resigned from the paper amid multiple accusations of improper conduct toward women. Mills denies that the Caliphate scandal was connected to his departure.

“The big question remains, will podcasts like Caliphate keep slipping through the cracks, or will the Times and other newsrooms learn from their mistakes?” Stelter asked. He continued to discuss this with The Daily Beast’s Noah Shachtman, and they also touched on the resignation of science reporter Donald McNeil.

Watch above, via CNN.

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