AP article published on Toronto Star's website fails to meet basic journalism standards

"I’ve consistently provided The Associated Press with this type of feedback since January 2024. I’ve emailed a total of 75 letters to a range of journalists and editors at AP. In all of these letters, I’ve laid out well-researched and thorough arguments explaining how they’ve violated basic journalistic standards, as well as recommended edits. Despite this consistent feedback, The Associated Press has not replied to a single one of my letters. This lack of responsiveness and accountability demonstrates that AP has closed itself off to meaningful dialogue with its readers."


July 8, 2024

To:

Ohad Zwigenberg, Journalist, The Associated Press

Anne Marie Owens, Editor in Chief, Toronto Star

Donovan Vincent, Public Editor, Toronto Star

Dear editors at the Toronto Star,

I am disappointed to have come across yet another article by the Associated Press on the Toronto Star’s website that fails to meet basic journalism standards. Though the Lancet medical journal has recently reported that the death toll in Gaza has likely reached and surpassed 186,000 since Oct. 7, this recent article’s muted description of Rafah since Israel’s military invasion fails to recognize Rafah’s heaviest loss: thousands upon thousands of Palestinian civilians, most of whom are buried under the very remnants of rubble to which you refer as a “dust-covered ghost town.”

Months ago, popular Canadian media reported on Israel’s imminent military invasion of Rafah as an immovable red-line. Though the potential invasion of this highly populated city was widely condemned, the media has chronically underreported the subsequent catastrophic human toll in Rafah. This article describes Rafah as “abandoned” and “bullet-ridden,” as though all its civilians miraculously left when, in reality, they were either maimed by an Israeli gun, tank, or missile, or forcibly displaced. The opening paragraph ends with the following: “Very few civilians remain.” Why do very few Palestinians remain? Please maintain minimum standards of accuracy and specify that civilians in Rafah were either killed or forcibly displaced by the Israeli military.

I implore you to, at minimum, add the Palestinian death toll provided by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The fact that it was excluded from an article supposedly reporting on Rafah’s destruction is unacceptable. As stated previously, the Lancet medical journal recently reported that it is “not implausible” for the Gaza death toll to have reached 186,000 or more since the Israeli bombardment began on October 7. The excerpt in question follows:

In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. 

Given the likelihood that the official death toll is severely underestimated, it would be helpful to inform readers of this nuance, perhaps with a disclaimer after any mention of Gaza Health Ministry’s estimation. An example of a potential disclaimer follows:

37,396 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Due to the direct harm from violence, as well as the destroyed health-care infrastructure and severe shortages of food, water, and shelter, the official death toll is, according to some sources, grossly underestimated.  

I’ve consistently provided The Associated Press with this type of feedback since January 2024. I’ve emailed a total of 75 letters to a range of journalists and editors at AP. In all of these letters, I’ve laid out well-researched and thorough arguments explaining how they’ve violated basic journalistic standards, as well as recommended edits. Despite this consistent feedback, The Associated Press has not replied to a single one of my letters. This lack of responsiveness and accountability demonstrates that AP has closed itself off to meaningful dialogue with its readers.

Given that AP articles are auto-posted to the Toronto Star’s site, I implore editors at The Star to reevaluate this process until AP takes meaningful steps to mitigate their chronic dehumanization of Palestinians.

Sincerely,

Rose Mardikian,

Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East