New York Times: ‘Caliphate’ podcast didn’t meet standards

NEW YORK (AP) — After an internal investigation, The New York Times said Friday it was wrong to trust a Canadian man whose account of Islamic State atrocities was a central part of its 2018 podcast “Caliphate” but could not be verified.

The series had won a Peabody Award, the first ever for a podcast produced by the newspaper, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

But the Times began to reexamine the 12-part podcast after Canadian police arrested Shehroze Chaudhry, who used the alias Abu Huzayfah, for perpetrating a terrorist hoax. His account of participating in executions and witnessing other atrocities had been included in the podcast.

“In the absence of firmer evidence, ‘Caliphate’ should have been substantially revised to exclude the material related to Mr. Chaudhry," The Times said in an editor's note on Friday. “The podcast as a whole should not have been produced with Mr. Chaudhry as a central narrative character.”

The Times had ample reason to be suspicious of Chaudhry's account, since an episode of “Caliphate” was devoted to discrepancies in his story and its own fact-checking.

But the newspaper said Friday it should have worked harder to verify the claims before deciding to make Chaudhry a central character.

Its journalists were “too credulous about the verification steps that were undertaken and dismissive of the lack of corroboration of essential aspects” of Chaudhry's story, the newspaper said.

The Times said it should have had an editor experienced in the subject matter involved in the series from the start. The main reporter on the podcast, Rukmini Callimachi, will remain with the newspaper but will be reassigned, the newspaper said.

Callimachi said Friday that it was “gutting” to let down her colleagues. She said she should...