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Journalist Falsely Accused Marc Lamont Hill of Gaslighting
I'm writing a chapter for a book on media bias/misuse in the political arena. The chapter focuses on the fallout from Marc Lamont Hill's recent UN speech in which he advocated for the rights of the Palestinian people. Yair Rosenberg, a senior writer for Tablet magazine, accused Hill of gaslighting people by claiming that Hill had not called for a return to the pre-1967 borders for Israel in his speech when he claimed to have done so on Twitter.
This is the Tweet where Hill made the claim Rosenberg contested.
In my speech, I talked about the need to return to the pre-1967 borders, to give full rights to Palestinian citizens of Israel, and to allow right of return. No part of this is a call to destroy Israel. It’s absurd on its face.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill)
4:00 PM • Nov 29, 2018
And here's Rosenberg's response.
There are multiple problems with Rosenberg's tweet, but I'm focused on the claim about the pre-1967 borders. Refuting that claim is straightforward as Hill surely said this. It is loud and clear. I encourage you to verify it for yourself. The speech is just over twenty minutes long, so I've set the inset video below to start with the relevant remarks.
Gaslighting is a serious accusation. Rosenberg got it wrong and a review of the replies to his accusation suggests many people believed him. Ethical journalism requires adherence to five core principles: truth and accuracy, independence, fairness and impartiality, humanity, and accountability. As a journalist, Rosenberg has a responsibility to attempt to undo the harm caused by his error, so I’m calling for him to correct the record. I hope he chooses to do so. If he does, I’ll gladly reflect that in my chapter.
It is possible that Rosenberg has already corrected his error, but I've searched and found nothing to that effect. If he has done so, I'll update this post to correct my error and will issue a public apology.
UPDATE (10/8/2023): Rosenberg’s tweet was deleted. I’m not aware of an apology, but it’s possible that one occurred.
Also, the original video was taken down. The relevant comments start around 14:30 in the version that's now embedded in this post.