Internal critics worry that the article is another “Caliphate”-level journalistic debacle. “There seems to be no self-awareness at the top,” said one frustrated Times editorial staffer. “The story deserved more fact-checking and much more reporting. All basic standards applied to countless other stories.”
The critics have highlighted major discrepancies in the accounts presented in the Times, subsequent public comments from the family of a major subject of the articleOpens in a new tab denouncing it, and comments from a key witnessOpens in a new tab seeming to contradict a claim attributed to him in the article.