(Credit: Facebook/National Post)
Canada’s National Post published an op-ed accusing Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah of attending an event “supporting Islamist intolerance.”
The site then deleted the op-ed and replaced it with a “significantly revised version,” Canadian media site Canadaland reported. The author of the op-ed, Sam Westrop, is identified as the “director of Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.”
The original article, “Sam Westrop: Calling for The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah to pull out of Toronto event supporting Islamist intolerance,” was published May 9 and is available via Google Cache.
The new article, headlined, “Sam Westrop: A call for Trevor Noah to support tolerance and withdraw from Toronto event,”carries an editor’s note admitting the original version wasn’t “properly edited” and may have included errors.
The editor’s note reads, “Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article that had not been properly edited was posted May 9, 2017. The Post regrets any error that appeared in it.”
iMediaEthics has written to the National Post to ask how long the original op-ed was published before being removed, if it was published in print, how the article ended up published without being “properly edited,” what the errors in the article were and what changes were made to the original piece.
iMediaEthics has also written via Twitter to the author of the op-ed, Sam Westrop, to ask if he was aware of the changes being made to his piece and if he agreed with the edits.
The op-ed by Westrop explains that his organization, the Middle East Forum, wants Noah to not speak at an Islamic Relief Canada event because Nouman Ali Khan would attend. Why? Khan “holds, in our view, repugnant views about homosexuals and women,” Westrop wrote.
Islamic Relief Canada’s spokesperson Reyhana Patel told Canadaland the group complained to the National Post about “all the inaccuracies and false information” in the original op-ed. Patel also denied Westrop’s original claim that the group financially back terrorism. Islamic Relief Canada didn’t provide Canadaland the list of inaccuracies, but iMediaEthics has asked for a copy.
Hat Tip: Jonathan Goldsbie
