New York Times admits massive failure to vet false claims made in 'Caliphate' podcast

In what its executive editor is calling an "institutional failing," The New York Times published an extensive correction Friday after acknowledging its 2018 podcast series "Caliphate" heavily relied on a serial fabulist who claimed to have been a member of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization.

The newspaper admitted it failed to properly vet Shehroze Chaudry's lurid stories before airing them on the podcast, which won a Peabody audio award. It also published the interviews with him even after its own investigations found discrepancies in his stories.

The 12-part series was "driven primarily by the confessional tale of a Canadian man of Pakistani origin who called himself Abu Huzayfah and claimed to have been a member of the Islamic State who had taken part in killings in Syria," the Times wrote on Friday. 

"During the course of reporting for the series, The Times discovered significant falsehoods and other discrepancies in Huzayfah’s story ... As a result, The Times has concluded that the episodes of "Caliphate" that presented Mr. Chaudhry’s claims did not meet our standards for accuracy."

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However, while the note now appears on the podcast's page, the paper is not removing the episodes featuring his false claims.

Chaudhry, 26, claimed to reporter Rukmini Callmiachi he traveled to Syria and committed numerous atrocities on behalf of ISIS as well as engaged in secret discussions of terrorist attacks against the West on the scale of 9/11.

However, he was arrested by Canadian authorities in September for perpetrating a terror hoax after an investigation revealed his tales were fictional. Intelligence officials reached the conclusion after an extensive probe into his travel, social media postings and statements to police, and they have cast doubt on whether he has ever even entered Syria, the Times reported.

In an interview with his own paper, Executive Editor Dean Baquet said the "ambitious" project was not properly scrutinized by him nor his top deputies.

"This failing isn’t about any one reporter. I think this was an institutional failing," he said.

Baquet told NPR the newspaper "fell in love" with the idea of interviewing a former ISIS fighter, even with so many red flags.

"We fell in love with the fact that we had gotten a member of ISIS who would describe his life in the caliphate and would describe his crimes," Baquet said. "I think we were so in love with it that when we saw evidence that maybe he was a fabulist, when we saw evidence that he was making some of it up, we didn't listen hard enough."

An internal investigation has led to the lead reporter on the story, Callimachi, getting reassigned to a new beat. Callimachi also had two editor's notes placed on past stories from 2014 and 2019 that contained reporting errors.

"She’s going to take on a new beat, and she and I are discussing possibilities," Baquet said. "I think it’s hard to continue covering terrorism after what happened with this story. But I think she’s a fine reporter." 

In its correction, the Times said it should have had "regular participation" of an editor experienced on the subject and more carefully vetted Chaudhry's evidence of his claims.

"In the absence of firmer evidence, 'Caliphate' should have been substantially revised to exclude the material related to Mr. Chaudhry. The podcast as a whole should not have been produced with Mr. Chaudhry as a central narrative character," the correction said.

Chaudhry has denied the hoax charge, which alleges he caused public safety concerns by airing his violent stories and creating alarm in his home country. Those who know him in Canada have described him as an ISIS sympathizer who is lonely and confused.

Before his arrest, discrepancies in Chaudhry's story had already emerged that the Times admits it failed to adequately address in the podcast. In a report on Chaudhry's background Friday, the Times reported he had told the paper before "Caliphate" aired about one of his emirs, or commanders, in Syria. The emir contradicted some of Chaudhry's key claims in a subsequent interview, such as how he operated in a different city than the one where Chaudhry said he was stationed. He also said Chaudhry likely had a military role, in conflict with Chaudhry's claim that he was a religious police officer.

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"Some of these inconsistencies were not included in the "Caliphate" podcast," the Times reported.

"Later, the emir sent a short voice message of a second ISIS official who claimed to remember Mr. Chaudhry," the Times added. "The Times never interviewed the person directly, yet included his assertions in 'Caliphate.' And, as noted in the podcast, The Times did not independently verify the identities of these supposed officials or vet the accuracy of their accounts."

The Times had already poked holes in his original story of joining ISIS in February 2014 after flying to Turkey and then sneaking into Syria. His passport showed no Turkey stamp and found he traveled between Canada and Lahore, Pakistan, where he lived with his grandparents and attended college at the time he said he was in Syria. He later changed his story to say he traveled to Syria sometime after September 2014 after then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate.

Callimachi brought up some of these credibility issues in the podcast, but not all, by the paper's own admission.

Another discrepancy that emerged before his arrest was that he told Canadian outlet Global News he had never killed anyone, yet he described participating in violent executions on "Caliphate."

The Times wrote in its correction that Callimachi took time to explore those discrepancies in Chapter 6, but she was criticized for airing his claims in the first five episodes.

"The first five episodes of the series, by and large, recount Abu Huzayfah’s story with minimal skepticism from the host," Washington Post media columnist Erik Wemple wrote in September. "Snippet after snippet, Callimachi heaped credibility on Abu Huzayfah."

Wemple noted in its submission to the Peabody Awards, the Times presented Chaudhry's dramatic claims as true.

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"Callimachi has been covering terrorism for years. Never had she talked with a recruit who had so recently returned home and had not yet been discovered by authorities, " the Times wrote on its Peabody entry form. "And as their conversation unfolds, it becomes clear how rare this interview is. He begins to tell the story of how he -- a Canadian kid from a suburban, middle-class family -- left his home, slipped over the Turkish border into Syria and pledged his loyalty to the Islamic State. Huzayfah describes the group’s inner workings as he learns how to use an AK-47, how to enforce religious law, how to physically punish offenders and, eventually, how to kill for the Islamic State. Eventually, he arrives at his breaking point, the moment when, grappling with the atrocities he committed, he decides to escape.

Callimachi released a statement Friday expressing regret for the breakdowns.

"Reflecting on what I missed in reporting our podcast is humbling," she wrote. "Thinking of the colleagues and the newsroom I let down is gutting. I caught the subject of our podcast lying about key aspects of his account and reported that. I also didn't catch other lies he told us, and I should have."

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President Trump called on the Times to apologize to him for supposed faulty reporting upon learning of the correction, writing "they do this to me every day." 

Fox News contributor Joe Concha, who reports on the media, was critical of the decision not to take down the podcasts during an appearance on "America's Newsroom."

"Their eyes were bigger than their stomach," he said. "They're addressing lapses in the series, so in other words, they're not taking these conversations down. That's a problem. I would take the whole thing down, because if some parts of it are untrue, none of it should be available for listening."

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.