N.Y. Times eats crow after calling true story 'right-wing conspiracy'

The New York Times apparently couldn't fathom that the Palestinian Authority — which has been Israel's so-called "peace partner" in the Middle East conflict — would be so audacious as to provide salaries to terrorists and their families.

The Gray Lady called reports of such a policy the stuff of "far-right conspiracy" in a feature on Facebook's new head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, the former CNN host and NBC News reporter.

But the paper was forced to admit in a correction Monday that it was veering into fake news when it dismissed the Palestinian terrorist-funding story as fake news.

The Times weekend feature on Brown said she "wants to use Facebook’s existing Watch product — a service introduced in 2017 as a premium product with more curation that has nonetheless been flooded with far-right conspiracy programming like 'Palestinians Pay $400 million Pensions For Terrorist Families.'"

In its correction, the Times said: "An earlier version of this article erroneously included a reference to Palestinian actions as an example of the sort of far-right conspiracy stories that have plagued Facebook. In fact, Palestinian officials have acknowledged providing payments to the families of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis or convicted of terrorist acts and imprisoned in Israel; that is not a conspiracy theory."

WND reported Monday the Palestinian Authority has flouted international efforts to stop its financial support of terrorists and their families, including ignoring a deadline.

Last month, the PA defiantly dismissed a bill passed by Congress, the Taylor Force Act, which cuts most U.S. financial aid to the governing body unless it ceases paying terrorists' salaries.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas, for example, told the PLO Central Council that "we will continue to pay" the salaries. Official PA TV said the Palestinians "categorically reject" the U.S. demand.

"We will not under any circumstances allow anyone to harm the families of the prisoners, the wounded and the martyrs. They are our children and they are our families."

In a letter to U.S. government officials, Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch provided documentation showing that just days after passage of the Taylor Force Act, the PA publicized its budget for 2018, approved by Abbas.

The budget allocated at least $158 million for the payment of salaries to terrorist prisoners and released terrorists and $197 million to families of "martyrs" and "wounded" terrorists.

PMW said the PA has "stopped attempting to hide that it is the PA that pays salaries to all the terrorist prisoners."