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“Caliphate,” a 12-part podcast released in 2018 on the inner workings of the Islamic State terrorist group, featured the account of Shehroze Chaudhry, a Canadian resident who claimed to have joined ISIS and participated in executions. But after an internal review that lasted more than two months, The Times said the Chaudhry episodes collapsed under surveillance.
The Times said it “found a history of Mr. Chaudhry’s misrepresentation and no corroboration that he committed the atrocities he described in the ‘Caliphate’ podcast,” according to an editor’s note which was appended Friday to the Times website podcast page.
The Times launched its investigation after Canadian police charged Chaudhry in September with “hoax terrorist activity” in connection with interviews published by “multiple media,” according to a police press release.
Despite the false claims and the lack of corroboration, The Times is not removing “Caliphate” from its website or podcast apps. In addition to the editors’ note posted online, The Times makes audio corrections to the episodes and publishes an episode on the corrections. The newspaper also published a more comprehensive account on Friday on what it learned about Chaudhry. The four-line story describes him as “a fabulist who told jihadist stories about the killing for the Islamic State in Syria, say Canadian and US intelligence and law enforcement.”
The editors’ note said The Times “uncovered significant lies and other discrepancies” in Chaudhry’s story during the reporting and took steps to confirm his account. The Times decided to “continue with the project” but to include an episode devoted to the fact-checking process and highlighting what they called “major deviations.”
Times media critic Ben Smith reported in October that there had been concerns about the podcast ahead of its publication.
“Caliphate” won the 2018 Peabody in the radio / podcast category, a prestigious journalism award. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. These are marks of success for The Times’ growing investment in audio, led by the team behind its daily news podcast, “The Daily.”
Rukmini Callimachi, a Times correspondent who hosted the podcast, will remain with the newspaper and be reassigned.
“She’s going to take on a new rhythm, and she and I are discussing the possibilities,” said Dean Baquet, editor of The Times. “I think it’s hard to keep covering terrorism after what happened with this story. But I think she’s a great journalist.”
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