The Grind previously reported that it took The Toronto Star eight months to correct an article that falsely stated that 40 babies had been killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. According to Israeli government figures, one baby was killed.
The Star’s article, an opinion piece by Adam Hummel published on Oct. 11, 2023, at first also falsely stated many babies had been beheaded. The Star removed that claim a week later in the online version, noting it was unsubstantiated.
The Star corrected the article again in August 2024 after receiving questions from The Grind, removing the claim of 40 dead babies. However, they did not issue a correction about the number in its print edition, which is standard practice when errors are identified.
In November, we asked The Star’s opinions editor Jordan Himelfarb, who is responsible for the opinion section where the article appeared, and also its public editor, Donovan Vincent, about this.
Vincent pointed us to an October 2024 column he had written. But instead of noting what was wrong in the original article and clarifying the established facts, Vincent only mentioned that the location of the supposed killings was wrong and that the entire claim had been removed.
He wrote, after noting they had removed the beheaded claim, that “sometime later, another reader pointed to an unconfirmed detail we missed at the time in the same op-ed, a claim about where the babies’ bodies were discovered. This has also since been corrected and the reference removed.”
Readers could easily read Vincent’s article and still believe the false claim that 40 babies had been killed.
So, why won’t The Star issue a correction for such a widely weaponized false claim?
The paper regularly issues corrections on page 2 of its print edition. These sometimes include much more mundane matters, such as clarifying how much tax increases might affect hotel fees.
We asked Himelfarb and Vincent whether they are putting the “Palestine exception” into action, meaning disregarding normal editorial practices when it comes to their coverage of Palestine.
We also asked why they are willing to erode the trust of their readers and staff over this.
They did not respond.
This article appeared in the 2024 Dec - 2025 Jan issue.