Suddenly, the bad guy is a good guy. The Times reports that the photo originated from an Israeli photo agency. It sent garbled information in Hebrew to the AP in Jerusalem which mistakenly said that Grossman was an Israeli ambulance medic. The AP had seen many other pictures of injured Palestinians, and somehow assumed Grossman was among them. It also said the photo was taken on the Temple Mount, which was also wrong.
Mistakes happen in journalism all the time.
But not often do they turn a story around 180 degrees as they did in this case. Shame on the AP for making a false assumption, then spreading it around the world. I'm glad to see the Times corrected the record when it found out the truth. My thanks to OTR reader Lenn Zonder who sent along the photo and let me know about all this, and to OTR reader Peter Putrimas of the New York Times, who responded to my inquiry and sent along information on the Times correction. As you well know, one of my big ongoing complaints is the use of Broadcasteze, which means non-conversational language by broadcast reporters and anchors.