Study: New York Times coverage of Gaza war presents biased narrative against Israel

An academic study by Prof. Adiel Pinker of Yale University, published in the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, found that the New York Times' coverage of the Gaza war between October 2023 and June 2024 presented a biased narrative against Israel. The study examined 1,559 articles and found they focused on Palestinian suffering while systematically omitting Israeli casualties, Hamas fighters killed, and Palestinian violence after October 7. The Times rejected the criticism.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry echoed this morning (Monday, September 14, 2026) a report in the New York Post about a new academic study alleging anti-Israel bias in the New York Times' coverage of the Gaza war. The study, conducted by Prof. Adiel Pinker of the Yale School of Management, examined 1,559 articles published in the newspaper between October 7, 2023 and June 7, 2024. The study was published last week after an academic peer-review process in the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. Pinker found that the Times' description of the war was built around a narrative sequence in which Hamas carried out the October 7 attack and killed about 1,200 people, after which Israel launched a military campaign and the number of Palestinian casualties grew. The description often lacked three components: Israelis killed after October 7, Hamas fighters killed in combat, and Palestinian violent acts carried out after the massacre. The study notes a striking gap in coverage of the human cost: personal stories about Palestinian suffering appeared on average two out of every three days, while parallel stories about Israeli suffering appeared in less than 4% of articles focusing on events on the ground. Additionally, only 10% of articles on the fighting mentioned Hamas casualties and only 18% mentioned Palestinian violence after October 7. Pinker compared the coverage to Israeli government data and the ACLED database. The study does not claim that every article was biased in itself, but that the cumulative picture creates an impression that Israel is the only active side and Palestinians are portrayed mainly as victims. The New York Times rejected the criticism and argued that they covered the war with great rigor.