A Pulitzer Prize was just given to the 1619 essay the New York Times admitted was historically inaccurate
Nikole Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for an essay the New York Times corrected substantially after an array of respected academics disputed its grasp on history. That means the Pulitzers bizarrely rewarded inaccurate journalism with journalism’s highest prize.
That Hannah-Jones’s article advanced historical inaccuracies is not a matter of opinion, it was a determination made by her own publication. Tacked onto the piece, which was an introductory article to the Times Magazine’s controversial 1619 Project, is a 36-word Editor’s Note stating, “A passage has been adjusted to make clear that a desire to protect slavery was among the motivations of some of the colonists who fought the Revolutionary War, not among the motivations of all of them.”
That note links to a 500-word “update” from the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jake Silverstein, who concedes, “We recognize that our original language could be read to suggest that protecting slavery was a primary motivation for all of the colonists. The passage has been changed to make clear that this was a primary motivation for some of the colonists.”
This two-word change is actually an admission of substantial error. (Read why here.) It was also added a long seven months after the article’s publication—during which schools were encouraged to use materials from the project as curriculum—following criticism from a wide variety of prominent historians…
The Times also appears to have ignored guidance from historians asked to review the piece before publication. In a Politico article titled, “I Helped Fact-Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me,” Northwestern professor Leslie M. Harris, wrote, “Despite my advice, the Times published the incorrect statement about the American Revolution anyway, in Hannah-Jones’ introductory essay.