Ted Lieu accuses NY Times of 'intentionally' writing false headline for Gaza hospital report

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., accused The New York Times of doing something far "worse" than making a mistake, after the outlet quoted Palestinian claims blaming Israel for the explosion that rocked the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City earlier this week.

President Biden said that U.S. intelligence confirmed Israel was not to blame for the attack and backed up Israel's military investigation which found the strike was caused by Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

Users on X roasted the paper for their initial headline, which read, "Israeli strike kills hundreds in hospital, Palestinians say." The Democratic congressman joined media watchdogs and conservative commentators criticizing the paper, in an X post on Thursday.

"I agree the @nytimes didn’t ‘botch’ the Gaza hospital story. They did something worse," Lieu wrote. "They intentionally wrote an attention grabbing headline that falsely pointed the blame at Israel to generate clicks during breaking news, without waiting for confirmation or the actual facts."

A New York Times spokesperson defended the outlet's coverage in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"During any breaking news event, we report what we know as we learn it. We apply rigor and care to what we publish, explicitly citing sources and noting when a piece of news is breaking and likely to be updated. And as the facts on the ground become more clear, we continue reporting. Our extensive and continued reporting on the hospital in Gaza makes explicit the murkiness surrounding the events there," the spokesperson said.