The New York Times issued an embarrassing correction after inaccurately attributing an antisemitic statement to Charlie Kirk. The story, which carried the headline ‘Where Charlie Kirk Stood on Key Political Issues,’ included a statement about Jewish communities that the conservative activist had actually critiqued.

‘An earlier version of this article described incorrectly an antisemitic statement that Charlie Kirk had made on an episode of his podcast. He was quoting a statement from a post on social media and went on to critique it. It was not his own statement.’

The statement came from a November 15, 2023, tweet that Kirk repeated on his podcast a day later. ‘Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,’ he said, referring to the post, which had been amplified by Elon Musk .

He followed up by saying: ‘Now I don’t like generalizations. Not every Jewish person believes that.’ The New York Times story did say that Kirk ‘was repeatedly accused of antisemitism , including by fellow conservatives,’ before outlining he various statements about the Jewish on community.

The correction was not lost on critics who blasted the Gray Lady for its error. ‘The New York Times told millions of readers that Charlie Kirk was anti-semitic.

And then, quietly, they offered this correction that only a handful of readers see – that the opposite was true,’ one person wrote on X. ‘This “correction” by the New York Times of a report, in which they falsely accused Charlie Kirk of making an “antisemitic” statement, is tantamount to an admission of guilt,’ another said.

The point of the piece was to break down Kirk’s positions on key political issues. The 31-year-old – famed for his fiery debates on college campuses – was shot and killed by an assassin’s bullet at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday.

While covering the shooting live on MSNBC, political analyst Matthew Dowd accused Kirk of ‘pushing this sort of hate speech aimed at certain groups,’ before adding: ‘And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.’

Dowd was later fired for his comments. The suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody after allegedly confessing to this father.