NYT's 'Caliphate' podcast withdrawn as Pulitzer finalist

A podcast on terrorism from The New York Times that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize was withdrawn in the wake of the paper saying the claims of a man that were central to “Caliphate” could not be verified

Media-Times-Caliphate (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A high-profile podcast on terrorism from The New York Times that had been a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize was withdrawn as a contest entry in the wake of the newspaper saying the claims of a man central to “Caliphate could not be verified.

In a statement on Tuesday, the board of the Pulitzer Prizes said it “accepted withdrawal of the entry as an appropriate resolution of this matter.”

The 2018 podcast series, about a Canadian man who said he had carried out atrocities for the Islamic State in Syria, had been named as a finalist in the international reporting category for 2019, which was won by Reuters and The Associated Press.

But the Times said last week that, after the man was arrested in Canada in September for perpetrating a terrorist hoax, it investigated and the man's story didn't hold together.

“We volunteered to return the citation and the Pulitzer Prize Board accepted the offer," The Times said.

The paper had previously said it would return a Peabody award it had won for “Caliphate ” and the Overseas Press Club of America said it was taking back an honor it had bestowed on the podcast. The story’s central reporter, Rukmini Callimachi, will be reassigned off the terrorism beat, the newspaper said.