The New York Times has retracted the core of its hit 2018 podcast series Caliphate after an internal review found the paper failed to heed red flags indicating that the man it relied upon for its narrative about the allure of terrorism could not be trusted to tell the truth, NPR reported.

The New York Times has added a disclaimer to the portion of its website the Caliphate podcast can be listened to. It includes the following:

In 2018, The Times released a 12-part narrative podcast series called “Caliphate” on the Islamic State terrorist group and its operations. While parts of the series involved a broad examination of the group’s tactics and influence, multiple episodes were driven primarily by the confessional tale of a Canadian man of Pakistani origin who called himself Abu Huzayfah and claimed to have been a member of the Islamic State who had taken part in killings in Syria.

During the course of reporting the series, The Times discovered significant falsehoods and other discrepancies in Huzayfah’s story. The Times took a number of steps, including seeking confirmation of details from intelligence officials in the United States, to find independent evidence of Huzayfah’s story. The decision was made to proceed with the project but to include an episode, Chapter 6, devoted to exploring major discrepancies and highlighting the fact-checking process that sought to verify key elements of its narrative…

…As a result, The Times has concluded that the episodes of “Caliphate” that presented Mr. Chaudhry’s claims did not meet our standards for accuracy…

…In the absence of firmer evidence, “Caliphate” should have been substantially revised to exclude material related to Mr. Chaudhry. The podcast as a whole should not have been produced with Mr. Chaudhry as a central narrative character.

NPR reported that Canadian authorities accused Shehroze Chaudhry of lying about being an executioner for ISIS. He currently faces criminal charges in a federal court in Ontario of perpetrating a terrorism hoax.

According to NPR, The New York Times offered to return the Peabody Award and the awards’ executive director accepted. The Overseas Press Club also rescinded its Lowell Thomas Award.

The New York Times has launched a podcast called Caliphate. It is a new audio series that follows Rukmini Callimachi, who covers terrorism for The New York Times. Caliphate focuses on the Islamic State.

Caliphate is not the first podcast released by The New York Times, and it probably won’t be the last. However, there are a unique thing happening in regards to how listeners can access this podcast. Each episode will be available to New York Times subscribers a week early. This is being done to thank subscribers for their support for this kind of reporting.

The team behind The Daily (another podcast from The New York Times) presents Caliphate. Rukmini Callimachi is a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, and has often appeared on The Daily. In Caliphate, she reports on the Islamic State and the fall of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Rukmini Callimachi, with producer Andy Mills, journeys to the heart of the conflict to grapple with the most pressing questions about ISIS and to comprehend the power and global pull of the militant group. The New York Times makes it very clear that “this series includes language and scenes of graphic violence.”

While the subject matter of Caliphate may not be for everyone, it is worth being aware of. In this podcast, The New York Times is taking the standard way that journalism is reported – on websites and in newspapers – and adapting it to include the medium of podcasting. We have seen this before in podcasts like Serial. It is significant that a long established newspaper is now using podcasting as a medium for in-depth journalism.