Hasidic community leaders have complained that the Times reporters, who are now under consideration for a Pulitzer Prize, presented a profoundly biased and inaccurate portrait of their schools.

An extensive review of one recent entry in the Times series suggests that the rabbis are right. To make its case against the yeshivas, the Times plays fast and loose with the facts, relies on innuendo, and repeatedly violates its own professed journalistic standards, such as failing to disclose its sources’ conflicts of interests and inappropriately anonymizing sources that it had previously named publicly. …

Why did Rosenthal choose to omit the actual number of students using special education services in New York City’s Hasidic yeshivas? Why did Rosenthal craft a dishonest narrative that pretends these yeshivas are using special education services at rates drastically higher than New York City’s public schools? Why cherry-pick anecdotes from those who hold disdain for the yeshivas and give ridiculously short windows for yeshiva staffs to defend against such incredible allegations?

At a time when violence against New York City’s Orthodox Jews has reached record highs, publishing such inflammatory yet poorly sourced accusations against a vulnerable minority group with such reckless abandon should be grounds for immediate expulsion from the Times, not consideration for a Pulitzer.

[Maybe they’re nominating it for the Walter Duranty Pulitzer category? — Ed]