NY Times forced to retract award-winning podcast about supposed ex-ISIS fighter after most of it is found to be fake

The New York Times was forced to retract an award-winning podcast about a supposed ex-ISIS fighter on Friday after an internal review determined much of the story was fabricated.

The 2018 podcast series, titled "Caliphate," centered on the tale of a Canadian man of Pakistani origin who referred to himself as Abu Huzayfah and claimed to have been a former member of ISIS who traveled to Syria to join the group before escaping its hold. It was pioneered by renowned journalist Rukmini Callimachi, a correspondent for the paper who is known for reporting from conflict zones in the Middle East.

In the podcast, Huzayfah even recounted in excruciating detail his participation in multiple atrocities on behalf of the terrorist organization; namely, the shooting of one man in the head and the stabbing of another before hanging his corpse on a cross. But, as it turns out, it was all a lie.