The New York Times has issued a correction of the Thomas Friedman column we wrote about here the other day. We wrote: "The passage about Mr. Adelson joking 'with another wealthy Israeli' is a strange one because neither Mr. Adelson nor the person he was joking with, Haim Saban, is an Israeli. They are Americans." The Times correction reads, "Thomas L. Friedman's column on Wednesday incorrectly suggested that the businessman Sheldon Adelson is Israeli. He is American."
Mr. Saban was born in Egypt and is an American citizen so in my view he is also owed a correction. The Times column as revised with the correction now reads, "The Washington Post said that last November at a conference of the Israel American Council, a lobbying group Adelson has funded, he joked in a public discussion with a wealthy Israeli: 'Why don't you and I go after The New York Times?'" That — "a wealthy Israeli" — is a weird way to refer to Mr. Saban, who may consider himself an Israeli-American, but is definitely an American, just as much as Mr. Adelson is.