NBC Under Fire for Promoting Discredited “14,000 Babies Will Die” Claim Despite UN Retraction

NBC News is facing intense backlash after continuing to circulate a discredited and inflammatory claim that “14,000 babies will die in the next 48 hours” if humanitarian aid is not delivered to Gaza. The quote, originally made by UNRWA representative Sam Rose Fletcher during a BBC interview, quickly went viral, sparking outrage and prompting mainstream outlets like NBC to amplify the statement without proper verification or context.

“There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them,” Fletcher claimed. However, when pressed for evidence, Fletcher cited vague “strong teams on the ground” but failed to provide any supporting data. The statement was not only lacking in factual basis, it was flat-out false.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) officially walked back the claim shortly after it went public. According to UNOCHA, the number Fletcher referenced actually refers to a year-long projection of potential malnutrition cases, not immediate deaths. Specifically, the report anticipates that 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition could develop among children aged six to 59 months between April 2025 and March 2026,not in the next 48 hours.

UNOCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke clarified: “We know for a fact that there are babies who are in urgent life-saving need of these supplements… but the IPC figure spans a full year, not 48 hours.”

Despite this retraction, NBC has not updated or corrected its reporting. As of now, the original story remains live on their website, along with an X post still attributing the false quote to UN officials. To make matters worse, NBC included a photo of a severely ill child, which fact-checkers later confirmed was not suffering from starvation, but a separate medical condition unrelated to famine further misleading the public and reinforcing harmful narratives.

Critics accuse NBC and similar outlets of irresponsibly parroting Hamas propaganda aimed at portraying Israel as deliberately starving Palestinian children, a claim not supported by the facts. Public responses to NBC’s post have been scathing:

This highlights how quickly false narratives can spread, and how reluctant some media organizations are to correct misleading content when it fits a particular political angle. With the UN already admitting the figure was grossly misrepresented, critics are now demanding accountability from NBC and other outlets still promoting the falsehood.

As tensions in the region remain high, many argue that such unchecked misinformation not only misleads the public but also inflames anti-Semitic sentiment and further destabilizes an already volatile situation.