Notes on a scandal: WSJ’s $51bn Houthi claim unpacked

LONDON: In the era of mass social media and a hunger for money-earning clicks, it takes only moments for a dangerous piece of misinformation to circle the globe, becoming transformed into “fact” by the simple act of reckless, unquestioning repetition.

That was the case this week when an extraordinary article in The Wall Street Journal presented as fact an anonymous claim that the Iran-backed Houthi militia had demanded a payment of $51 billion from Saudi Arabia as their price for ending hostilities in Yemen.

Now an investigation by Arab News has discovered the likely source of the claim and the $51 billion figure: a Saudi dissident.