Stories the Mainstream Media Didn㢂¬„¢t Want You to Know in 2017
2017 will become downwards as another year that saw a steady pass up of trust and confidence in the media. It was a yr when mainstream media gave tough competition to social media in originating and circulating fake news.
Alt News brings you a roundup of the about telling instances where the mainstream media was caught reporting fake news. In the race to exist the offset to break news, fact-cheque is the get-go victim. Simply it is not ever about haste. The yr also saw the more sinister diversity of agenda-driven fake stories circulated by mainstream media.
Here are the top 10 simulated stories circulated by mainstream media in 2017. From lazy journalism failing to do basic fact-checking to agenda-driven deliberate planted stories, y'all will find it all here. Look out for the repeat offenders, look out for the patterns, and await out for how a simulated narrative is being pushed to shape public opinion.
one) R epublic TV : Jama Masjid in dark due to non-payment of electricity bills over Rs 4 crore
The news onRepublic TV most the Jama Masjid being in the dark due to non-payment of electricity bills will make it to any top ten list of fake news. This was fake news that originated from various Hindutva handles andPostcard News, a renowned false news website.Commonwealth TV sent a fact-finding team to the site, which snooped around exterior Imam Bukhari'south residence counting cars and recording their make only didn't band the bell to verify if the story was true. It likewise did non occur to the team to ask those effectually whether the mosque is ordinarily lit at night and what time the lights are normally switched off at night. Funnily, the reporter pointed out to a lit board at the gate only it didn't occur to him how the board could be lit when the electricity was cut off. On the ground of this and then-chosen investigation, ignoring the clarifications tweeted by BSES,Republic Tv broke the news nigh BSES giving a jolt to Jama Masjid due to non-payment of over Rs four crore of bills. The faux news was exposed byAlt News in its article after which the channel quietly deleted its tweet and video without whatsoever amends or explanation.
2) Aaj Tak: Fatwa in Saudi Arabia that men can eat their wives if hungry
Aaj Tak deserves full marks for falling for a story that is so screamingly fake. The "story" carried byBharat Today's Hindi channel had its origins in a satirical column by a Moroccan blogger and was quashed in 2015 byDaily O, a website owned past none other thanRepublic of india Today itself. The less said well-nigh this so-called newsbreak the better but it does leave us wondering about the motives ofAaj Tak backside circulating such obviously false stories. You can read more about this fake news in thisAlt News article.
3)Times Now: Conversion rate card unearthed in Kerala
Times At present anchors screaming their lungs out over a seven-year-sometime photoshopped image was admittedly hilarious. Here was WhatsApp journalism at its best. "I can't even begin to tell yous ladies and gentlemen the kind of insidious fine impress that is on this charge per unit bill of fare, to catechumen Hindus. A Hindu Brahmin girl – v lakhs, seven lakh rupees for a Sikh Punjabi gal, for a Gujarati Brahmin so on and and so along, Hindu Khastriya gal – four and a half lakhs, Hindu OBC/SC/ST – two lakhs, Buddhist girl – one and a half lakh, a Jain daughter 3 lakh rupees, the caliphate has put a price on your faith" – read out Rahul Shivshankar from a photoshopped prototype that has not only been doing the rounds on WhatsApp for years but was too debunked years ago. Read more about this fake rate card that made it to a prime-time show on national television here.
Times Now referred to Kasargod in Kerala as India'due south Gaza. With phrases like "in this hub of ISIS activity", we go out information technology to the readers to effigy out the agenda behind this story.
4) The Times of Bharat: CPM cyber warriors troll Australian cricketer Tom Moody after Moody'south upgrades India's ratings
Mocking Kerala continues to be loftier on the agenda. Trolls in the state with the highest literacy confuse cricketer Moody with rating bureau Moody'due south? Oh really Times of India? A conscientious expect at the story and its source should have given yous a hint well-nigh the chances of it being true simply instead of doing that,The Times of India carried the story on the front folio of its Kochi edition. Meanwhile, RSS supporters who had impersonated the comrades to comment on Tom Moody'due south Facebook post were now posting the link ofThe Times of India article mocking the CPM. Equally the true story unfolded on social media, information technology was clearlyThe Times of India that had go the laughing stock. Needless to say, the newspaper did non acknowledge its fault despite the uproar on social media.
5) Zee News, ABP: Dawood Ibrahim's assets worth Rs 15,000 crore seized in UAE
Nothing excites Indian media more than news near Dawood, even when it is unsubstantiated. With another round of state elections around the corner, it was the plow ofZee News to drop the D-give-and-take. Hold your breath, the source was not the UAE authorities or the ministry of external affairs or fifty-fifty the Indian consulate butZee News's own "sources". This was tweeted by the BJP as a major diplomatic breakthrough stating not the government but media reports equally its source. Soon, the news was all over the media. Within five days, doubts began to announced and the wording of new stories changed to "planning to seize" and "starting to act". Finally, 2 weeks afterward the news was officially denied past UAE government.
6) Democracy Idiot box, CNN News 18: Arundhati Roy's statement
"lxx lakh Indian soldiers cannot defeat Azadi gang in Kashmir" was the statement attributed to Arundhati Roy. A fake statement made in a non-existent interview during a trip that never took place was enough to launch prime-fourth dimension debates onRepublic Television set andCNN News 18attacking Roy. The fake news had originated from some obscure Pakistani website called timesofislamabad.com and dutifully circulated byPostcard News and other known faux news websites. What followed was an assault on Roy by BJP MP Paresh Rawal and prime-time debates on the topic.
Arnab Goswami called Roy a"one volume whiner wonder" and continued to rant about his favourite topic of Lutyens' media and pseudo liberals:"They called the Indian Army names, they all came together, especially the Lutyens' media, and the fake pseudo-liberal crowd, they came together to abuse our regular army, and then in rhythm and almost in a pre-planned mode, ane-book whiner wonders like Arundhati Roy came crawling out of the woodwork to one time once more attack the Indian Army." CNN News 18's Bhupendra Chaubey on the other manus wanted to know whether Rawal was correct in asking for Roy to"exist tied as a human shield". Chaubey subsequently deleted his tweet.
An investigation pastThe Wire revealed the truth behind the fake outrage fuelled by news channels and this piece byNewslaundry explored it farther.Newslaundry had republished an op-ed responding to Roy'southward fake quote and information technology apologised for its editorial oversight and retracted the piece. There was no retraction or apology fromDemocracy Idiot box orCNN News xviii for attacking Roy based on simulated news.
vii) Republic, Zee News, The Times of India, Economic Times, Financial Express: President Kovind gains 3 million new followers in an hr
This news really makes you wonder nigh how ridiculous must a story be for the Indian media to recognise information technology as fake. Sections of Indian media fawned over President Ram Nath Kovind gaining iii million followers in the span of one hour without pausing to think if this was really possible.
In reality, President Kovind had only inherited the followers of former President Pranab Mukherjee. Official Twitter accounts of the President, Vice-President and various ministries are considered digital avails that belong to the government. Twitter has a strategy for digital transition when the occupant of a position changes to ensure continuity and preserve the digital history of the previous occupant. All tweets from President Mukherjee were archived under @POI13. The new @RashtrapatiBhvn business relationship started with zero tweets and all the followers from the previous business relationship. This is a perfect case of the herd mentality of Indian media when basic fact-checking has no identify in the rush to break news.
8) Aaj Tak, India Today, Zee News, ABP News andIndia Television set: Pakistani posts of Kirpan and Pimpal destroyed past Indian Regular army in an immediate retaliation to beheading of soldiers
On May 1, before long afterwards the news of killing and mutilation of two Indian security personnel forth the Line of Command (LoC) was reported, many news outlets started reporting retaliation by the Indian Ground forces.Aaj Tak was the starting time to share this news followed by elaborate reports on retaliation past the Indian Army byAaj Tak's sister concernIndia Today, Zee News, ABP News andIndia Telly.
It turned out that Kirpan was really an Indian post and the news of an immediate retaliation past the Indian Ground forces was fake. TV channels had gone overboard without seeking an official confirmation from the Army. An Army spokesperson confirmed toHindustan Times that"there was no retaliation whatsoever by us in the KG sector on Monday night. They (Idiot box channels) go ballistic without request usa anything. We will retaliate and when we do, we volition come up out with an official argument."Y'all can read more about how this chest-thumping fake news unfolded here.
nine) Commonwealth TV, Times Now: Exclusive! What is Robert Vadra doing with the Chinese envoy?
OMG! A picture of Vadra with the Chinese envoy. BothRepublic TV andTimes At present got excited enough over a film of Robert Vadra to launch hashtags and prime-fourth dimension shows.Alt News had to give a video tutorial toTimes Now andRepublic Telly to avoid such rookie mistakes. The picture was from a Chinese food festival that was also attended by India'due south railway minister Suresh Prabhu, Sitaram Yechury from CPM, KC Tyagi from JD-U and other leaders from the BJP such every bit Tarun Vijay and Udit Raj. A quick google search could have avoided these channels the embarrassment though we doubtable that they neither consider this as an embarrassment nor are they interested in the truth.
ten) Zee News: Nostradamus had predicted the ascension of supreme leader Narendus
"Indus supremus gudjaratus status natus est
Patrus Theus boutiqus, studium bonus est
Namusprimum narendus est"
"The supreme leader of India volition be born in the land of Gujarat
His father will sell tea in a shop
His first proper noun will be narendus (Narendra)"
Yes, Francois Gautier invented this tale about how passages of Nostradumus found past him in an onetime abandoned body spoke about a supreme leader, Narendus. In a weblog titled 'Nostradamus and India', published in The Times of Bharat, Gautier shared these hilarious passages. Gautier has been discovering these old trunks for a long time. Even mode dorsum in 1999 he had revealed that information technology was Nostradamus who had founded the RSS 400 years ago.
Even equally everyone was having a good laugh near Narendus, Vajpayum, Advanum and Murlum Joshum,Zee News found it an entirely believable tale, worthy of sharing with their viewers. Read more about these hilarious passages here.
eleven) The Hindu:Dying adult female molested, video shows
A really sad piece of false news was the 8 second verdict byThe Hindu most a stampede victim being molested by an unidentified human being. Information technology was republished by many others citingThe Hindu and also made its style to the international press. Doubts about the molestation claim began to emerge when the full video came to light. It did not appear from the video that it was a case of molestation. Witnesses and constabulary also refuted the story.
The Hindu apologised and retracted the story but the damage was done. An innocent man was painted as a molester.
12) Republic of india Today: Paresh Mesta case
Boiling oil poured on his face. Castrated.
Head cut open up. Flung into a lake.
Will 21-year-quondam Paresh Mesta'south murder milk shake India?"
This graphic tweet pastIndia Today that later on turned out to be faux brought home the dangers of fake news. India Today'south tweet was seen as a validation for the news that was so far only a claim made by a BJP MLA.
The forensic written report trashed the claims just by so rumour-mongering had already sparked communal violence. The constabulary stated that "there is a deliberate attempt to create dissever in the lodge by apportionment of imitation news as well as rumours through printing notes, social media, and especially WhatsApp for personal gain."
Shiv Aroor,Bharat Today editor, explained his stance in this article. He was slammed by Prem Panicker, quondam managing editor of Yahoo Republic of india, who wrote on how the India Today story amplified an unsubstantiated allegation and gave information technology oxygen, which led to communal tension.
Whew! Information technology was tough picking out the top stories out of the dozens that did the rounds this twelvemonth, dutifully shared by the Indian mainstream media. There are a lot more out at that place, like whenThe Times of Bharat alleged missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmad an ISIS sympathiser or whenTimes Now showed a video of a Kerala students' matrimony rally every bit a BJP protest or whenTimes At present attempted to discredit the #NotInMyName protests by presenting distorted facts, or whenPunjab Kesri declared that former vice-president Hamid Ansari's budget was six times that of the President or whenTimes At present attacked the UPA for Pakistani visas, ignoring the fact that the highest number of visas were issued under BJP rule… Read about these and more onAlt News. Going past the feel of this twelvemonth, 2018 promises to be yet some other rocking yr for fact-checkers. Bring information technology on!
This article has been re-published with the permission of Alt News. Read the original article here. Visit the website here.
Source: https://www.newslaundry.com/2018/01/02/fake-news-2017-aaj-tak-toi-zee-india-today-republic
0 Response to "Stories the Mainstream Media Didn㢂¬„¢t Want You to Know in 2017"
Post a Comment