NYT rubbishes 'fake news report' on Modi
NYT rubbishes 'fake news report' on Modi
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - To coverup the fallout of large protests against human rights violations by India, during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United Nations General Assembly and meeting with US leadership, the Indian social media churned out an image of a fake news report by the New York Times.
Images of the Indian Prime Minister’s huge portrait on the upper half of the main page of the New York Times went viral on the country’s social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp groups with praise being lavished on their premier and for “making India proud.”.jpg)
The screenshot featured a large photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the headline “Last, Best Hope of Earth” and “World’s most loved and most powerful leader is here to bless us”, referring to Modi’s US visit on September 24-25. The purported report appeared in the September 26, 2021 edition.
The fake image of the New York Times was widely spread on various social media accounts, prompting the reputed newspaper to issue a clarification on Sept 29. In a Twitter message, the New York Times Communications stated: “This is a completely fabricated image, one of many in circulation featuring Prime Minister Modi.”
The clarification also shared a link from where the NYT readers can find “All of our factual reporting on Narendra Modi.”
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) September 28, 2021
The image of the purported NYT front page was circulated en masse on Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp group chats, with messages like “Proud of my PM” accompanying it.
The original front page of the New York Times of September 26, 2021
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One of the widely shared WhatsApp groups forwarded the photograph with a caption: “Modi ji on the front page of the United States’ biggest newspaper. What could be a greater matter of pride than this?”.jpg)
Unlike Prime Minister Imran Khan who was on the front page of Newsweek, and is the most sought-after world leader by the international media, Prime Minister Modi got a blunt ‘ignore; from the US media.
The front page of the original New York Times paper of September 26 in fact did not carry any story on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The social media posts did not share any link to the purported post, while even a cursory glance at the image clearly showed that it has been doctored.
The font of the headline in the fake image did not match the New York Times stylesheet, while the date of the story featured a typo — “26 Setpember” instead of 26 September.
