Alt News, the propaganda outlet masquerading as a fact-checking website, came to the rescue of the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday by ‘fact-checking’ a satirical video that exposed the hypocrisy of the Aam Aadmi Party’s rampant misuse of public funds on newspaper advertisements. Earlier, the propaganda outlet would scrub Congress’ dirty linen.
Recently, Political Kida, a satirical Twitter account, had shared an edited video on its YouTube channel exposing the hypocrisy of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government over its huge spending on advertisements. The satirical account had shared a satirical video on the recent press conference held by Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia questioning the centre’s vaccination policy. This video was widely circulated on social media where users questioned the government of Delhi over COVID mismanagement.
Why Mr Arvind Kejriwal doesn’t listen to Sh Manish Sisodiya ?#AdManKejriwal pic.twitter.com/FqNCzAYkyo
— Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) June 24, 2021
In a press conference, Manish Sisodia had ironically questioned the Modi government over spending money on advertisement and attacked the government for not spending the same money on procuring vaccines. As the video of Manish Sisodia went viral on the internet, several netizens had flagged the hypocrisy of the Aam Aadmi Party leader, saying it is not the centre but the Delhi government, which is spending crores of rupees of public money in PR activities to boost the image of Arvind Kejriwal.
Several citizens had slammed Arvind Kejriwal and his Delhi government for spending lavishly on newspaper advertisements to indulge in promotions at a time when Delhi was ravaged from the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. They slammed the Delhi government for wasting taxpayers money on wasteful expenditure to boost his image at a time when people were dying due to a lack of Covid-19 care in the national capital. In fact, the citizens had asked the AAP government to spend the advertisement money on procuring the vaccines for the people of Delhi.
Slamming Arvind Kejriwal for his incompetence and ineptitude in carrying out the Covid vaccination drive in the city, netizens had shared screenshots of full-page ads that the AAP government has invested in to create a false perception of its achievements.
It is important to mention that the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government has spent Rs 150 crores from January 2021 to March 2021 on advertisements and publicity through various mediums instead of spending on setting up Covid-19 health infrastructure in the national capital. Kejriwal government has spent over 800 crores in advertisement expenses in the past two years.
After spending public money on newspaper advertisements, the AAP government had pushed the blame on the central government. In the press conference, Manish Sisodia had blamed the Centre for not providing vaccination or funds to Delhi when it had failed to contain the spread of the Covid-19.
In response to the same, Political Kida had published a satirical video questioning the hypocrisy of the AAP-led Delhi government, especially Manish Sisodia, for accusing the centre of allegedly spending on advertisements while his leader Arvind Kejriwal was spending crores to boost his own image. In the video, Political Kida exposed the dubiousness of AAP leaders by juxtaposing Manish Sisodia’s speech on the left and the Delhi government’s crores of rupees spending on PR activities during the pandemic.
Several social media users shared the satirical video published by Political Kida on various platforms, which went viral like a wildfire.
The video caused a massive embarrassment to Aam Aadmi Party as the viral video showed how AAP resorted to cheap politics by attacking the centre on advertisements despite indulging in a similar PR activity themselves.
Seeing an opportunity, Alt News rushed to ‘fact-check’ a meme video, which is obviously a joke. Alt News, then found the satirical video ‘edited’ and ‘fact-checked’ it.
On days when people associated with Alt News are not busy spreading fake news about so-called hate crimes which could lead to communal discord in the country, they ‘fact-check’ memes.
Nowhere in its ‘fact-check’ does Alt News mention that the said video is satirical even if it so desperately wanted to clean up AAP’s mess.
Several times in the past, the propaganda outlet has caught itself in embarrassing moments by ‘fact-checking’ memes, satirical videos that have been posted by common citizens.
Here is one such example:
He had to explain the joke.. because apparently some guy shared and sarcastically put some caption, this verified dimwit couldn’t take it 🤣🤣🤣 what bunch of losers…
— Super Londay (@SuperLonday) June 26, 2021
In 2017, Alt News cofounder Pratik Sinha had ‘fact-checked’ a satirical video mocking Rahul Gandhi. It is worth mentioning that just recently, the propaganda website Alt News was caught red-handed giving a clean chit to Congress over the toolkit fiasco. Alt News tied itself in knots as it tried to discredit the Congress toolkit.
Meanwhile, before Alt News ‘fact-checks’ yet another video by Super Londay, let us put it out that it is satire. You can watch the video here:
Honest Sisodia Press | #SuperLonday #FunCut pic.twitter.com/5NDliZmJaV
— Super Londay (@SuperLonday) June 26, 2021
Other dubious ‘fact-checking’ website flag Political Kida’s videos, Facebook says video is manipulated
Not just Alt News, even other dubious ‘fact-checking’ website such as Boom Live and far-left website The Quint fact-checked the videos posted by political video on AAP’s hypocrisy on advertisement spending. The two websites, recognised as ‘independent’ fact-checking website by Facebook, declared the satirical video as ‘doctored’.
In its alleged ‘fact-check’, The Quint claimed that the video of Manish Sisodia slamming Delhi CM is edited. Well, it failed to mention that the satirical videos are edited and published a non-serious content.
Similarly, another ‘fact-checking’ portal Boom Live declared the satirical video as ‘doctored’ without even mentioning that the video is a work of satire.
As two Facebook-certified fact-checkers declared that the satirical video was ‘doctored’, the social media platform Facebook has now flagged the video as ‘misleading’.
This is not the first time the propaganda outlet has ‘fact-checked’ a meme. In July 2020, after the clash between Indian and Chinese forces at the Galwan valley along the LAC in Ladakh, one video had emerged on social media claiming that it showed Apache helicopters of the Indian Air Force flying low over the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh, another site of conflict between the two countries. After it was widely shared, many on Twitter pointed out it was an old video from USA.
While Alt News ‘fact-checked’ it correctly, in later part of the article they failed to see a joke and ended up ‘fact-checking’ that as well.
