The Wire, late on Wednesday night, issued a statement which as per them was an ‘apology’ on the pure fiction they had conjured up in their Meta stories to readers and a ‘promise’ to do better.
The Wire ‘apologises’ to its readers
The Wire claimed that while they retracted their Meta stories after conducting internal review of technical source material used with help of external experts, they are also conducting a comprehensive editorial review of internal editorial processes. The Wire claimed that the process is still on but their one important editorial learning was that when they have ‘complex technical evidence’, whether brought by someone from their team or a freelancer, all processes that involve technical skill will be cross-checked by ‘independent and reputed experts in field’.
‘Independent experts’ who had ‘verified’ this story said they hadn’t
The Wire, in its Meta story had claimed they had independent and reputed experts in the field who had verified their data and approved of the findings. Both the experts cited by The Wire, where even the founding Editor Siddharth Varadarajan had taken a byline, eventually had denied giving these ‘proofs’. Perhaps The Wire should have independent experts verifying proofs submitted by independent experts and then maybe some more independent experts verifying all these because, clearly, The Wire team had even forged statements by independent experts’ comments. The Wire does not address any of this in its ‘apology’.
The Wire also does not mention how some of the team members that worked on the Meta story were also involved in the Tek Fog fiction it had unleashed upon humanity earlier in January this year. Devesh Kumar and Ayushman Kaul, who is associated with London based organisation Logically.ai which offers doxxing services amongst others, worked on the Tek Fog story. The Tek Fog stories also now stand withdrawn but Tek Fog does not find a mention in this ‘apology’. Tek Fog story also cited unnamed experts who had claimed to have ‘verified’ these findings they had produced. Tek Fog was so hyped and taken on face value that it led to primetime debates on news channels where NDTV India’s Ravish Kumar went overly dramatic despite his monotone. The issue was even raised in Parliament and investigation was demanded. While Tek Fog stories stand withdrawn, The Wire has not apologised for same or even acknowledged they have taken their readers for a ride by building up on a story on figment of imagination of their writers.
Both these stories made it appear like the BJP, their IT Cell head in particular Amit Malviya, were all too powerful and controlling an army of zombies and hijacking all online conversations and discourse. However, later it turned out how one of their own manipulated a bunch of anti-Modi zombies into believing fabricated ‘proofs’. So much has been their effect that a section of their supporters still believe in these fiction despite The Wire themselves taking them back. One shouldn’t be too surprised if tomorrow they start floating that it was BJP/Amit Malviya who ‘infiltrated’ their ‘independent experts’ and made them do this. In fact, some have already started building this up as a ground that BJP did this because The Wire is ‘reputed’ and ‘important for democracy’. Actually, they are just upset they couldn’t get away with Meta the way they got away with Tek Fog and things went from bad to worse and they had to withdraw even Tek Fog stories, quite quietly.
“We were deceived”
The Wire then says how one of their teammates subjected them to deception in this. They haven’t named him/her/them yet but everyone seems to be thinking it is Devesh Kumar, who has since deleted all his social media presence. Interestingly, Varadarajan, who took a byline for the same and Jahnavi Sen, their BA in Philosophy ‘tech expert’ who first reported the Meta story that started it all, are getting a free pass. It is simple. They chose not to be devil’s advocate and question what was being presented to them because they wanted to believe it. That this is some sort of ‘war’ and they are fighting the big demon BJP and all is fair in love and war drama. One really does not need to be a tech expert to know how the rubbish that was presented as ‘evidence’ could not pass the smell test. Varadarajan went ahead with it anyway. This ‘teammate deceived us’ is just The Wire equivalent of ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse.
And who is the reporter who had ‘personal relationship’ with one of their Meta insiders? The little bit of information was slipped by The Wire when they withdrew their story but then they edited out this part in the web version. The Wire is likely having pillow talk being passed off as evidence and no one is even asking for accountability and glorifying them for ‘owning up’.
The Wire then writes, “The Wire acknowledges that the internal editorial processes which preceded publication of these stories did not meet the standards that The Wire sets for itself and its readers expect from it. To have rushed to publish a story we believed was reliable without having the associated technical evidence vetted independently is a failure of which we cannot permit repetition.” Bro, your reports, including your Founding Editor Siddharth Varadarajan shared emails as well as video proof of ‘expert evidence’ – which was all fabricated. And you allowed its repetition. Tek Fog was first, Meta was repetition. You got away with Tek Fog, but Meta made you bend the knee.
Why no apology to the subjects of these stories where The Wire falsely accused them of wrongdoings
Interestingly, The Wire only ‘apologises’ to its readers because the ‘story did not hold up’. It says, “this combination of not fully grasping the complexities of technology and a slippage in editorial assessment of tech-related matter resulted in the publication of stories which did not eventually hold up. For this we owe an apology to our readers.” Umm, what about Meta? What about the BJP or Amit Malviya whom you falsely accused of being superhumans? Your ‘team’ conducted AMA on Reddit about Tek Fog and made wild allegations, all of which still remain. Your report on Tek Fog was used by some outlets to defame India and accuse central government of curbing press freedom? The dominos effect that was unleashed by you guys, a simple ‘apology to readers’ without an iota of responsibility just does not cut it. More so because you and your ilk hound others for smallest of mistakes. There is no reason why you at The Wire should not be subjected to same level of accountability.
And then the self-glorification. The Wire concludes by saying, “in making this open admission and putting in place more robust processes for checking and cross-checking documents and indeed all source-based information, we are promising our readers that there will be no recurrence.” The ‘open admission’ is half-hearted. There has been no mention of Tek Fog absurdity in this.
Not an exception, but the norm
And you cannot hide behind the veil of ‘technical process’. The Wire and their Founding Editor have been at the forefront of misinformation because deep in their hearts they think they are fighting a ‘war’. This is what the mainstream media, especially activist journalism of left wing has been doing all these decades. They believe their own lies, not accept mistakes, steadfast with propaganda than truth. And even in face of mounting tech proof, they double down and brazen it out. Imagine what they would do with issues that are just about political or ideological narrative?
For example, soon after the Republic Day riots in January 2021 when hundreds of so-called farmers desecrated the Red Fort, one ‘protestor’ Navreet Singh was killed after the tractor he was using to run over police overturned. The Wire, however, published an article insinuating that he had died of bullet injuries and not because of the injuries he sustained from the overturning of the tractor. The article further claimed that the victim’s relatives spoke to the doctor who carried out the autopsy who claimed that while there was bullet injury, ‘his hands were tied’, thereby insinuating that the UP government is trying to coverup.
What is intriguing to note here is that despite the refusal of the Uttar Pradesh Police and the deputy CMO of the hospital where the autopsy was conducted expressly denying that Navreet died of a bullet injury, The Wire did not bother to mention the same in their headline. Instead, it went ahead with a misleading headline to raise aspersions on the authenticity of the autopsy report. The District Magistrate, Rampur, even shared a signed declaration of the three doctors who had carried out the autopsy that the allegations reported by The Wire were false.
The signed declaration states that none of the three doctors who were involved in the autopsy had spoken to any mediapersons or any other persons. The autopsy was video-recorded and the findings were given in sealed envelop to the officers. Subsequently, The Wire updated the article, but they had no qualms in stirring the pot that could have led to a law and order situation.
But instead of saying sorry, especially to people they spread lies about (they apologised in Meta story to readers, not to Meta or Malviya who were subject of their lies), The Wire brazens it out. And it will do so tomorrow too when there’s another ideological issue they conjure up and most of those who are calling it out today will likely side with them, forgetting The Wire’s history of shoddy reporting. That is ‘liberal’ privilege.
In short, The Wire conjured up fake evidences to perpetuate a preconceived narrative in their head and their Editor turned a blind eye to gaping holes, not once but twice, when actual experts called them out, they doubled and tripled down to brazen it out. The Wire and their supporters even accused those pointing out loopholes to be ‘overly critical’ of a platform that was ‘putting out truth’ about the ‘fascist Modi government’. And after being fully exposed they are playing victim and are actually being hailed for ‘owning up’ on their lies.
