I would like to start this piece by apologising to Erich Segal for using this line here. If you have followed The Wire vs Meta circus, you’d have noticed how with every ‘proof’ The Wire tangled itself further and it has now reached where every time they provide ‘proof’, their ‘evidence’ has fallen apart.
It all started when one obscure troll account complained to The Wire that their posts were being taken down by Instagram. If you’ve spent time on social media platforms, these tech giants have algorithm in place where sometimes even harmless posts get taken down over ‘violation’ of community guidelines. However, it is also true that most of these big techs have inherently left-leaning bias and the leftist outlets, accounts have almost always gotten a longer rope while the non-left accounts get blocked quickly. For crusaders of free speech, the Left does not like jokes on themselves.
Now, when this non-entity complained to The Wire, they published one basic report and then came up with this theory that this account with less than 500 followers on Instagram was personally targeted by BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya. They claimed Malviya was in list of superusers at Meta and on his one instruction, Meta will do whatever he tells him to. In same breath, The Wire wanted us to believe that Malviya, with such incredible superpowers, would go after some random account.
The story was so incredible that it was not just the BJP supporters found it hard to believe but even the otherwise rabid Modi haters found it dubious. After Meta came on record to say that all the documents The Wire was providing to prove its theory were fabricated, The Wire doubled down and then roped in ‘independent experts’ to prove the email they were claiming to be of Meta executive, was real. Except, after publishing screenshots of the emails of their ‘experts’, one of them, Ujjwal Kumar of Microsoft, based out of Singapore office, asked Wire to remove his name and another ‘expert’ has now said that he never sent the mails The Wire claimed were sent by him.
The Wire, however, on its part, has pulled up a victim card and said they cannot take this anymore. They claim that people are asking for more evidence so that they can zero in on their ‘source’, one of whom has a personal relationship with one of the writers of The Wire. The Wire, in its updated statement has carefully edited out the personal relationship with Meta insider bit. The Wire wants everyone to question Meta and not them because they feel an Indian company is being discriminated against and Western media would not have had such scrutiny. They want Meta to be answerable, despite Meta stating very categorically that all documents Wire is providing are fabricated. In such scenario, the onus of proof would be on the one making such wild allegations, but The Wire wants to be above scrutiny because it ‘speaks truth to power’, even if such ‘truth’ is fabricated.
However, it is not too surprising coming from The Wire. The Wire had also come up with this imaginary app with superhuman powers, ‘tek fog’ to target the BJP. The Wire had claimed some bizarre features to this ‘spy app’ which was a malware installed on some journalists.
But even then the otherwise Modi-hating techbros had called out glaring loopholes in The Wire story. At that time, too, The Wire relied on dubious sources and single tweet, some screenshots (which could easily be digitally created). According to The Wire, Tek Fog had some kind of superpower, which has capabilities that even NSA of USA does not have. According to Wire, hacking top apps like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp etc is a child’s play using the app, and all security featured of those platforms vanish with this magical piece of software. The Wire truly believed in it. As did Congress, for they demanded action on it.
But that’s where they get the courage to brazen it out. The Wire, instead of owning up that they goofed up or made a mistake or a judgement error or worst that they cooked it all up, they would rather cry ‘attacked by all powerful BJP’ and seek more funds from gullible readers who like to live in their own echo chamber. 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?
Back in April 2020 when the two Sadhus were lynched by a frenzied Converted Christian mob when police stood and do nothing, The Wire had tried to water it down and insinuate that the Sadhus were not Hindus. Thereby, trying to perpetuate the narrative that Hindus cannot be victims of communal violence. The Wire had claimed that both the deceased and the perpetrators belonged to denotified tribes and had declared that it was not communal violence.
In its report, The Wire had peddled fake news by stating the two deceased persons – 70-year old Kalpvrush Giri and 35-year old Sushil Giri belonged to Gosavi Nomadic Tribe community and their brutal lynching had no religious angle as they belonged to the tribal community just as Christian-converted tribes of the Palghar. The report by The Wire insinuated that they were not Hindus and not sadhus.
The report had attributed the claim of the tribal identity of the sadhusto no one other than “social activists and Gosavi community leaders”. The report carried no comments by either the victims’ families or the Juna Akhara.
However, while the elites sitting in posh Delhi offices were busy peddling some media houses were actually on ground talking to people involved. The ground reports by Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar and news channel Aaj Tak show that the two sadhus were born in Hindu families of Brahmin caste in Uttar Pradesh. Both left their families before their teenage to become Hindu ascetics. The Bhaskar and Aaj Tak reports are based on interviews with the victims’ families and carry their video statements and photographs.
Nearly a month after carrying fake news on the identity of the victims to absolve the crimes of the brutal mob violence in Palghar, The Wire silently edited its report claiming that the two Sadhus belonged to Brahmin families contrary to their earlier report claiming they were Gosavi tribal community.
Similar tactics are used by such The Wire and their ilk almost always forget to mention or report assaults by Dalit activists or sometimes even water down crimes committed by Islamists. In fact, despite glaring evidences, they sometimes even side with rioting mob only because the mob was against the Central government led by Modi.
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.
Similarly, in June 2021, The Wire tried to force fit a ‘hate crime’ angle in the now infamous ‘Loni incident’ just because the victim of alleged assault was a Muslim man. It tied itself in knots after an FIR was registered against it for spreading fake news to fan communal hatred in the Ghaziabad fake ‘hate crime’ case. In an article titled “Muslim Victim’s Family Challenges ‘No Communal Angle’ Claim by UP Police” published on June 16, 2021, The Wire tried to bring out the victim’s side of the story in a bid to give itself a clean chit for not doing due diligence before crying itself hoarse over ‘hate crime’.
On June 14, a video was shared by ‘fact-checking’ website Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair claiming that an elderly Muslim man was thrashed and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Soon, it was picked up by various influential people and media outlets who like to further the ‘Dara Hua Musalman’ narrative. However, Ghaziabad Police’s investigation has destroyed the conveniently crafted narrative.
Turns out, the elderly Muslim man Abdul Samad Saifi was an occult practitioner and used to make ‘tabeez’ (amulets) and some of his customers got unhappy after the ‘tabeez’ misfired. The said customers, then beat him. This was an internal freud propagated as ‘hate crime’. However, despite matters coming to fore, The Wire, has continued to hold on to its narrative even though it is on a flimsy ground. But The Wire tried to force fit the communal angle just because the victim was a Muslim. You can read it in detail here.
What is interesting here is that no one countered or called out The Wire for shoddy reportage because it was ideology and political inclination based – which in The Wire’s case is being anti-Modi and pro-Islamist and their apologists. And in matters of ideology one can give a long rope to someone because there are a lot more grey areas. However, in technology when things can be verified WAY too easily, The Wire gets called out by people from the same ‘liberal’ cabal.
But instead of saying sorry and admitting they goofed up and were taken for a ride, 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.
