On Thursday, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate tried to spread fake news amid PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States. In an attempt to criticize PM Modi, Shrinate who has also worked as a journalist misquoted John Kirby, White House National Security Spokesperson. She indicatively claimed that Kirby had criticized PM Modi for not taking any press conferences in the last 9 years.
““It is unusual for PM Modi to take questions from the media, beyond occasional interviews. 𝐇𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨. In May 2019 he attended a press conference but never took questions.”: John Kirby, White House National Security Spokesperson,” her tweet read.
Interestingly, the words diligently quoted by Shrinate have never been said by John Kirby. Shrinate happened to pick the quoted statement from a recently published Reuters report and falsely claimed that Kirby had stated those.
Netizens mocked Shrinate for spreading fake news by putting wrong quotes in the name of Kirby. They highlighted that the quotes used by Shrinate was actually not a quote but a paragraph from a Reuters report. They also said that if Kirby had said those words, Reuters would have published the same as his quote.
Fake News by @SupriyaShrinate!
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) June 22, 2023
John Kirby has never said the lines Supriya has highlited in Bold letters. These lines have been put by @Reuters and that's why it's not in quotes.
Supriya was a Journalist, she knows how media reports. But still she chose to spread Fake News! https://t.co/u041sUmJHo pic.twitter.com/0eB3Iv1gw0
Reuters is not White House 😂 pic.twitter.com/nWPLfVyLmp
— Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) June 22, 2023
Reuters on June 22, published a report saying that US President Joe Biden and PM Modi would address and take questions from journalists today amid the Indian leader’s state visit. The report also stated that one of the senior White House officials had called it a ‘big deal’.
Furthering the report, Reuters wrote, “It is unusual for Modi to take questions from the media, beyond occasional interviews. He has not addressed a single press conference in India since becoming prime minister about nine years ago. In May 2019 he attended a press conference but never took questions.” These exact words were used by Shrinate to claim that John Kirby, White House National Security Spokesperson said so.
However, as per the Reuters report, Kirby called the event a ‘big deal’ and said, “We are just grateful that Prime Minister Modi is participating in a press event at the end of the visit. We think that’s important and we’re glad he thinks that’s important too.”
Reportedly, Kirby yesterday in an exclusive interview to ANI said that he was looking forward to deepening relations with India. “India is a world player and a net exporter of security and stability. India is already exporting security in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, and they are contributing to the Indo-Pacific Quad. We are participating with India in the I2U2,” he said.
PM Modi will attend the state dinner hosted in his honor by US President and the first lady. The PM will also address a joint sitting of the US Congress today.
