Year 2017 has been like every other year for Indian media. Imaginary reports, blatant lies, gross malicious misreporting have been the hallmark of the year, yet again. What was perhaps different this year, was the supposed alternate media too joined the main stream media in spreading malicious propaganda laced with lies. We bring to you, the Top 10 media lies of 2017:
1. The Jay Amit Shah story : Low on facts, high on innuendo
The leftist propaganda website ‘The Wire’ published a shoddy hit job against Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah. The story was so shabby, that it took our team merely a few hours to counter this story and completely shatter the narrative that The Wire wanted to create. In fact, after our story was published, The Wire selectively altered its story multiple times to make it remotely believable and credible. This expose of ours became the most read story in our Media lies section.
2. How journalists and politicians united to spread a lie about the new UP CM
Yogi Adityanath being announced as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was unsurprisingly a major jolt for the secular liberal coterie which includes certain ‘journalists’ and politicians. As soon as this decision was made public, the coterie got busy is spreading lies about Yogi. One of those lies was how the Yogi Adityanath said that the dead body of muslim women should be raped. We had countered this lie, making it one of our top two exposes.
3. NDTV and Nidhi Razdan conduct and entire debate based on fake news
Nidhi Razdan, the poor man’s Barkha Dutt is known for pushing fake news from a news channel, which is notorious for the same reasons. Her visceral hate for Narendra Modi is no secret. And to further that hate, sometimes, as an operational hazard, she resorts to lies. This time, Nidhi ran an entire debate based on absolute fake news. The topic of the debate was : “Eat what you order : Modi government to fix portions of food served in restaurants”. It didn’t take us very long to realise this was a blatant lie.
4. Scroll spreads lies about Kabab shop closing down due to UP Govt’s ‘crackdown on meat’
When Yogi Adityanath decided to shut down illegal slaughterhouses, many people went batshit crazy. In that frenzy, Scroll, a leftist propaganda website, decided to publish a news article titled “Lucknow’s legendary Tunday Kababi downs its shutters as meat crackdown intensifies”. The article was incorrect on multiple levels. Firstly, there was no meat crackdown, and secondly, Tunday Kababi was only shut for one hour due to shortage of raw material. There was certainly no national emergency as it was made to sound. This article became one of our top exposes of 2017.
5. MP EVM controversy mostly a result of low IQ journalists and vile politicians
Democracy has died a million deaths ever since the BJP has gone on an electoral winning streak. Low IQ journalists and politicians have been repeatedly casting aspersions on how reliable EVMs are despite repeated clarifications from the Election Commission. One such lie was spread during the Madhya Pradesh polls and it didn’t take us much time to puncture holes in the story considering it was a shoddily crafted fairytale by low IQ journalists and vile politicians.
6. Media and politicians spread sensational lies about renewed Chinese aggression in Dolam
In June 2017 India and China were engaged in a stand off or sorts in the Dolam area. India displayed immense patience and a steely spine during the entire stand off. It finally for resolved after India and China both decided to withdraw troops. Of course, a diplomatic victory of India against China, with all the Chinese propaganda going around, was unpalatable to some usual suspects. By October, Indian Express’ Sushant Singh started spreading unsubstantiated lies about renewed Chinese aggression in that area. He was joined in by politicians in spreading this lie. @UnSubtleDesi busted these lies in a few hours.
7. How lies were used to claim that PM Modi lied about GDP projections
At a function of Insitute of Company Secretaries of India, in October 2017, Prime Minister Modi said that RBI had predicted a 7.7% growth for India in the coming quarters. Journalists and Politicians got together to claim that the Prime Minister lied about these projections. We busted those lies making this article one of our top exposes of 2017.
8. FactCheck : Can Banks gobble up your deposits as per the new proposed ‘bail-in’ Bill
Another lie that was spread far and wide by the media was that per the new ‘Bail In’ Bill, the banks would gobble up all the money that the common man has saved in bank accounts. This lie was aptly and comprehensively decimated by Ashutosh Muglikar.
9. After OpIndia report, DNA updates misleading story on Dr Kafeel Khan
We had reported extensively about Dr. Kafeel Khan’s involvement in the Gorakhpur tragedy where many children died. We did so despite the Media cacophony exonerating Dr. Khan without even a thorough investigation or a hard look at the facts. Soon, DNA came out with a misleading report that insinuated that Dr. Kafeel Khan has been exonerated and he is “not a villain”. We busted the lies soon, as only a couple of charges had been dropped against him, while other remained. After our expose, DNA altered its headline.
10. Tragedy scavenging by The Hindu after the Eliphinstone stampede
There was a tragic stampede at the Elphinstone station at Mumbai where many died and some were injured. But media persons, who indulge in tragedy tourism for the sake of TRPs, looked for something to milk in this also. Soon, The Hindu published a report that while a woman lay dying in the stampede, a man tried to molest her. The video that was plugged, was very clearly edited. Social Media soon questioned the veracity of these claims and Nirwa Mehta questioned The Hindu’s assertion.
After our report, The Hindu retracted its story and issued an apology.
After our expose, the I&B Ministry had also issued a show cause notice to The Hindu making these string of articles one of top Media exposes.
In 2018, we hope to continue being Media watchdogs and striving to dispel myths, lies and propaganda spread by the Main Stream Media. Happy New Year folks!
