All the Fake News Fit to Print: The New York Times Calls Out ‘Completely Fabricated Image’ of Modi That Went Viral
- In reality, no major U.S. newspaper or news outlet covered the Indian prime minister’s U.S. visit.
A large photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in The New York Times, with the headline, “Last, Best Hope of Earth,” went viral and was widely circulated on WhatsApp in India, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. There was a sub-headline as well — “World’s most loved and most powerful leader is here to bless us,” referring to his recently-concluded U.S. visit. The edition was dated Sept. 26, a day after Modi left for India.
But there’s a problem. It’s a fake. The New York Times called it out, tweeting it is a “completely fabricated image” of Modi. “This is a completely fabricated image, one of many in circulation featuring Prime Minister Modi,” the newspaper’s communications account tweeted on Sept. 28, adding a link to their “factual reporting” on Modi. The Times said fabricating images like this “contributes to misinformation on the internet.”
In fact, the Times had no coverage of Modi’s visit to the White House or the United Nations, except a story on the Quad summit. Neither the Washington Post nor the Wall Street Journal mentioned his visit. No major U.S. TV news network had any coverage of his visit either.
As Twitter user Sonali Ranade puts it: “Modi’s media hype is only in India & that should tell you something about Modi, India and QUAD, in that order. See thru the hype.”
It is not clear who’s behind this viral image. But Twitterati is busy speculating — the supporters blame the anti-Modi groups, who in turn blame the BJP.
“The fact that a clearly edited #NewYorkTimes page can be disseminated as propaganda by the BJP shows how far it has managed to insulate a section of Indians from all sources of factual information,” a user named Aishik tweeted.
NYT, you don’t need to clarify. Believe me, no one, I mean no one in their right mind would believe this image. Everyone knows that there is still a better chance of finding aliens on Mars than NYT reporting anything positive about India under Modi.
Another Modi supporter tweeted: Please do read this !!
Unscrupulous elements unsuccessfully trying to malign the image of one of the strongest PM’s India has ever had.
For hardworking karmayogi Modiji, we don’t need a certificate from NYT, whoever did this to malign his image needs some spl treatment from Delhi police, One thing I like to put it here, I trust Modiji, BJP RSS, I stand rock-solid behind Modiji, Jai Hind, Vande Mataram.
The image was created as a joke. The people that received it, know that NYT is always anti-India. They are not seeking NYT’s validation, by any means. Because of how NYT is anti-India, it was meant as a joke, and I saw tons of people with “haha” remarks. Unfortunately, some people are so many mentally enslaved by a colonial mindset, that they think Indians are seeking some stamp of approval from NYT, and “we must call out fake news”. It’s a joke, not news. Modi supporters don’t care about NYT, that should be pretty clear. NYT created a job posting, that explicitly said “looking for someone who can explain how the Modi government is bad for India”. What journalistic entity, posts a bias position, as a requirement? Modi supporters know this, so let’s please get off the high horse here.