We know by now that many media outlets and their employees have serious issues reading and comprehending information, which often results in blatant misrepresentation. Huffington Post India, it seems, has gone one step ahead. They seem to have difficulty in seeing images and understanding what they depict!
It was just a month ago when Huffington Post used the picture of what seems to be a Bajrang Dal protest, along with the caption: “Outstation students at NIT Srinagar allegedly threatened with rape”. Of course the allegations were against local Kashmiris and not anyone remotely associated with Bajrang Dal.
After getting massively trolled and ridiculed online, Huffington post deleted the tweet and put up a new, better suited image. But they did not apologise or accept the error.
A month has passed and Huffington Post was at it again. Again a similar modus operandi. A crime committed by someone on the ideological polar opposite of ABVP, yet ABVP’s picture being used in the image:
Rocky Yadav, the accused in a road-rage murder, and son of a JDU legislator was arrested, but Huffington Post chose to use the image of an ABVP protest with the above news break. The ABVP agitation was in fact in protest of the police inaction in Rocky Yadav’s case.
The explanation given by the author was that “they cant lift copyrighted images and have to use what’s available”. The same piece carried pictures of policemen from Bihar. One wonders whether ABVP picture was indeed the best option available.
Social media users though let Huffington Post have a piece of their mind:
https://twitter.com/rahulroushan/status/729899262176157696
https://twitter.com/YearOfRat/status/729915868025651200
https://twitter.com/RTsWala/status/729925592712253440
https://twitter.com/UnSubtleDesi/status/729914838252589056