Controversial journalist Barkha Dutt had once introduced Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani as ‘son of a school headmaster’ – a qualifier that didn’t go down well with many people who thought it, deliberately or otherwise, downplayed the dreaded personality a man who believed in violence and killings in the name of religion.
But that doesn’t seem to have bothered news and current affairs website The Quint, which decided to take it to the next level today by observing the “death anniversary” of terrorist Osama Bin Laden and letting their readers know about ‘human aspects’ of Osama such as how good or bad a father and a husband he was.
The Quint it seems believes in the old school of journalism where public feedback is seen as noise. The journalists are supposed to know the best and decide the best for the masses, who are bewildered herd looking for benevolent shepherds.
The website had earlier betrayed this belief when they appeared unmoved by criticisms where their irresponsible reporting was deemed to have pushed an army jawan into committing suicide.
So refusing to learn anything from the outrage over Barkha Dutt’s tweet, the Quint went ahead and introduced Osama as a husband and father today.
Let it be clear that Quint was not reporting anything “exclusive” or hitherto unknown aspects of Osama’s life. His character and personality has been reported and psychoanalyzed many times since 9/11 and after his death. But a decision to highlight the ‘human aspects’ on the “death anniversary” of Osama was bizarre and what put people off.
They reacted with disgust and sarcasm for this brand of journalism:
https://twitter.com/Ace_Of_Pace/status/859603972142882816
https://twitter.com/Babu_Bhaiyaa/status/859640041328570368
https://twitter.com/HaramiParindey/status/859641324525543424
https://twitter.com/anoopc/status/859626715248775168
https://twitter.com/KyaUkhaadLega/status/859614230923931648
https://twitter.com/Atheist_Krishna/status/859626847214206976
https://twitter.com/coolfunnytshirt/status/859624508227039232
The style of remembering Osama also inspired Twitterati to trend a hashtag #QuintMemories where they imagined how the website will ‘pay tributes’ to other such ‘public figures’:
https://twitter.com/rahulroushan/status/859628956269641728
https://twitter.com/Chinmay_KB/status/859666243397328896
https://twitter.com/LOLiyapa/status/859634075778379777
https://twitter.com/AdvancedMaushi/status/859661363559399425
https://twitter.com/rongame/status/859659856206286848
https://twitter.com/nirwamehta/status/859634530805788672
https://twitter.com/FrustIndian/status/859642314486145025
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