NDTV on Friday posted a video on its Twitter account where the reporter could be heard asking a ‘migrant worker’ crossing the river Yamuna to enter Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh from Haryana’s Kalanaur to ‘walk again’, perhaps for a better footage.
However, NDTV has now deleted this video from social media. You could watch the video here:Watch: With luggage on their heads, migrants cross the Yamuna river in Haryana’s Kalanaur to enter Saharanpur in UP. #MigrantLivesMatter #COVID19Pandemic pic.twitter.com/l4hJXLUOZy
— NDTV (@ndtv) May 15, 2020
Pose and then go.Video- NDTV#ISRO#ISRO #AatmaNirbharEconomy #विकास_को_इंसाफ_कब #pataallok #NDTVTopStories @TajinderBagga @anjanaomkashyap @amitmalviya @AlokTiwari9335 @ippatel @KapilMishra_IND @Karan4BJP @IKaransharma27 @SirRavindra @rohit_chahal @MODIfiedVikas pic.twitter.com/HBdoBnwxsf
— Nationalist shagun (@shagunsmishra) May 16, 2020
As soon as the video starts, at around 2 seconds into the video the reporter shooting the video asks the man to walk back a few steps and walk again. The ‘migrant worker’ then takes a few steps back and pauses to pose. He then walks again after receiving cue from the reporter.
The fact that the ‘migrant worker’ was asked to pose and walk again was spotted by alert netizens who questioned the authenticity of the clip.
Well done NDTV that ur reporter asked the person walking to go back into the water and once again walk so that u get a better video to post !!! Long live Pidi journalism
— Aravindha (@Aravindhapk) May 15, 2020
Netizens also called out the insensitivity of the journalist who asked the said ‘migrant worker’ to step back and pose.What was the need to ask that person to go back and give a better shot!!!!
— DilSe.. (@rawatpankaj) May 15, 2020
Such an insensitive video. NDTV journo is asking the migrant to go back & walk towards him again.
— Vasudha (@WordsSlay) May 15, 2020
This is precisely how they buttress up their fake narrative. They ’direct’ it instead of ’reporting’ it. Such a shame!
In its defence, NDTV posted a ‘clarification’ stating that the above unedited footage of the reporter asking the ‘migrant worker’ to pose and walk by again was sourced from a stringer.
Clarification: This video was sourced from a stringer.
— NDTV (@ndtv) May 15, 2020
NDTV airs the show with edits
Some hours later, when NDTV aired the video on television and shared a clipping of journalist Vishu Som’s show, the part where the reporter asked the ‘migrant worker’ to step back and walk in again was edited out without any clarification.
Stirring video shows migrants crossing knee-deep Yamuna to get home https://t.co/fdsWvEkqzP#MigrantLivesMatter #CoronavirusPandemic pic.twitter.com/qFS0Feok4G
— NDTV (@ndtv) May 15, 2020
In fact, the clip played in Som’s show shows the ‘migrant worker’ walk right after the had stepped back and posed in the above video.
Media ‘creating news’
Last year in January, India Today journalist was caught directing a crowd to ‘appear excited’ about then Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra officially joining the grand old party. The reporter can even be seen making the persons present chant and rehearse the slogans before she went on to report. Recently, Ujjain based NGO had claimed that Dainik Bhaskar made a 10-year-old girl pick up grains from the road for a photo-op. The NGO had claimed that Dainik Bhaskar staged the act. In the video evidence recorded by the NGO the mother says that in order to make a sensational story which would garner viewership for his publication, the photographer purposely scattered the grains on the road and asked the girl to pick it up.
