Reuters, a news outlet headquartered in London, took to Twitter to assert that 400,00 textile workers have lost their jobs in Surat, Gujarat. They shared a video with the assertion, one would assume, to elaborate more on the claim they have made.
As production plummets, as many as 400,000 textile workers have been laid off in India’s western Surat city. pic.twitter.com/L8J65nqc8B
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 19, 2018
However, the video itself showed that the news was from Thirrupur, Tamil Nadu, and not Gujarat.
Dear @Reuters if you want to attack @smritiirani come out directly. Why fake news and pass off Thirrupur, TN video as Surat’s. #FakeNews https://t.co/0on6IghMcB
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 22, 2018
It isn’t the first time that foreign journalists and media outlets have engaged in spreading fake news in India. C.J. Werlemen, part-time journalist and full-time propagandist, notorious for peddling fake news, was even reprimanded by the Uttar Pradesh Police for his tweets. Even the New York Times has on multiple occasions indulged in crass elitism and condescension while reporting on India. On another occasion, it had asserted that fashion has become a ‘nationalist cause’ in India. Even agencies like the BBC has been known to express an anti-India sentiment.
However, the Reuters tweet makes one think the mainstream media is losing their touch. Because sharing a claim with a video that itself refutes it is pretty inefficient even by the standards of the mainstream media.
