Don't (Always) Trust the Media

Yet another blog exposé of the fallacies of the media (deliberately dropping the adjective 'Indian' as this phenomenon seems universal).

Many newspapers carried a story about a 88-year-old on-the-run Nazi war criminal called Johann Bach being held in Goa and subsequently deported to Germany.

As it turns out it was a hoax planted by Pen Pricks, an anonymous journo-blog from Goa.

To be honest, when I read the story in The Indian Express, I didn't find anything amiss apart from the piano part. I wondered for a while why and how would a criminal on the run for half-a-century (across the globe) lug a piano along with him. Then I moved on to the next story.

To be a little fair to the media, there isn't always enough time to cross check all the facts, especially when you are understaffed and there is a deadline looming. And there is always the risk of inviting the wrath of the boss in case you drop the story while the competition goes ahead with a four-columner. But again, this is what the job demands of you.

And yet again, to so many of my friends, if it is in print (TV credibility is already eroded) it isn't necessarily the truth.

Came across this via K's blog (the inspiration for the title of this post).