Editorial
The Wired Lies, the Rise and Fall of A Fake News Factory
“What passes for investigative journalism is finding somebody with their pants down - literally or otherwise.”
-Robert Scheer, American Left Wing Journalist
The famous (now infamous) ‘The Wire’ – India’s one of the visible online media publicly apologized for its ‘fake news’ based investigative reporting on anti-BJP news story. The Wire accused the ruling party’s IT wing head Amit Malviya had unlimited powers to remove posts from the popular social media apps like Instagram which is owned by Facebook (now Meta). Instantly Meta denied this story. Peeling the layers after layers, the experts in the business concluded that the ‘The Wire’ story is not even 1% true. To support their claim, ‘The Wire’ posted screenshots of the email from a Meta official. Over and above, the Wire also claimed ‘Two Independent’ experts had checked the email and certified them to be true. Finally, the Meta official Andy Stone confirmed that the screenshot was a fake. Shockingly, both experts, Kanishk and Ujjwal Kumar also denied the story of ‘email verification’ done by them. After which, having no other option and nowhere to hide, ‘The Wire’ was forced to delete the story. On top of everything, now the ‘The Wire’ also played the ‘Victim Card’ and claimed some kind of a ‘plot against the Wire’ is going on. This is really pathetic. A non-profit created for the purpose of producing unbiased news and views, fall down disgracefully.
Ever since, Modi assumed office in 2014, there’s been a widespread ‘hate campaign’ carried out by the sections of ‘Lutyens Media’ which was backed by the powerful US and UK based western media players. But they couldn’t succeed in their attempts. The rise and fall of the ‘The Wire’ is a cautionary tale to those who are in the media and those who want to be in the media. It clearly indicates how the media can be a ‘double-edged sword,’ and if it is not handled carefully, it will create an irreparable damage to the manipulators.
‘The Wire’ story also raises some genuine questions. Did the high-profile funders—who poured a huge sum of money—were aware of the true intention of this sensational media entity. If not, how come they become silent spectators when the media house was published in a series of maliciously fabricated news stories against one particular party alone. Anybody can criticize the government or ruling party. But ‘The Wire’ crossed all the limits of media decorum to achieve its ‘hidden agenda’ of sabotaging the Government, the ruling party and the Nation. Forgetting the cherished ethos and values associated with a watchdog journalism, the media house focused only on cheap-thrill induced sensationalism. This is simply unacceptable.
Citing the ‘freedom of press’, and ‘Free Speech,’ the ‘fake news factory’ - The Wire may escape from the harsh punishment. But they can’t escape from the people, who are the best judges. Additionally, the Wire story also reminds us the importance of emerging new tech like ‘Blockchain’ to solve the problems like ‘fake news’. In the ‘Blockchain’ based news media (currently what you are reading is the news channel built on top of this ‘tamper-proof and ‘censorship-resistant’ tech), we can’t delete whatever published. That makes us to behave responsibly, force us to check our facts and publish only the truthful account of the news.
By
Editor-in-Chief
INSTANEWSGRAM