You would think a press release about a German Nazi war criminal named Johann Bach being caught in the jungles of Goa after trying to sell a stolen 18th-century piano would be worth double-checking.
Nonetheless, the press release has been regurgitated on the front pages of the Deccan Herald and the Indian Express and inside the Telegraph, citing Perus Narkp, “the intelligence wing of the Berlin-based German Chancellor’s Core (sic)”, as the source.
Perus Narkp, a not especially Germanic name, is an anagram of “Super Prank”.
The organisation’s motto, printed at the top of the press release, is “Eht rea enp cabk skripc” — clearly not the language of Goethe or Virgil, but another anagram: “The Pen Pricks are back”.
The Pen Pricks, who run a blog skewering the Goan press, promised readers on Sunday they were about to break a “big, Big, BIg, BIG” story. It looks like they succeeded. Still, it should not take pranksters to remind us that gullibility is a dangerous flaw in journalism.
It takes Google only 0.13 seconds to establish that the Marsha Tikash Whanaab concentration camp at which Bach was apparently posted does not exist. The Express reporter, at least, telephoned the German embassy and Indian police for comment. The fact they had no idea what the reporter was talking about did not deter publication. Only the Times of India gave even a hint that it smelt something fishy, but ran a story all the same.
(I don’t want to seem like I’m recklessly throwing stones in a glass house: no organisation is immune to occasional lapses in journalistic perfection, as readers of the Reuters’ blog Good, Bad, and Ugly may be aware.)
I asked Ramakrishna Upadhya, a senior editor at the Deccan Herald, what might have gone wrong.
“We all believed that it was real because it had so many details,” he said about the press release. “They should have been cross-checked,” he added.
He said he is investigating what happened, and that the paper will run a correction if necessary.
An official at the German embassy in New Delhi very politely said they were looking into what happened but considered it too soon to declare it a hoax.
I have tried to e-mail the Pen Pricks. I’ll let you know if I get any response.
Hopefully this was a singular blip and from now on we can once again believe every word we read in the press.
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[...] their complete lack of journalistic standards. Of course the foreign media had a great time having a bit of a laugh at Indian media’s [...]
- Posted by Dhananjay Nene | Making a complete ass of the Indian mediaContact Your Elected Officials such as President, Vice-President, US Representatives, US Senators, State Senator. Use Free Political Absentee Ballot Application, Voter Registration Application and Polling Place Locator tools.
- Posted by MARKFrank F. Islam is a successful entrepreneur and investor based in metropolitan Washington, DC. He is the Chairman/CEO of FI Investment Group LLC (FIIG), an investment firm he founded in 2007. FIIG focuses on providing growth capital to emerging companies, as well as managing specialized and branded funds. His investment style centers on innovative strategies for value creation, such that he is often the first to invest within a new economic paradigm.
Previously, Mr. Islam was the founder and CEO of QSS Group. QSS Group was an Information Technology company which generated a revenue of $300 Million. Through QSS, Mr. Islam garnered multiple industry awards for leadership, entrepreneurship and excellence. In 1999, Mr. Islam was recognized by the Ernst and Young as Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year. The US Small Business Administration selected him as the Small Business Person of the Year of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area in 2001.
Mr. Islam has been an active participant in the Information Technology, Aerospace Engineering Services and Systems Integration business for more than 25 years. He holds a B.S. and M.S. Degrees in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. His extensive business development experience within the Federal Government sector was the key to the remarkable growth of QSS.
Mr. Islam is a well-known philanthropist whose private foundation supports educational, cultural and artistic causes worldwide. He participates in a number of non-profit organizations as a board member, such as TiE –DC and the Strathmore Center for the Arts (located in Montgomery County, Maryland), as well as chairing the StateDemocracy Foundation. He speaks often at a variety of commercial and non-profit forums, and is frequently included in press coverage.
Mr. Islam hosts a TV show “Washington Current Review” on MHz Networks.
In all endeavors, whether in the world of business or charity, Mr. Islam strives to create opportunities that are sustainable and uplifting for humanity — always guided by the virtues of hard work, focus, quality, innovation and kindness!
Keywords
- Posted by MARKFrank F. Islam, Frank Islam Investment Group, QSS Group, Frank F. Islam, Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year, Minority Small Business Person of the Year, Frank F. Islam
Frank F. Islam is a successful entrepreneur and investor based in metropolitan Washington, DC. He is the Chairman/CEO of FI Investment Group LLC (FIIG), an investment firm he founded in 2007. FIIG focuses on providing growth capital to emerging companies, as well as managing specialized and branded funds. His investment style centers on innovative strategies for value creation, such that he is often the first to invest within a new economic paradigm.
Previously, Mr. Islam was the founder and CEO of QSS Group. QSS Group was an Information Technology company which generated a revenue of $300 Million. Through QSS, Mr. Islam garnered multiple industry awards for leadership, entrepreneurship and excellence. In 1999, Mr. Islam was recognized by the Ernst and Young as Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year. The US Small Business Administration selected him as the Small Business Person of the Year of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area in 2001.
Mr. Islam has been an active participant in the Information Technology, Aerospace Engineering Services and Systems Integration business for more than 25 years. He holds a B.S. and M.S. Degrees in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. His extensive business development experience within the Federal Government sector was the key to the remarkable growth of QSS.
Mr. Islam is a well-known philanthropist whose private foundation supports educational, cultural and artistic causes worldwide. He participates in a number of non-profit organizations as a board member, such as TiE –DC and the Strathmore Center for the Arts (located in Montgomery County, Maryland), as well as chairing the StateDemocracy Foundation. He speaks often at a variety of commercial and non-profit forums, and is frequently included in press coverage.
Mr. Islam hosts a TV show “Washington Current Review” on MHz Networks.
- Posted by markIn all endeavors, whether in the world of business or charity, Mr. Islam strives to create opportunities that are sustainable and uplifting for humanity — always guided by the virtues of hard work, focus, quality, innovation and kindness!
This is a slap in the face of humanity (The hineous act of terrorist attacks in mumbai).If we claim we are the most developed race on the earth,then how come such beasts are there among us.Lets all pledge that we will root out such beasts ,such enimies of humanity should be wiped out from this world.
- Posted by anil singhIndia-born entrepreneurs empower US voters
Shukoor Ahmed ran for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1998, after coming to America a decade earlier from Hyderabad, India. Campaigning door-to-door, he was surprised so many voters did not know who represented them!
After his race ended slightly short of victory, he took advantage of his Master’s degree in Computer Technology and Political Science to build StateDemocracy.org, a website he launched in 2001 to connect citizens and lawmakers. His website’s motto encapsulated its mission:
- Posted by timothyShukoor Ahmed ran for a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1998, after coming to America a decade earlier from Hyderabad, India. Campaigning door-to-door, he was surprised so many voters did not know who represented them! After his race ended slightly short of victory, he took advantage of his Master’s degree in Computer Technology and Political Science to build StateDemocracy.org, a website he launched in 2001 to connect citizens and lawmakers. His website’s motto encapsulated its mission.
- Posted by mark[...] print media has not yet faced the onslaught of the web as ‘the web is the future’. And as Reuters recently pointed out, Indian (print) media seldom asks any of those six fundamental questions that any [...]
- Posted by » Digital anarchy to creative destruction - Blogger News Network[...] print media has not yet faced the onslaught of the web as ‘the web is the future’. And as Reuters recently pointed out, Indian (print) media seldom asks any of those six fundamental questions that [...]
- Posted by » Digital anarchy to creative destruction - Blogger News NetworkWhat do you mean “We” are all to blame? I’m not! I never put “Fox” and “News” in the same sentence, unless it’s followed by their motto: We Distort, You Comply
- Posted by AptarI read somewhere that these newspapers were leading change in India with their campaign initiatives (Lead India Movement?). Just something American media can ponder about doing?
- Posted by NarikApparently, there are more “western” readers (read critics) of these “Indian” newspapers than their local audience. I would be concerned to have a NAZI in my country, but i can only fathom what these “critics” are saying when our very own ‘New York Times” reports a “disastrous” change in milk jug design!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/busine ss/30milk.html?ex=1372651200&en=db4d28ba 844b8c27&ei=5124&partner=permalink&expro d=permalink
- Posted by AlbertIs this only true for Indian media? How many journalists in the West cross-check facts before writing up their stories. This is churnalism, not journalism and we are all to blame.
- Posted by Jose De SouzaApparently, a nuclear deal is not the only thing in which India and the US are coming together. Here is a fine piece on how the American media messed up in covering corporate frauds. No nation, it seems, has a patent on incompetence.
- Posted by Narayanan Madhavanhttp://www.newsweek.com/id/100453/page/1