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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Mr. Hovde, I think you fail to see the point of the joke…
- Posted by GuardianKnightHa ha! The Indian media is comprised of idiots! The fact that they can fall for such tomfoolery is incomprehensible. Oh well. I still feel bad for them though. I hope they get their piano back.
- Posted by Bryan M. HovdeAh … if only such lapses were confined to the press of India.
“Dewey Wins!” “Weapons of Mass Destruction” “Peace in Our Time”
Nope, the press of India is only carrying on an ignoble global tradition … that of the “Yellow Press”. I don’t think that many of today’s teens learn about the Yellow Press due to the rather shabby state of recent education; but that’s grist for another comment on another day.
- Posted by BillinDetroitShame on Indian Media… need not to mention , they are run by uneducated politicians..
- Posted by BadriI remember there was a boy from bihar who won Nasa test. which turned out to be a hoax. i was laughing to see the news media being punked without Ashton kutcher in the picture. they even went to believe the story that Abdul Kalam came second in that test years ago. When Kalam was asked he had no answer than few blinks. boy it was too funny.
indian news media would qualify for oddly enough in reuters.
- Posted by vivekfor those who are unaware (from the posts above) both Hindu and the goan and Kannada local media picked up this story. in fact, local media first, followed by the nationals - Hindu included.
every institution needs a jolt once a while. hope these guys learn the lesson
- Posted by apMy first journalism professor used to quote Benjamin Disraeli, if I remember right, as saying the Indian press was the most amusing thing he read since the Arabian Nights!
The German Embassy quote actually added the touch of journalistic righteousness to the farce.
- Posted by HNI think you caught the wrong hoax - the Perus Narko story about Johann Bach’s piano is probably the nearest to truth in these newspapers!
- Posted by Vishnu ShastriActually, the better talent has gone to work for call centres — which pay more than media jobs do. I have more details in my blog.
- Posted by Narayanan Madhavanon a related note..
- Posted by Amodhttp://somethingsoreal.wordpress.com/200 8/05/26/the-executive-wing-and-the-media /
English language media in India has been a joke for a long time. They are the snotty western wannabe who in the process end up copying Sun and the National Enquirer. I am not surprised. Indian local language media do a very good job.
- Posted by Vinayhaha amusing!
- Posted by Mohandas K GandhiThe Indian media (both visual and print ) are
- Posted by Prasadafter sensational news. I am not sure whose gift
it is anyway, but we lose our patience at their
madness. Many channels and papers are serious.
They just follow hit and run mode. I do not think
they ever repent their actions. Not even the
regional media is aloof from this. So under these
conditions it is no big surprise to hear about
catching a Nazi in deep karnataka forests with
intentions to sell a Piano. Hats off!
“the intelligence wing of the Berlin-based German Chancellor’s Core” - LOL. The sloppy, self-righteous Indian press got what they deserved! LOL
- Posted by Bacha[...] a war criminal in Goa. Word spread fast, as you can tell, however a post today in a Reuters blog exposes the capture as a [...]
- Posted by Johann Bach Capture a Hoax? « National Socialism Publishing[...] Et voilá! A Hoax, indeed. (click here). [...]
- Posted by Indian super prank? « Tale of the FishwifeThis is not new to Indian Journalism. They have been making fun of “newsmaking” for long.
When on TV you can see entire half hour devoted to a cold/sneeze that superstart had, or entire half hour devoted to lost dog of comissioner, you can expect and will see such lapses in future as well.
- Posted by HSTimes of India and the rest of these news papers are the worst tabloids around. Their reporting is amateurish and awful. They sensationalize “news”, do not fact check, and write very carelessly. Most of the headlines are a big stretch from the bare facts reported in the story. Indian news media has a long way to go. Some papers like The Hindu do a fairly good job.
- Posted by HaHaIndian media is by and far a JOKE. There have been numerous instances where they simply ‘copy and paste’ content that is fed to them. Enter the age of spineless media!
They seldom question and consider facts before running articles. TABLOIDS may be a better label for the vast gamut of publications that once boasted of journalistic excellences.
Examples:
1. Almost all mainstream newspaper sites now run pictures of scantily clad women on page 1 - a rather cheap way to gain attention. ‘Sun’ anyone?
2. In cases that politicians foist and promote - ex. in the case of the State sponsored attack on a venerable Hindu monastery the media had a field day simply echoing the State-sponsored lies. How do you say spineless in Hindi?
3. Most media companies have a bunch of kids running around with mics and camera crews. I know for fact that a majority of these kids have nothing more than a ‘cram course’ in journalism to show for credentials. These kids are so swayed by emotion and ego that many times they get caught up in the action and lose the arm’s length distance they need to maintain. Did we say immature?
Bottomline - I am NOT surprised at all by this abject poverty of excellence.
NY Sharma
- Posted by NY SharmaAll in a day’s work for the Indian media, which takes the common Latin root of the words media and mediocre very seriously. J Bach selling an 18th Century piano - nice one!
- Posted by Sonja De