India
Narendra (abusive-word) Modi: Hey IANS writer, what were you thinking?
In what surely qualifies as the biggest journalistic blunder of this year, news agency IANS carried an article where an abusive word was used to address Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sentence about pro-farmer schemes launched by the Centre had the words, "Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra B****** Modi." What's more shocking is that few portals ran it, unedited.
The copy: IANS removes controversial news article
The copy was published on September 12, and the conspicuous error caught the attention of everyone. The news agency retracted the story, late in the evening, and other portals followed suit. Reportedly one bureau chief of IANS has resigned and another one will be sacked. The agency is now going through CCTV footage to identify the person who made the blunder.
Something huge is happening, tweets journalist
Something huge happening! @ians_india, a news agency, gives out a story to news portal about a scheme in which the PM is referred to as "Narendra Bakhchod Modi" pic.twitter.com/suodTVDAhh
— Nishant Saxena (@nishant9717) September 13, 2018
Did you forget to not mix work with personal beliefs?
This is far from a typo. The first thing that comes to your mind is, maybe the writer meant to mention PM Modi's complete name: Narendra Damodardas Modi. But in no universe, Damodardas and B*****d share similar spellings. It seems the writer has his share of grievances with the PM, but of course, forgot to leave his frustration at the office door.
Obviously, the error didn't go unnoticed and left Internet abuzz
As much as the reporter must have prayed for it, this error couldn't have remained undetected. Twitter was abuzz with reactions, with some sympathizing with the agency. They believed someone wanted to sabotage the portal's work (which could be possible). Many were of the opinion that the person responsible should be sacked, as using such words for the PM was beyond forgiveness.
