TOI's viral "Modi, Xi will mate 6-times" headline is fake
The Times of India was made fun of for a headline in its 27 April print edition that read: "Modi, Xi will mate 6 times in 24 hours." The "mate" headline went viral on social media with many popular journalists and personalities sharing it. However, the English daily has now confirmed it was fake as the headline's photo was "photoshopped". Here's more on it.
A photoshopped image of our headline on the Modi-Xi meet is doing the rounds. All our editions carry the correct headline. You can see the difference when the correct fake headlines are placed together. The one on the right is the photoshopped image with the word 'mate' tilted. pic.twitter.com/76NZGuFpR1
— Times of India (@timesofindia) April 27, 2018
Ahead of PM Narendra Modi's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan city, the newspaper published a story on 27 April with a headline that read: "Modi, Xi will meet 6 times in 24 hours." The two leaders are meeting to discuss bilateral and global issues. However, a fake, "mate" headline was doing the rounds on social media platforms, including Twitter and WhatsApp.
The Times of India took to Twitter to clarify that it did not publish the "mate" headline while acknowledging that a "photoshopped" version of their original headline was being shared on social media platforms. The English daily also clarified that all of its editions carried the correct headline. It tweeted, "You can see the difference between the correct and fake headlines."
Meanwhile, those who had shared the photo of the fake headline, including senior journalist Saikat Datta and IPS D Roopa, later posted a clarification that it was a photoshopped image. Pratik Sinha of Alt News pointed out that zooming into the photo shows there's a difference in the print texture; the letters "t" and "e" in the original and fake images look different, too.
