I have been debating with myself over the last few
weeks/days on whether I should write this post or not. And there are many
reasons for which it should not be written, especially by a journalist for it’s
only a journalist who understands that a newspaper is made/created/written by a
human being hence errors are bound to happen. I too, have made some at my job
and am sure will make some in future too. But today what got me pen this was
yet another ‘slip’ in the Gulf News!!
In The Views section of Gulf News August 27th on
Page A 27 (http://gulfnews.com/opinions/offthecuff/he-grew-up-in-jail-to-free-his-mother-1.1224232)
is a piece titled, ‘He grew up in jail to win his mother’s freedom’. The moment
I saw the headline I knew I had it read somewhere recently! The same piece
penned with full details (Name, Age) had appeared a few weeks back in Gulf News’
Friday magazine (http://fridaymagazine.ae/features/the-big-story/freed-after-20-years-by-son-i-had-in-prison-1.1207832).
While, I was surprised to see the same piece (written by different writers)
appear yet again in the pages published by Gulf News, what also shocked me was
the fact that this particular one didn’t carry any name (Assuming the names
were not to be kept anonymous for the sake of the people involved, wondering
why they were not there) and read like a piece of fiction. Two, the tone of the
piece in terms of how the husband’s relationship was with the wife, who was in
the prison, felt like we were talking of two different people! Three, the
amount that the son paid to free the mother, two varied in the two pieces. I am
not 100 per cent sure if they were talking of the same mother-son but one read
and you would know it is. Shocking that
there is no check to ensure pieces are not repeated or factual errors are not
made or stories are printed with complete information. Talking about a few days
back I was flipping through the Tabloid! Section of Gulf News wherein I found two
events being listed twice! I understand we all live in the world of Copy &
Paste but a little thorough won’t harm anyone. At another time, when I called
to attend an event I was told it was not scheduled for the day at all! Another slip
that comes to my mind, which spoilt my morning cup of coffee, was the misspelling
of Red Fort. Another one where the name of actress Vidya Balan was spelt incorrectly in
the headline…
The list is long. The work of running a paper is tedious. But
then, tomorrow is a new day!
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