Yesterday as the nation watched in curious anticipation, the epic badminton final where a spirited PV Sindhu clashed with world number 1 Carolina Marin, NDTV quietly slipped an article to its live site. And it claimed:
NDTV: PV Sindhu Upsets Carolina Marin to Clinch Historic Badminton Gold in Rio Olympics
The subtext proudly stated:
PV Sindhu emulated Abhinav Bindra as she became the second Indian sportsperson to win an individual gold medal after she defeated world No.1 Carolina Marin in the Rio Olympics women’s singles badminton final.
I was exhilarated about the news but mentally cursed Tata Sky for showing a delayed version of what was supposed to be a live event.
The report stated:
India’s PV Sindhu created history as she defeated world No.1 Carolina Marin of Spain 21-19, 11-21, X-X to clinch the women’s singles badminton gold at the Rio Olympics 2016. This was India’s second medal in the Summer Games after Sakshi Malik’s wrestling bronze.
Sindhu emulated Abhinav Bindra, who had become the first Indian athlete to win an individual gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Bindra had struck gold in the 10m air pistol event
PV Sindhu became the fifth Indian woman to clinch an individual medal in the Olympics after Karnam Malleshwari (weightlifting) in 2000, Mary Kom (boxing) and Saina Nehwal (badminton) in 2012 Olympics and Sakshi Malik.
Sindhu served first in the match and started off slowly as Marin surged to a 5-3 lead in the opening game. Both shuttlers kept it tight but the Spaniard held the advantage as the game progressed. However, Sindhu won a huge 49-rally point and this turned out to be the turning point. The Indian won four consecutive points to win the first game 21-19.
In the second game, the Spaniard came out fighting and played some ruthless badminton as she built a massive lead. Leading 11-2, Marin never let the advantage slip and despite some unforced errors, she won the game 21-12.
NDTV has never been known for its journalistic standards. NDTV 24X7 has almost consistently incurred losses, as reflected in the last 5 Annual Reports of New Delhi Television Limited (a sure indication of a financial slump faced by the Television Businesses of a group, which once enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the private sector electronic news media space). NDTV is loathed by a vast majority of news watchers in the nation. They are what they call “paid news” and “propaganda news”.
So looks like the online business was trying to make up for what the TV business had lost with this breaking sort of news. Breaking News culture was introduced by Aaj Tak in India, they famously asked flood victims about how they are feeling at the present moment. Now almost every media house seems to have mastered the breaking news technique, what we saw yesterday was just an exhibition of it. Truth of course is a casualty in the era of click-bait and breaking news but news traders clearly seem okay with it.
Technology however is a funny thing, lies seldom get buried. Here is the link to the archive. Go take a look yourself.