Media's Blunder: Kannada News Channel Shows Niharika, Woman from Assam as from Odisha

Guwahati: In a major faux pas, NewFirst Kannada, a Bengaluru based news and media platform has shown a viral photo of a lady (Niharika Das) and her father-in-law (Thuleswar Das) who are actually from Assam to be from Odisha.

The viral photo shows Niharika carrying her father-in-law on her back and putting him in a public transport to take him to the nearest hospital. The photo had gone viral on June 4. Niharika and Thuleswar hail from Raha in Nagaon district of Assam. Both father-in-law and daughter-in-law had tested positive for COVID and due to lack of basic amenities or ambulance service in the village they live, Niharika had to carry her father-in-law on her back till she reached a place where she could hire a public transport to take her father-in-law to a hospital.

Interestingly, NewsFirst Kannada has put #NagaonBhogeshwariPhukananiCivilHospital but never bothered to check where is Nagaon or where is Bhogeswari Phukanani Civil Hospital located. A little fact check would have surely helped.

Another well known national news and media platform, News18.com appear to have committed the same mistake but they rectified their mistake by correcting the content of the story, but forgot to make corrections to the Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Because when you click on the link, the content of the story is all correct just the SERP that is visible to everyone in Google search continues to be wrong. (Or it could be that they got the content correct, just their SERP was wrong and stayed that way).

It is a known fact that many Indians are not aware of the people and places of Northeast. The recent episode of YouTuber Paras Singh calling Arunachal Pradesh MLA Ninong Ering 'Chinese' is one big example of that.

NewsFirst Kannada is a regional news platform, what do you say or how do you react when leading national media platforms or news channel like India Today and supposedly well-known senior journalist and News Editor of India Today new channel Rahul Kanwal makes the blunder of saying, 'You are in Nagaland, electricity even goes off in India' while speaking to Nagaland DGP Rupin Sharma during a show. Kanwal did apologies later for his major goof up.

YouTubers can still be spared but news and media platforms, anchors making such mistakes is unpardonable.

Also Read: Father-in-law of Niharika, the Woman who Carried Him on Her Back Dies of COVID

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