On Monday, the New York Post posted an article titled: “COVID-19 surge ‘swallowing people in India ‘like a monster.’ The article included a photo of a woman who was lying unconscious on the road with another woman sitting over her.
The article has since been updated.
People on Twitter were quick to point out that this photo is similar to a YouTube video titled “Gas leak at LG plant in India puts hundreds in hospital.” It’s important to note this video is from almost a year ago and the photo above is from a Reuters video the New York Post acquired through a site called ‘Newsflare.’
The photo was captioned in the article: “People are dying in the streets in India as the COVID-19 crisis there worsens.”
They then updated the article later, removing the false photo and renaming the article “COVID surge ‘swallowing’ people in India, footage shows people dead in streets.” The permalink for the article remains the same.
They added photos of funeral pyres — where they burn the bodies of the dead, a Hindu and Sikh tradition which has been heavily focused on by publications like Reuters as they “obsess” on using photos of the pyres for six different articles in the span of five days, one publication pointed out.
“Where there is death, there are going to be funeral pyres. But what really irked people about this photograph? The insensitivity of journalists clicking pictures while several were making their last journey was not lost on anyone. Dignity in death is certainly far more a precious right of any human being than the right to report. While COVID-19 is a crisis that must be reported, journalists who turn themselves into vultures and their profession into that of voyeurism often draw the criticism of their readers,” read the article from Opindia.com.
A Reuters reporter’s stance on taking these type of photos is that he didn’t think there was anything heroic about it. But that it was their duty to document it.
At the end of the day, it shows The New York Post didn’t do their due diligence while reporting — they instead misled the public by recycling a photo that was nearly a year old and quickly covered it up.
I mean at least they corrected their mistake — something that much of the mainstream doesn’t seem to do.
Diverge Media is an independent Canadian media company dedicated to bringing you “Stories That Matter.” We do not, and will never accept government funds for our work.
Therefore, we rely entirely on the donations of our generous readers/viewers to help us continue our work. If you like our work and want to support independent Canadian media – please support us by donating in the form below or get a Diverge Media hat at our store!
We also have new t-shirts arriving around May 5th. Message us via Facebook if you’d like to purchase one (include your size) and we will let you know when they become available on our store.
divergemedia.ca 