Pakistan’s electronic and print media has been fooled again by a covering a satire as a legitimate news. This time it is the shocking revelation of a divorce case filed by Melinda Gates against his billionaire husband and Silicon Valley celebrity, Bill Gates.
It is so unfortunate that Pakistani news providers keep publishing these fake stories without even doing a basic background check.
MoreNews reported that the divorce story of Bill Gates first appeared on a fake version of Telegraph (A Reputed a Newspaper published in London), which spells itself as Te1egraph and clearly states that it doesn’t represent the original publication and it is just an online satirical blog.
However, Pakistan news channels like Geo, Aaj, Dunya News and major publications like Jang, Dunya and Nawa-i-waqt carried the news, claiming that Melinda Gates has actually filed 112-page suit against the billionaire, seeking for 90% share of his wealth.
Some of these publications attributed the source to their London correspondent and some changed it to Washington DC, however they never bothered to cross check the authenticity of this high-profile case.
It doesn’t Matter If Its True or Not, It has to be Breaking News
This is not the first time and we can safely assume it won’t be the last that Pakistani media will cover such fake stories and portray them authentic news. It just has to carry the title of “Breaking News”, and they can sell any lie to the unsuspecting audience.
