Dead wrong

The competitiveness of the electronic news media and the demands of its 24X7 news cycle have become so acute that incorrect news can go viral in a matter of hours. This was what happened late Wednesday night when an English news channel ran a news flash reporting the death of the managing director of state-owned Power Grid Corporation at a hotel in Faizabad. Within minutes, the news was picked up by other channels and websites and their social media adjuncts and put out without any effort at confirmation. As it turned out, it was a Power Grid manager posted in the same area who had died. It was only after the corporation's communication department acted quickly and sent out a corrigendum that the item was pulled off - but without the smallest apology or clarification.