One of the problems of our electioneering period is the spread of Fake News. Taking advantage of the increased appetite of Nigerians for news concerning the 2023 elections, PUNCH NEWSPAPER seems to have thrown all ethics of decent journalism to the gutter and with total disregard for facts or objectivity has grabbed an early start in the fake news industry.
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike had in an interview on Thursday 17th (yesterday) clarified that PDP Governors didn’t travel to Europe or meet to select a Presidential candidate for their Party. In a strange bout of impaired comprehension the PUNCH NEWSPAPER in its article by Dennis Naku disregarded everything clearly stated by the Governor and put up a distorted and misleading headline to the story.
I call it impaired comprehension because PUNCH NEWSPAPER referenced their story to a press released by the Special Assistant on Media to the Governor and the release clearly stated that the PDP Governors didn’t travel to Europe but PUNCH knowing article headers are the main point of Information chose to use a propaganda header totally opposite to the content of the press release and even the content of their story.
In our electioneering context this PUNCH Of Fake News approach is not a totally bad thing as there is a lot of money for Dennis Nuka and the Fake News team to make but the little gratification they might get from peddling fake news pales to nothing when compared to the brand which they are selling off.
Dennis Naku, his editor and the team at Punch Newspapers need to ask themselves if they want to be like road side blogs, they need proper introspect to decide if the electioneering largesse is worth the reputation of a newspaper founded some 50 years ago which most of us grew up reading.
Beyond the legacy and reputation of PUNCH NEWSPAPER which they are mortgaging they need to ask themselves if they are ready to face the legal consequences of their actions.
