A New York Times (NYT) tweet about Arnab Goswami’s arrest from Wednesday, 4 November, garnered significant flak and eventually had to be deleted.
Among other faux pas, NYT in its tweet had referred Shiv Sena, which is the ruling party in Maharashtra, as a “progressive political party”. The NYT article was titled ‘TV Journalist Is Arrested as Assaults on Press Freedom Rise in India’.
They tweeted a link to the article out with the following words:
“One of India’s most famous TV journalists, the conservative anchor Arnab Goswami, was arrested on charges of abetting a suicide in Mumbai, where a progressive political party is in power. The move was criticised by some as an attempt to muzzle the press.”
The NYT had originally put out the tweet at 5:30 on Wednesday, 4 November.
NYT, however, later in the evening issued a clarification saying:
“An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the political party that currently controls Mumbai. It is an opposition party, not a progressive opposition party. The error was repeated in our tweet. We’ve deleted the incorrect tweet.”
‘2020 - When Shiv Sena Became Progressive’: Twitter in Splits
But this entire episode with The New York Times’ tweet has triggered numerous reactions.
Some have found reference to Shiv Sena as a progressive party downright hilarious.
Yet others are very shocked.
There were yet others who mocked Goswami and said if he was a journalist, then Shiv Sena could as well be progressive.
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