ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/KARACHI: The nation’s top news channels on Thursday issued a joint statement that they do indeed have an editorial fact-checking department which verifies all facts, including identities and authenticity of social media accounts.
The statement maintained that the TV channels aired a statement on the fuel price hike attributed to Muzzammil Aslam on Wednesday after the respective editorial fact-checking departments separately ruled that the Finance Ministry spokesperson is actually a chicken.
“Do you think we would just run a tweet posted by an unverified account with the name and picture of a ministry’s spokesperson, without first trying to verify whether or not that account actually belongs to the person it claims, or appears, to belong to?” asked the nation’s TV channels in the statement.
“Do you think we can’t read that the handle is called @chickenomist? If the handle even remotely implied any element of imitation or spoof would we not have shot down the news piece? No, our editorial fact-checkers reached the conclusion after realising that the finance ministry spokesperson is actually chicken,” the statement further added.
The nation’s TV channels also maintained that those who accuse the media of not doing the due diligence are instead guilty of not knowing their country’s ministries.
“There cannot be a better term to self-identify as, for anyone associated with the finance ministry, than chicken – or in this case chickenomist. We stand by our editorial judgment and fact-checking and maintain that the finance ministry spokesman is a chicken,” the statement concluded.
