Journalism Blog

Why is it so important to check facts...

Just take a look at the following articles. And is the boy 15 or 17? How difficult is it to get your facts straight?

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/india.fraud.reut/
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7746965&type=topNews
http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/feb/26nasa.htm
http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/feb/25nasa.htm
http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/feb/24pradhan.htm
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=65384http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=NASA+exam+'topper'+sticks+to+claim&id=69081
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=65281
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEO20050223105005&Title=This+is+India&Topic=0
http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG3_sub.asp?ccode=ENG3&newscode=93855
http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/fri/feb25w29.htm

NASA exam 'topper' sticks to claim

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NDTV Correspondent

Friday, February 25, 2005 (New Delhi):

From being a school idol to a first rate fraud, 17-year-old Saurabh Singh has made a long journey.

The student from Balia claimed to have topped a NASA exam, which was denied by the space agency.

Saurabh now says he went to London and appeared for an exam, called the ISD, conducted by Oxford University on behalf of NASA. He also says his expenses were arranged by his tutor V K Bansal.

"I went to Jaipur first to take an exam. It was an objective test. Then I was told that I would then have to go to London to take another exam. As it was an international exam, I had to go abroad," said Saurabh.

Bansal is the owner of the coaching institute in Kota, where Saurabh was preparing for engineering entrance exams.

No evidence

Saurabh continues to insist that he topped this exam, though the certificate he has to show for it does not say so.

It has no official logo or signature. In fact, the only signature on it is his and what is most glaring is the fact that a subject name has been spelt wrongly.

Senior officials in Ballia, who are looking into the case, say that Saurabh does not even have a valid passport. So he could not have travelled to London.

posted by Dave @ 11:51 AM 0 comments

Tsunami Photos

John and Jackie Knill of Vancouver, British Columbia, pose at a resort in Khao Lak, Thailand, on December 12, 2004. The couple were killed when the December 26 tsunami struck the resort. Their digital camera was found, and though the camera was destroyed, searchers were able to recover photos of the tsunami from its memory card.

Always remember the human element in every news story. Watch the slide show here.

posted by Dave @ 8:44 PM 0 comments

Writer Hunter S. Thompson Commits Suicide

Mon Feb 21, 2:26 PM ET

By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press Writer.

ASPEN, Colo. - Hunter S. Thompson, the hard-living writer who inserted himself into his accounts of America's underbelly and popularized a first-person form of journalism in books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," has committed suicide.

AP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself Thompson's Story Ends with Suicide (AP Video)

Thompson was found dead Sunday in his Aspen-area home of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, sheriff's officials said. He was 67.

Besides the 1972 classic about Thompson's visit to Las Vegas, he also wrote "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." The central character in those wild, sprawling satires was "Dr. Thompson," a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.

Thompson is credited alongside Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese with helping pioneer New Journalism — or, as he dubbed his version, "gonzo journalism" — in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story.

Thompson, whose early writings mostly appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, often portrayed himself as wildly intoxicated as he reported on such figures as Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton (news - web sites).

"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist," Thompson told The Associated Press in 2003. "You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."

Thompson also wrote such collections as "Generation of Swine" and "Songs of the Doomed." His first ever novel, "The Rum Diary," written in 1959, was first published in 1998.

Thompson also was the model for Garry Trudeau's balding "Uncle Duke" in the comic strip "Doonesbury." He was portrayed on screen by Bill Murray in "Where The Buffalo Roam" and Johnny Depp in a film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

That book, perhaps Thompson's most famous, begins: "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."

Read the entire article here.

___

Associated Press writer John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

posted by Dave @ 3:42 PM 0 comments