Times Magazine’s Nobel Peace Prize to Mohammad Zubair, who spread false news and anarchy
Delhi 6 Sep ( BNiTimes) TIME Magazine has always been notorious for pushing propaganda under the garb of being a platform for ‘intellectual’ opinions. It has served as a leftist mouthpiece since it came into being, propagating myths and peddling narratives far removed from reality. While exhibiting hypocrisies is a routine staple for TIME Magazine, it committed a mother of all ironies recently when it included Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha of the Alt News in the list of deserving candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize 2022.
Though Nobel Peace Prize has long lost its credibility, especially after former US President Barack Obama won it in 2009, just days after dropping bombs in the middle east that led to scores of death, it has done little to dampen the fascination of ‘liberal’ bastions, including the TIME Magazine, with the sham award.
TIME Magazine placed Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, founders of the fake news factory that calls itself the “fact-checking” website Alt News, among the list of prospective winners for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize alongside Volodymyr Zelensky, WHO, David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, Alexey Navalny among others.
However, the inclusion of Mohammed Zubair, the man responsible for unleashing the wave of Islamist violence in India that resulted in the death of at least 6 Hindus, including Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur and Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, in the prospective list of winners for the Nobel Peace Prize 2022 is profoundly deplorable, even by the abysmally low standards of the TIME Magazine.
While making a case for their win, TIME Magazine did what western publications are known for covering news about India: resorting to obscurantism, distorting facts, and presenting a lopsided narrative. It described Sinha and Zubair as crusaders battling misinformation online, conveniently missing out and pointing out occasions when the two were caught red-handed spreading fake news and falsehoods.
“Journalists Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair, co-founders of Indian fact-checking website AltNews, have relentlessly been battling misinformation in India, where the Hindu nationalist BJP party has been accused of frequently stoking discrimination against Muslims,” read the article on TIME Magazine, dressing up pro-Congress propagandists as ‘journalists’ and revealing the organisation’s penchant for vilifying the democratically elected government of India, besides scaremongering over the imaginary institutional “discrimination” against Muslims.
The mother of all ironies: TIME Magazine thinks Mohammed Zubair, who triggered Islamist unrest and violence in India, deserves Nobel Peace Prize
- Amit Kelkar | 5 October, 2022
TIME Magazine has always been notorious for pushing propaganda under the garb of being a platform for ‘intellectual’ opinions. It has served as a leftist mouthpiece since it came into being, propagating myths and peddling narratives far removed from reality. While exhibiting hypocrisies is a routine staple for TIME Magazine, it committed a mother of all ironies recently when it included Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha of the Alt News in the list of deserving candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize 2022.
Though Nobel Peace Prize has long lost its credibility, especially after former US President Barack Obama won it in 2009, just days after dropping bombs in the middle east that led to scores of death, it has done little to dampen the fascination of ‘liberal’ bastions, including the TIME Magazine, with the sham award.
TIME Magazine placed Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, founders of the fake news factory that calls itself the “fact-checking” website Alt News, among the list of prospective winners for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize alongside Volodymyr Zelensky, WHO, David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, Alexey Navalny among others.
However, the inclusion of Mohammed Zubair, the man responsible for unleashing the wave of Islamist violence in India that resulted in the death of at least 6 Hindus, including Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur and Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, in the prospective list of winners for the Nobel Peace Prize 2022 is profoundly deplorable, even by the abysmally low standards of the TIME Magazine.
While making a case for their win, TIME Magazine did what western publications are known for covering news about India: resorting to obscurantism, distorting facts, and presenting a lopsided narrative. It described Sinha and Zubair as crusaders battling misinformation online, conveniently missing out and pointing out occasions when the two were caught red-handed spreading fake news and falsehoods.
“Journalists Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair, co-founders of Indian fact-checking website AltNews, have relentlessly been battling misinformation in India, where the Hindu nationalist BJP party has been accused of frequently stoking discrimination against Muslims,” read the article on TIME Magazine, dressing up pro-Congress propagandists as ‘journalists’ and revealing the organisation’s penchant for vilifying the democratically elected government of India, besides scaremongering over the imaginary institutional “discrimination” against Muslims.
“Indian authorities arrested Zubair in June for a meme he tweeted four years ago. Journalists around the world condemned the arrest and argued it was retribution for his fact-checking work,” the TIME article further read. What it conveniently omitted mentioning is how Zubair touched off a wave of Islamist violence in India with his dog-whistling against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. It also cleverly leaned on condemnation from leftist populated organisations to portray Zubair’s arrest as an act of retribution, drawing over a veil over his alleged culpability in hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus with his Hinduphobic posts.
