The July 24 2007 news item in IBNlive with a heading “Bihar girl passes IIT entrance, loses seat for money”, categorically states this
It’s a classic tale of small towns and big dreams — only this time round, the dream almost came true for Sushila Mishra, a resident of Nadda Village in the Bangah District of Bihar.
She scored 91 per cent in her class XII boards and also cleared the IIT-JEE exam, but Sushila wasn’t able to get a seat at IIT because her father couldn’t afford to pay Rs 40,000 as admission fee.
and goes on to narrate how the girl and her father feels dejected about this episode and how Chief Minister Nithish Kumar has ordered an inquiry about the entire affair.
In this regard, I reproduce with permission some portions of an internal email correspondence from the IIT-JEE Chairman
Dear colleagues and friends
This is to alert you to the fact that, sometimes, sensational news regarding JEE can be factually incorrect. For example, consider the following news item, which appeared on ibnlive.com on July 24, 2007, and about which some alumni have been making enquiries and offering help!
[...] It’s a classic tale of small towns and big dreams — only this time round, the dream almost came true for Sushila Mishra, a resident of Nadda Village in the Bangah District of Bihar. She scored 91 per cent in her class XII boards and also cleared the IIT-JEE exam, but Sushila wasn’t able to get a seat at IIT because her father couldn’t afford to pay Rs 40,000 as admission fee [...]
Leaving aside the correctness of the amount, note that the name Sushila Mishra (or its variant(s) Susila / Misra) does not appear even in the list of candidates who applied for JEE 2007 !! Nowhere does the news item say the name of the girl is changed, nor does it give the registration number of the girl ! Further, no candidate has approached us with the problem stated in the news.
[...]
Regards.
Dr. Shreepad Karmalkar
Professor, Electrical Engineering Department
Chairman JEE 2007
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Chennai 600 036 India
(emphasis in the above quote is mine) I am not writing my opinions here although it is my blog and I can. Although I am not trained as a reporter, I know how to curb my instinct for sensationalism while merely reporting news items – with or without verifying their veracity.
6 responses so far ↓
Abhijit Nadgouda // August 3, 2007 at 9:10 am |
Media is the killer sometimes. Half information is incorrect information when the context is considered.
p. sriram // August 3, 2007 at 5:22 pm |
actually, the video shows the girl with a paper titled iist trivandrum (they even highlight it) but the voice over says iit …
jagan // August 3, 2007 at 5:43 pm |
Any news about JEE increases their TRP ratings… media should realize that they have the social responsibility too..
prasad // August 4, 2007 at 1:17 am |
Indian media is seriously screwed up. I was one of the guys who wrote to jee@iitm.ac.in, thinking this was genuine. Also I would like to point out that Indian media is highly “emotional”. I guess that helps them sensationalize a news item. I thought the job of a news reporter/channel is to passively report the happenings and leave the reactions to the public, without instigating them either way!
Pramod // August 4, 2007 at 1:27 am |
I am really surprised as shocked!
After reading this news online, one of my friend Mohnish Pabrai (dakshana.org) has shown keen interest to fund such poorest of poor but intelligent student. Such false report will certainly discourage genuine people to put step forward to help needy students.
IIT JEE Selection Faulty? « Nonoscience // June 19, 2008 at 7:40 pm |
[...] year tried rakeing up a non-issue about IIT selection and even after the news item was proved to be false and baseless, the news channel, to the best of my knowledge, failed to issue even an apology for publishing [...]