A doctored screenshot of an article by The News Minute (TNM) on cricketer Mohammad Azharuddeen's recent T20 century is viral with a communal spin. Several netizens have fallen for the morphed headline of the article which reads, "Kerala born Muslim boy blasts Mumbai" and have accused the publication for misinterpretating and misrepresenting Kerala Muslims.
BOOM found that the headline in the viral screenshot has been edited to include text which peddle a misleading communal narrative. The headline in the original article reads "Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored century in 37 balls wins hearts".
Mohammad Azharuddeen, a Kasargod-born cricketer representing Kerala, scored a century of 37 deliveries against Mumbai hitting nine fours and 11 sixes in the domestic T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game on January 13. It was the third-fastest T20 century by an Indian after Rishabh Pant (32 balls) and Rohit Sharma (35 balls).
Below is the morphed screenshot of the TNM article.
The edited screenshot is being shared on Facebook with the caption, "Sometimes Caption misguides"
Netizens have also accused the publication for misrepresenting Kerala Muslims. Two such posts have been archived here and here.
The screenshot is viral on Twitter with a similar narrative.
The tweet is archived here.
Also Read: No, Tirupati Balaji Temple Did Not Donate 1 Billion Rupees To Ram Mandir
Fact Check
Taking cue from the text in the morphed screenshot, BOOM ran a keyword search on Google and found the original headline of TNM's article.
Original headline of TNM's story, published on January 14, 2021, reads as, "Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored century in 37 balls wins hearts".
BOOM reached to Dhanya Rajendran , Editor-in-Chief, TNM, who clarified, "The edited screenshot with a fake headline was brought to our attention on Saturday morning, but we did not realise then, the extent to which it was going to spread. In future we will debunk such fake claims as soon as it is brought to our attention." Rajendran further appealed to the readers to flag such morphed content.
She told BOOM, "But fighting fake news cannot be done without the support of our readers. We request our readers to support us by debunking disinformation in the forums that they encounter, and bring such incidents to our attention immediately."
Rajendran also expressed her disappointment on the communally twisted headline on Facebook. She posted both the screenshots to clarify the same.