Chennai: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” she might have said had he she been well enough to sit up and emulate Mark Twain whose obituary was printed prematurely in an American newspaper.
The race to be the first to carry tidings, any news good or bad, may have led to some jumping the gun in announcing the demise of J. Jayalalithaa, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
The classical error seems to have emerged out of a channel close to the ruling party, Jaya TV, which may have put out a slide not meant for telecasting on the screen saying the Tamil Nadu CM had expired. That was cue enough for other Tamil channels like Thanthi TV to jump in to stake a claim to be the first in the ‘Breaking News’ race.
The race for eyeballs had an abrupt end here as the news was at once denied by Apollo Hospitals.
