Social media has gained an upper hand over traditional media, particularly in Andhra Pradesh.
The dominating Eenadu and Andhra Jyothi have faced a setback this week with social media exposing their politically motivated news.
Eenadu came up with a story saying that TDP spokesman Kommareddy Pattabhiram was beaten up by the police.
The daily also published a set of photos where Pattabhi’s body had injuries.
Surprisingly, social media exposed Eenadu’s foul play, proving that the photos were old ones.
Eenadu had to come up with a correction on the same day and removed the photos in the online edition and epaper.
The next day, the print edition also carried the correction, which regretted the wrong photos.
This was unprecedented in Eenadu's history, where everything it said was news for all these years.
At the end of the week, Andhra Jyothi came up with an explanation for Radha Krishna’s weekly column – Kotha Paluku.
Last week, Radha Krishna said that TRS chief KCR was offering Rs 1000 crore to Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan for an alliance to defeat the TDP.
There was hue and cry from Jana Sena activists, while social media took Radha Krishna to task.
This week, Radha Krishna came out with an explanation for his last week’s article. This was also the success of social media, which exposed Pawan Kalyan’s hunger for money and Chandrababu Naidu’s search for alliances.
It is time for both Ramoji Rao and Radha Krishna to realize that this is the season of social media and their politically motivated writings would not influence the people.
Their efforts to bring Chandrababu Naidu back to power are set to go to waste.