Kashyap’s colleague Sahil Joshi, who heads the Mumbai bureau of Aaj Tak, eventually joined her on the show once voting ended in Maharashtra. He referenced India Today’s fact-check on the clips being AI-generated. Kashyap then explained how tools could be used in this manner.
At Republic World, Arnab Goswami positioned himself as the only journalist brave enough to take up the issue on his show The Debate with Arnab Goswami on November 20. He claimed that “all the news networks were trying to black out the story. But the Republic covered it in such a way, bringing in eyewitnesses and witnesses that everyone was compelled to cover the story”.
Goswami first questioned the credibility of the audio clips. Why would Sule leave behind evidence like voice notes, he asked. How could the BJP trust the recordings without an investigation?
Fair points, but Goswami then said Sule was posting “tweet after tweet” which could indicate guilt. He even said Sule might be watching his show since “Republic was number 1” and that she should come on the show to clarify the matter.
On News18 India, the anchor of primetime show Sabse Bada Dangal said: “Rajneeti bohot kuch sikha deti hai. Bhale andar seh aapko lage ke aap phas gaye hai, but bohot confident aap sound karte hai, voh Supriya Sule nazar aai. Unhone kaha ki mai har jaanch ke liye tayaar hu, cyber crime mai maine complaint kadi hai…”
Loosely translated, “Politics teaches you a lot. Even if from inside you feel like you have been caught, you can sound very confident, which Sule appears to be. She has said she is ready for an investigation and has filed a complaint with cybercrime.”
Times Now called the controversy “stunning”, “Maha bitcoin bawaal” and “bitcoin bombshell”. TV9 called it a “cash scandal”.
NDTV, in a show on November 20, pointed out this was an “allegation” by the BJP. Its ticker said “BJP slams MBA over ‘bitcoin scam’” and “BJP questions MVA’a involvement in ‘bitcoin scam’” but the headline was more emphatic – “Exposed: BJP alleges bitcoin scam in Maharashtra poll, Supria Sule reacts”. NDTV also aired BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi’s allegations of “fraud” though its anchor said the audio’s veracity hadn’t been verified and that Sule had moved the Election Commission over “cybercrime”.
The next day, the Adani-owned news organisation republished a fact-check by The Quint where it concluded that the audio clips were not authentic.
Newslaundry reached out to India Today, PTI, Aaj Tak, Republic, News18, Times Now and NDTV for comment. This report will be updated if they respond.
Nivedita Niranjankumar, a news editor at fact-checker website Boom who had fact-checked the Sule clip, said there are multifold implications of news channels running claims without attempting to verify them.
“Fact-checking organisations do not have as much reach as legacy media. So there is a good chance that people saw this news item but not the fact-check,” she said. “With news channels, there is no editorial judgement when it comes to breaking news. It is more like the fastest fingers first. Even as a regular person, if you hear a recording like this, you would know it is fake. News channels have access to the people being accused. They can easily speak to them and run both the recordings on TV to attempt to verify.”
Niranjankumar said Boom decided to take up the story all the more because the recordings emerged from the BJP’s official social media handle. The second reason, she said, was because it was clear on the first instance of hearing the recording that it was fake.