New York Times’ Viral Front Page Image Praising PM Modi Turns Out Fake With Morphed Image & Typos

In fact, front page of the New York Times on 26 September did not feature any story on PM Modi.

New Delhi: In the latest viral post, a screenshot of the front page of the US daily The New York Times eulogising Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing the rounds on social media and WhatsApp groups. The screenshot of the NYT page depicts a big photograph of PM Modi along with the headline “Last, Best Hope of Earth” and the strap “World’s most loved and most powerful leader is here to bless us”, referring to Modi’s visit to the US. The edition is dated 26 September 2021.

The purported NYT front page has been widely circulated on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp group chats. Social media users have shared this image saying “Proud of my PM” in their messages.

In fact, the national general secretary of the BJP Youth Wing, Rohit Chahal, who has over 76,000 followers, also retweeted the screenshot posted by another user. However, the tweet doesn't appear anymore on his Twitter account.

While WhatsApp users seem to be forwarding the screenshot saying: “Modi ji on the frontpage of the United States’ biggest newspaper. What could be a greater matter of pride than this?”

What’s the truth?

The screenshot portraying Modi on the front page of the publication turned out to be fake. In fact, the 26 September front page of the newspaper did not feature any story on PM Modi.

Moreover, none of the social media posts provided an associated URL that could open up to the story. Also, the front page of the screenshot contains errors and the pattern of social media posts also reveals the image is morphed. The date of the story also features a typo — 26 “Setpember” instead of 26 September.

Apart from this the font style of the headline also does not match the original NYT stylesheet, which is a piece of evidence that the image has been altered.