Earlier today, Pokemon fanboys in Pakistan were dismayed – and confused – when Pakistan Today ran a story on Pokemon GO being banned in Pakistan. After the initial shock wore off, the question arose: if Pokemon GO is not even available officially, how can it be banned?
Since we like to do some background research and link back to sources, unlike most online publications in Pakistan, we tried to find the actual quotes and context.
Pakistan Today sourced the “Pokemon Go Ban story” to a fake satire website, which they thought was the Guardian Newspaper.
Pakistan Today, keeping in line with the way Pakistani publishers work, ran the story in all its glory with literally no background checks and verifications.
Let’s take a moment to collectively face palm here.
Look, we get it. We’re an online publication too. With the rise of ad-blockers, tougher competition and ever shortening attention spans, it’s really hard to generate revenue.
Being first to a story often means you get 10x the hits you would if you ran it late. But that doesn’t mean you completely forego any semblance of professionalism.
Key takeway? One Pokemon in hand is worth two in the bush. Oh and it’s NOT banned.
It’s not even PT anymore, although they deserve all the flak they will get for this. The devolution of online publications is something we’ve been personally noting here at ProPakistani.
Countless content spinners simply copy and publish our stories within minutes. Major papers take our top performing content and run it without any linkbacks. There’s very little thought going into the daily content produced for the public and that’s concerning for us a key player in this industry, so expect more callouts like these from now on.
And of course, if we screw up, tell us. We’ll own up and improve since that’s what our readers expect from us.
In the meantime, a plea: Don’t ruin your reputation and destroy any trust the public has for online publishers. You don’t get to be a journalist when it benefits you and call yourself a blogger when there’s blowback.
Image source: iamsquareenix on Youtube
