Mumbai Mirror’s Insensitive Headline About Gopichand’s Wife Has Made Twitter VERY Angry

There have been a lot of controversies amidst the stunning display of power and sport by our Indian athletes at the Rio Olympics 2016. Among the search for P.V. Sindhu’s caste and the Indian officials not paying attention to our athletes, one news piece by acclaimed tabloid Mumbai Mirror has been doing the rounds.

Mumbai Mirror ran an exclusive interview with Pullela Gopichand’s Wife P.V.V. Lakshmi, with the former laying praise on P.V. Sindhu, saying that she wished she had Gopichand as her own coach. But the headline was a display of blatant sensationalism and showed Lakshmi in poor light.

“P.V. SINDHU HAS WHAT I DIDN’T HAVE – MY HUSBAND.”

This kind of irresponsible journalism shows how even newspapers have succumbed to using sensationalism for their stories to sell. P.V.V. Lakshmi, a former badminton player herself, clearly meant that she wished she could have had her husband Pullela Gopichand as her coach, given the recent success of Sindhu at the Rio Olympics 2016.

 

Social media took notice of this in the print as well as online version (even though they changed it later) of the article and it hasn’t gone down well with them. Indian Twitter has expressed their distaste at such a poor attempt at grabbing eyeballs. This is what they had to say.

1.

https://twitter.com/mojorojo/status/767589809489637376

 

2.

The Mumbai Mirror — Everyday SoapOpera Sexism https://t.co/WsaUOjFl79

— Harini Calamur (#StayHome) (@calamur) August 22, 2016

 

3.

Mumbai Mirror. What a dreadful headline. You really should be ashamed. Everything doesn't need a click bait headline pic.twitter.com/QWs2RZDrkW

— Naomi Datta (@nowme_datta) August 22, 2016

 

4.

https://twitter.com/rightwingdesi/status/767582264532369408

 

5.

Journalism?? Headline vs content on the front page of #mumbaimirror @AbhinandanSekhr pic.twitter.com/PiOLYD5tbW

— Archana Singh (@archsing74) August 22, 2016

 

6.

The reporter at Mumbai Mirror thought this was a Balaji show headline! #Shame #MumbaiMirror #BadJournalism pic.twitter.com/bogE3rEpd4

— RKC (@TheFoodieDieter) August 22, 2016

 

7.

Mumbai mirror should be used to soak up extra oil from roadside Bajji. https://t.co/nwJPa0XLjx

— Avani (@avanidhar) August 22, 2016

 

8.

Mumbai Mirror. What an idiotic headline. You really should be ashamed. #ShameOnTOI @vineetjaintimes pic.twitter.com/pElPHxTboO

— Jaini (@manichejain) August 22, 2016

 

9.

Is @MumbaiMirror losing their mind? This is really gross and wrong on so many fronts. https://t.co/BWpM7Mqftj

— Brown Sahiba (@Rajyasree) August 22, 2016

 

10.

Low. Low. Low @MumbaiMirror https://t.co/Lx8p4htWGK

— Simi Chakrabarti (@SimeeyC) August 22, 2016

 

11.

Congratulations @MumbaiMirror !!
You just won Gold in Scandalising a genuine quote.!!
Shamelessly omitted "as Coach" pic.twitter.com/QWjeH10A7q

— Anirudh Singh Rathore (@Anirudh_SR) August 22, 2016

 

12.

Pathetic Headline though, @MumbaiMirror https://t.co/KZvqJE5tN5

— Nilim Dutta (@NilimDutta) August 22, 2016

It’s apparent that Mumbai Mirror did not think things through before printing this headline.

Or did they? ?

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Cover image sources: 1 & 2