The 47-Second Video and the 6 p.m. Deadline
You are a district reporter for an English daily in Purulia. At 11:40 a.m. the boundary wall of a government-aided primary school collapses during the lunch break. Two Class V students are taken to the district hospital; the hospital superintendent confirms one has a fractured forearm and both are admitted. At 12:20 p.m. a 47-second WhatsApp video reaches your newsroom: dust, shouting, a crowd, no clear view of the wall. A local cable channel airs the clip at 1 p.m. with the line 'three children dead'. The headmaster says the clip is from last year's storm and that a child fell on the stairs. A parent at the gate says a third child is 'missing'. There is no FIR yet, and the sub-inspector does not answer his phone. Your editor wants 400 words by 6 p.m. for the district page.
1. List the first four verification steps you would take in the next 90 minutes, and state what you would publish if none of them settles the cause of the collapse.
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Priority: establish the verifiable core.
- Call the hospital superintendent on record: ask how many children were admitted, their age and class (without names), the nature of injuries, and whether any child was brought dead. Establish the time of admission.
- Call the headmaster: ask for the school's own account, the time of the incident, whether the wall had been inspected, and whether he has a dated photograph or repair estimate proving the WhatsApp clip is old. Do not accept 'old video' without evidence.
- Call the police station duty officer, not only the sub-inspector: ask whether an FIR or daily-diary entry exists, its number and sections, and whether a third child is reported missing.
- Contact the WhatsApp forwarder and original uploader: ask when and where the clip was recorded; preserve the file; check metadata if available. Treat metadata as a lead, not proof.
If the cause remains unsettled, publish only what is confirmed: two admissions, one fractured forearm, the time, and that the cause is under investigation. Report that the principal disputes the video's date and that police have not confirmed any death. Do not write 'wall collapse' as an established cause if the school denies it; use 'the wall gave way, according to hospital and eyewitness accounts' and attribute clearly.
2. The cable channel's 'three dead' line is already on air. How do you handle it in your copy without repeating it as fact?
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Do not repeat 'three dead' in the headline, lede or push alert. Repeating an unverified death toll gives it a second life and can harm families. If the claim must be addressed, use an attributed and negating sentence: 'Local cable channels and WhatsApp groups circulated unverified claims of fatalities; the hospital superintendent said two children were admitted and did not confirm any death.' Call the cable channel's editor and ask for the source of the claim. If the channel cannot substantiate it, report the claim as disputed, not as fact. Check whether the channel used the same 47-second clip; if so, that is a verification problem, not a death report. A correction from the channel is better than your paper repeating the number.
3. Write a 30-40 word lede using only verified information, and explain two words or phrases you deliberately avoided.
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Sample lede: 'Two Class V students were admitted to Purulia District Hospital on Monday after a school boundary wall gave way during the lunch break, the hospital superintendent said, adding that one child had a fractured forearm.'
That is 34 words. I avoided 'collapsed' because the cause is disputed and the school denies the video's date; 'gave way' describes what is visible without asserting why. I avoided 'three dead' and 'missing' because neither is confirmed by the hospital or police. The lede names the source for the injury claim, gives the time, and does not identify the children. The next paragraph can carry the principal's denial, the police position and the unverified social-media claims with clear attribution.