Once bitten twice shy,looks like one person skipped that class,Willis Raburu barely months after he committed the mistake of tweeting the identity of an ICC witness online and later recanted with the excuse that his account was hacked.
On Friday night,malicious rumours emanated and spread across various Facebook pages saying that Nicholas Biwott had passed on at Aga Khan hospital where he had been admitted. The rumour reached the twitter streets Saturday morning and as many people waited for clarification from a credible source like media house,one Willis Raburu came in like a wrecking ball and broke the news in a tweet that he has since deleted but we have the screenshots:
Though he reported it as unconfirmed,many people who look up to him for credible stories took it as a confirmation of the rumours. On realising the mistake he did and various sources including personal friend Elgeyo Marakwet senator Murkomen confirming that Mzee was alive. Raburu 45 minutes later deleted the contiguous tweet and posted a follow up contradicting the previous. The mistake he did was tweet before confirming,but the damage was already done.
It is understandable that Willis wanted to be ahead of the rest by having the SCOOP,unfortunately worked against him and as Murkomen puts it,”Journalist must not forget that society trust them. Willis Raburu was not the first to post the rumour but it gained credibility when he did,stop this ‘Breaking News’ or ‘First to Report’ mentality it cheapens journalism.” tweeted the senator.
The controversial tweet has sparked various reactions from both his colleagues who accused him of being unethical and the general social media public has gone on a trolling rampage on Raburu who for obvious reasons is trending on twitter thanks to his “Unconfirmed reports” and that’s the TruthMeter from NE desks.
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