THAT Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has left the Istana Negara at 5.05pm – without addressing the media and reached home 15 minutes later – while Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is still ‘in discussion’ with the Yang diPertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has certainly left the media fraternity which converges at the compound of Istana Negara anything but restless.
This has prompted several media houses to over-speculate that “an interim PM” has been named, only to ‘pull down’ their online articles and social media posts moments later.
“None of them is quoting their sources,” reported the Malaysiakini news team which is on the ground at 5,35pm under the title “Wild speculations aplenty after Muhyiddin leaves palace”. “What we know for sure is that Muhyiddin Yassin has left Istana Negara, while Anwar Ibrahim has not.”
Paying the ultimate price of jumping the gun has resulted in the media houses having to issue an apology to their audience even as the content of their report had already spread far and wide.
“Sorry state of media! Going for speed instead of facts,” lambasted a retired editor-in-chief of a weekly business publication.
Well, this is one of those days when over-zealousness gets into your way of doing things (for the record, Anwar is still inside the national palace in time of writing at 6.09pm). – Nov 22, 2022
Main pic credit: Malaysiakini
