As usual, I bought the New Straits Times , after my lunch time yesterday.

I was shocked to learn that The New York Times had been bought over by Sir Rupert Murdoch as the article in the New Straits Times , “No word from US on alleged probe” stated that NYT and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which are sister publications owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, have published unsubstantiated stories…

Then, besides the article, there was a letter from Shanti Ramachandran, which also stated: “Over the past few days, The New York Times (NYT) and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which incidentally are sister newspapers owned by media baron Sir Rupert Murdoch…”

Since when was The New York Times was acquired by Rupert Murdoch? Was it massive breaking news?

In no time at all I quickly Googled The New York Times and found out that this newspaper is indeed owned by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr, (whose family (Ochs-Sulzberger) has controlled NYT for five generations, since 1896), who is both the paper's publisher and the company's chairperson.

What a gaffe!

I believe countless innocent readers have been misled by the New Straits Times article and the letter by Shanti Ramachandran, which was originally published online on The Rakyat Post on Sept 22, 2015, under the title, 'US has no basis to harass Najib despite NYT , WSJ claims' that both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are sister companies owned by Rupert Murdoch.

I truly understand the love expressed by the New Straits Times and Shanti Ramachandran for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, but they need to get the facts right before criticising prominent media companies like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal . And the fact is that misleading facts included by them in their reporting have again made Malaysia a laughing stock of the international community.

People can sympathise with Shanti Ramachandran, that she is a neophyte with regard to news media but how can the whole NST team, which is steeped in newspaper history, including its editors, be unaware of the fact that NYT and WSJ are unrelated companies?

By the way, I would like to digress for a moment by pointing out some of the mistakes made by Shanti Ramachandran in her supposedly “viral” letter.

First, she says, “This newspaper ( WSJ ), which lays claim to be a financial daily, reported that….”

Using the phrase “lay claim to” is like saying people have been accusing WSJ of not being a financial daily or that some people have robbed WSJ of its financial daily status and that The Wall Street Journal has to strongly proclaim that it is a “financial daily”!

Secondly, “three supposed authoritative sources” should be corrected as “three supposedly authoritative sources”.

Thirdly, she says, “Interestingly, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has become a fierce critic of PM Najib, was reported to…”

What is the difference between “who has become a fierce critic of PM Najib” and “who is a fierce critic of PM Najib”?

It seems that Dr M has just recently become a fierce critic of Najib.

Fourthly, the sentence “it makes one wonder exactly why all this is taking place now and pitting the US justice system against a duly elected leader in Malaysia” is like saying that the US justice system is competing or fighting with our prime minister against something, which is quite puzzling to readers.

Fifthly, Shanti was shocked to hear that a spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment and concluded that the NYT article had no basis in its reporting.

I would like to add that it is perfectly normal for a newspaper like NYT to probe further by asking relevant parties involved in order to corroborate its news report. However, the parties involved have the prerogative to comment or not.

Finally, she claims that the US government only acts beyond its borders in two activities - 'drug smuggling' and 'war crimes'. But anyone who is familiar with the US foreign policy knows that the United States’ tentacles have reached beyond its borders in an array of activities: exporting democracy, human rights issues, non-proliferation of nuclear technology, foreign aid, climate change, etc.

After reading both the article by NST and the letter by Shanti, I would like to say that in July The Wall Street Journal reported that US$700 million had been channelled into our PM Najib’s personal bank accounts. During which some parties were arguing against the news story that it was unsubstantiated but in the end in turned out to be true.

Thus, do not jump to conclusions that unsubstantiated news stories have no basis in reporting.

And prominent media firms like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal would not simply report something that has no basis and substance in it.

Truth is mighty and the truth will, in the end, prevail.