The Big Story That Never Was

Does everyone remember Baby 81? His real name is Abilash Jeyaraj. He was the three month old Tsunami survivor who was found among debris a few days after the Tsunami and handed over to the Government Hospital in Kalumani, in Eastern Sri Lanka.

The media went nuts about the story when it was discovered that 9 (15 according to some reports) families were claiming the baby as their own. The whole world was nuts about this story for quite some time. Go on and Google "Baby 81" and see what I'm talking about. Even Wikipedia has an entry on Baby 81. Wikipedia says he was the subject of a 'parental identity dispute'.

The fuss was all about the fact that all these different mothers had claimed the Baby as theirs. Once the media reported that one of the mothers had threatened to kill herself if she did not get the baby back. There was a moving photograph (and video footage) of three women wailing for the baby. Then the court ordered DNA tests to find out the baby's real parents. These tests proved that the Jeyaraj's were the real parents and the baby was handed over to them. NBC's Good Morning America had them flown to New York so they could be interviewed on the show. Abhilash even made a TV appearance with Uma Thruman.

But this story never happened. No other family other than the Jeyarajs ever claimed the baby.

Here's the real story. It's not really short, but read on if you want to find out how something that never happened became the greatest post Tsunami story worldwide.

During the Tsunami the 3 month old baby is seperated from his mother Juanita and is found later by a man who brings him over to the Government Hospital in Kalmunai. In the chaos following the Tsunami many women come to the hospital to look for their infants. They see this unclaimed baby and offer to take him if he remains unclaimed. But the never interact with the doctor, and never make a formal request for the baby. Infact no one ever says the baby is theirs. One or two of them say they will take the ONLY if he is unclaimed.

A few days later the Jeyarajs come to hospital and see the baby and asked the doctors if they could take him home. The doctor told them that they could not release the baby for medical reasons. The Jeyarajs heard of a nurse in the hospital who had been trying to take the baby, as she had lost her own. Fearing for the safety of their son they then went to the Kalmunai police to lodge a complaint in an attempt to get the baby back. By this time none of the other women who had asked for the baby stuck to their claim because as the hospital authorities said, it was very clear that the baby belonged to the Jeyaraj family. The only reason they didn't release him was because he was not fit enough to leave the hospital.

It is sometime around this that a reporter from an international news service goes over to the Kalmunai hospital. He's there to do some story, any story, about ther aftermath of the Tsunami (Kalmunai was the worst affected area in Sri Lanka). In an interview with one of the doctors in the hospitals this reporter picks up the story of this baby, and finds the fact that several mothers asked for the baby very newsworthy. The reporter is very aware of the fact that none of the other women claiming the baby stuck around long enough to make their a formal claim, but chooses to ignore that, because the story would sound much more dramatic if there were many women demanding the baby. So, the reporter picks the number 9 (perhaps it's the reporter's lucky number) and does a moving story about how there's a baby in the Kalmunai hospital who's been claimed by 9 women as their own infant.

In a few days this story is headline news all over the world. Everything from local channels in Sri Lanka to the BBC and CNN are carrying this story.

But no one checks the story. Everyone sticks to the original figure of 9 (some increase it to 12, some to 15).

All it took was a day in Kalmunai to figure out that the Baby 81 story never happened.

Ask any of the doctors in the hospital, they never had any doubt about the parents. But when you ask them if there were other women claiming the baby the answer is always yes. When you ask them how they know there were other mothers claiming the baby they always say they saw it on TV or read it in the papers. Ask them if they ever saw any of the women other than Juanita and the answer is always no.

The Kalmunai police have never had anyone other than the Jeyrajs coming into make a formal claim for the baby. The Kalmunai magistrate hasn't heard of anyone other than the Jeyarajs coming into ask for the baby. But you ask the Kalmunai Police's OIC (Officer in Charge) or the Kalmunai magistrate and they'll tell you that they're certain there were 9 women claiming the baby. They're so sure because they saw it on the TV.

As the media began to scramble for a story that wasn't there, the lie kept snowballing. It grew and grew and grew. And when the story became so big, everyone started believing it, even the people involved. Kalmunai is a small town, yet no one there has heard of any of the other women who claimed the baby. Everyone knows the Jeyarajs. But they don't even know of someone who knows of someone who knows one of the other women.

That's because these women never existed.

But wait! What about that photograph of three women wailing and demanding the baby?

Are they demanding the baby? Yes.

Are there three of them? Yes.

Who are they? Juanita, her mother and her aunt.

So, actually, it's three women from the same family demanding their baby. The mother and the aunt wanted the baby back as badly as Juanita did. But what did the caption on the photograph read? "Three mothers claim Baby 81 as their own." or something like that.

Here's a challenge: Go through all the Baby 81 stories available online and find me one name of one woman (other than Juanita Jeyraj) who claimed the baby. A lot of news stories carry quotes from other women, but Juanita says that these things were said by her mother or her aunt who were with her all along during the whole ordeal. No one bothered to check who they were.

And now, why has their been no retraction or apology from anyone?

Do all the news wire services know it was a lie? Yes.

Does everyone in the media know it was a lie? Yes

But no one is going to say anything about it because everyone in the media was a part of this lie. Everyone from the reporters in Sri Lanka who rushed to Kalmunai to cover the story to the editors sitting at their desks in London and New York, EVERYONE, messed up. Everyone slipped up. No one checked their sources, and the story was covered simply because everyone else was covering it. And now, everyone is party to the crime and you sure as hell ain't going to see the media owning up to it's mistakes unless someone makes them, and here, no one's going to push anyone to make a retraction, and no one's going to call another media organisation a liar, because they ALL lied.

Ah, the elegance of the fourth estate.

Here is an updated version of this story about Baby 81