The News Minute | January 14, 2015 | 4:00 pm IST“According to reports/sources” has become perhaps the most loosely thrown around term in showbiz reporting. Who or what these sources are, is almost never clearly explained, giving the publication a convenient excuse to just about put out any ludicrous story that would get them more clicks or sell more papers.And what can be more eye catching than a headline involving Bollywood’s 3 most talked about stars. If you had an active internet reading habit lately, there are chances you wouldn’t have escaped gossipy stories declaring that Deepika Padukone recently advised Katrina Kaif not to marry Ranbir Kapoor, her ex beau. You might have not read them, but you could clearly see them.And we really mean it when we say you just couldn’t miss the story. From TOI to the Indian Express, DNA, India Today and Firstpost, the entertainment reporters lapped up the story and added their own ‘masala’ to spice it up. Terms such as ‘OMG’ ‘Poor Deepika’, ‘Jealous Deepika’ ‘Ugly catfight over Ranbir’ were randomly inserted.Usually, there is some modicum of truth, even in these trashy celeb gossip stories. So imagine the collective surprise, when NDTV came out with an article saying that the exact opposite had actually taken place and they had a video proof to show for. Apparently , Deepika was asked by a reporter after an award show, if she was Katrina Kaif, what would her new year resolution be? Her answer, marry Ranbir Kapoor. Now misquoting is commonplace, but opposite quoting is perhaps a completely new phenomena. You would argue, that by writing this article, we are also joining in the discussion of a completely trivial topic of celebrity love lives and giving it undue importance. The argument is fair enough. But what we are actually trying to point out is the media’s obsession with getting a juicy story out there and getting reactions for it, without even attempting to see if it is even correct.It is too light a story to see any retractions or corrections, but it is surely a dangerous discovery to see how the media minds work today, in the age of knee jerk journalism, instant Twitter updates and fast news output. Sensationalism trumping over news, perhaps everytime. TweetFollow @thenewsminute