Imported Garbage - From New York Times

This blog has always been dedicated to Indian news media as it was meant to be. However, considering multiple elections are looming and business abroad is not so great one can expect a lot of imported scumbags to fry their onions in the Indian heat. The American media is the inspiration behind the terribly corrupt and untrustworthy media in India. They too have fake reports, fake awards and even bogus reports to encourage war. Even the Pulitzer Prize can be hoodwinked. Don’t believe me? Read the story of Janet Cooke in “Barkha – The Queen of Telly Trolls”. The common misconception in India is that the longest running media competition is KBC. Actually no! KBC had many breaks. The longest running media completion is “Abuse Narendra Modi and win a prize”. Unfortunately, there is hardly any media crook in India who hasn’t already won that prize so now there are imported contestants. Any Tom, Dick and Harris would do! So ‘Enter Gardiner Harris’ of the New York Times (NYT).

This is what Harris’ profile on Twitter says (pic on the left). Usually when you have a grand title like “South Asia” correspondent you can assume there will be a lot of stringers and side-kicks assisting the person. To put it politely, these people usually peddle “second-hand stuff”. You know, like selling used cars. If you ever met a used-car salesman he will make you believe it’s even better than a virgin car. But the Twitter profile doesn’t say much else, so a more honest introduction to Harris is mandatory. Here’s how one introduced him (edited excerpts):

“The Inconstant Gardiner: The New York Times’ Fervent Disconnect Between Drug and Vaccine Reporting: The film “The Constant Gardener”—starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz… from the book by John le Carré—is the story of sacrifice and moral constancy against the corruption of fictional corporate giant KVH, maker of pharmaceuticals and pesticides. It’s a beautiful film in many ways, and terrifying; a cross between reality check and forecast…..  Isn’t tireless repetition of “emotional words” a technique of advertising and political propaganda? Or is Harris too bored with the issue to come up with fresher adjectives?  I suppose that could explain the—cough— inconstant reporting. Inconstant: adjective; likely to change frequently without apparent or cogent reason— in•con•stant•ly adverb … Gardiner Harris—who just came out with his first novel involving a possible conspiracy in coalmining  —likes to chastise vaccine injury claimants for being “misled by conspiracy theories”.  It’s funny if you think about it. Harris’s conceit is that he himself would be in on such a conspiracy if it existed— when in reality, Harris doesn’t make decisions about what gets printed in the Times any more than a drug rep decides what to sell”.

Isn’t tireless repetition of “emotional words” a technique of advertising and political propaganda? Asks the article about Harris. Oh yes, terms like “divisive” “controversial” “fascist” “chauvinist” “polariser” are all propaganda words that fit very much with Harris’ style as it does with most of his Indian counterparts. I recommend you read the full introduction of Harris that I’ve linked so that there is no selective interpretation. What I’ve quoted is actually the nicer part. So on what basis he wrote this crap called “Campaign for Prime Minister in India Gets Off to Violent Start” about NaMo can only be described as mindless propaganda and nothing more. It’s his “first time” I suppose, so we will throw back just a couple of his moroneries back at him.  Harris clearly tries to imply that the nomination of Modi as BJP’s PM candidate sparked off the Muzzafarnagar riots. Sounds a lot like our very own Diggy, doesn’t he? Here’s what he starts with:

“India’s most important election in a generation began in earnest this month the same way consequential elections nearly always start here — with a proclamation and a deadly riot. In New Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party announced last week that it had chosen Narendra Modi, one of the most divisive politicians in India’s history, as its candidate for prime minister in next spring’s national elections. Mr. Modi, the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, is an unapologetic Hindu chauvinist who has been accused of mass murder”.

So the “proclamation” is connected to a deadly riot – the Muzzafarnagar one. Of course, Harris doesn’t forget to state Modi has been “accused of mass murder”. Now who has accused Modi of this? Not a court and not even an FIR. It is scumbags like Harris in the Indian media who have done this; most prominently Vir Sanghvi and Rajdeep Sardesai. Bravo, second-hand crap is passed off as gospel. Here’s another one from Harris:

Okay, in the above para he links to an article about the Muzzafarnagar riots. This is from his own NYT barn. That linked article is “Fear and loathing in North India’s sugarcane town”. Nice! Very nice! Harris also states the riots were due to a “fake video” by a legislator from Modi’s party. See? This guy is a fast learner. Bad things it’s Modi’s Gujarat, Modi’s aide, Modi’s right-hand man. Good things? It’s Gujarat or Gujarat govt. I guess this guy must have attended classes at NDTV and CNN-IBN. Anyway, here’s what the article he linked says:

Oh, the fake video theory has been busted. But trust used-car salesmen to tell you how virgin the car is. So the riots, which actually started in August, escalated on September 7 as the NYT report  says. Modi was nominated PM candidate on Friday the 13 th. Yet, like the usual Indian liars in our own media Harris makes a fake connection. I hope the UPA awards him a Padma Shri before they exit. Then Harris proceeds to write the tripe that has been peddled over and over again in India. He’s just about some 10 years late, that’s all. Oh and then he quotes the great Sushil Kumar Shinde too:

“Sushil Kumar Shinde, India’s minister of Home Affairs, said that there had already been 451 cases of sectarian violence this year, surpassing last year’s total of 410. He warned that violence was likely to intensify as elections approached”.

451 cases of sectarian violence this year? What? Did you hear any of that? Did you see of any of that being reported by NDTV, CNN-IBN, TOI Group, Headlines Today or ABPNews all of whom are clones of NYT and American media? Oops! He reveals something else too. There were 410 last year. Did you hear most of that either? Thanks to Harris, at least he exposes the criminal cover-up artists in Indian media. But the Inconstant Gardiner misses something. None of the 451 or 410 happened in Gujarat or under Modi’s watch. So he will learn slowly those aren’t sectarian violence. The only communal clash ever in India was Gujarat 2002.

Harris also grandly states Modi rarely speaks to Western media. He is wrong. Modi rarely speaks to any media because he knows how they are criminally ranged against him. He is smart and throws words in his speeches and lets them grovel for crumbs. But even here “second-hand” news peddler Harris is inaccurate. Modi gave an interview to Reuters just some weeks ago. Obviously, Harris is not a lover of Puppies or he would have heard of that. No?

But like I said those “South Asia” type specialists are usually assisted by local sidekicks. In this case there is one Hari Kumar from Ahmedabad and Nida Najar from Muzzafarnagar. In a tribute to John Lennon this is what Elton John wrote about the gardener he was:

What happened here

As the New York sunset disappeared

I found an empty garden among the flagstones there

Who lived here

He must have been a gardener that cared a lot

Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop

And now it all looks strange

It's funny how one insect can damage so much grain.

It’s true; one insect can also damage the NYT as they know so well. “Reporter Judith Miller retired after criticisms that her reporting of the lead-up to the Iraq War was factually inaccurate and overly favorable to the Bush administration's position, for which The New York Times later apologized. One of Miller's prime sources was Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi expatriate who returned to Iraq after the U.S. invasion and held a number of governmental positions culminating in acting oil minister and deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006”…. “In May 2003, Times reporter Jayson Blair was forced to resign from the newspaper after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories. Some critics contended that Blair's race was a major factor in his hiring and in The New York Times' initial reluctance to fire him”. The NYT has won a lot of awards and also has the experience of weeds. One hopes they don’t let an insect damage the good crop.