The Hurt Mafia

Some years back Rajdeep Sardesai used to have a show or a segment on his TV debates called Crossfire. He probably borrowed the idea from CNN-IBN’s American sister CNN. Back in 2004, during the US election campaign, American comic and satirist Jon Stewart was on CNN’s Crossfire. He delivered a severe battering to the two hosts for their sham debates and deceptions (One of them, Carlson Tucker, was even ridiculed for his silly bow-tie, which LOC Ambassador Karan Thapar now copies). Stewart described where these guys went to after presidential and other debates. Here’s a hilarious exchange:

STEWART: But let me ask you guys, again, a question, because we talked a little bit about, you're actually doing honest debate and all that. But, after the debates, where do you guys head to right afterwards?

CARLSON: The men's room.

STEWART: Right after that?

BEGALA: Home.

STEWART: Spin alley.

BEGALA: Home.

STEWART: No, spin alley.

BEGALA: What are you talking about? You mean at these debates?

STEWART: Yes. You go to spin alley, the place called spin alley. Now, don't you think that, for people watching at home, that's kind of a drag, that you're literally walking to a place called deception lane?

After the thrashing that the hosts got, CNN pulled the show. It was brought in again some months later in 2005 in a totally different format. Fortunately, for our media crooks they carry on their sham despite many a slap.

That’s right! After a political rally or exchange our Editorialists gather in the “spin alley” and decide how to spin the statements by politicians or other public figures. Even after debates or interviews (Like RahulG with Arnab) along with politicians their media slaves also run to “spin alley” to spin both positive and negative bloopers. People are now smart enough to recognise these deceptive liars for what they are. I call them ‘India’s biggest mafia’. Every crime – rape, murder, financial frauds, cheque-book journalism – you will find it in our media. But on February 24, 2014 our mafia was hurt; very hurt. Seems Gen VKSingh called them “Presstitutes” and Home Minister Sushil Shinde threatened to “crush the electronic media”. The Union of Snakes, aka Editors’ Guild, also condemned VKS for using the term Presstitutes.

First, let’s deal with Shinde’s stupid statement. He said he will crush electronic media if there is any propaganda against the Congress. We are used to this man making stupid statements. When cornered he made it worse by saying he didn’t mean TV or journalists but social media. So he wants to crush social media for propaganda against Congress. That should have pacified our media crooks to some extent. Of course, his party also wanted to ban opinion polls. I wrote a long time ago ‘why the MSM would like see social media dead’ and folks on the SM had a good laugh as the real journalists at the Unreal Times showed us:

That done, let’s now deal with the Presstitutes. Johny-returned-lately, Akash Banerjee (ex-Timesnow, ex-HeadlinesToday, ex-Hibernation) started kicking and screaming at VKS on the phone over the Presstitutes remark demanding an apology on the evening of February 24. It wasn’t as if he felt insulted, it sounded as if he was raped or molested. After a few minutes of rage his own colleagues must have told him to calm down. 

One can understand Arnab inspires everyone in his channel to behave like him. Take a look at the daily morning show of Timesnow. Each morning there are 2, 3 or 4 ladies who line up to deliver the morning entertainment. I call them “Arnie’s Angels”. Each one of them is trained like a parrot and maybe helped with a teleprompter to prefix the term “poster boy” each time Narendra Modi is mentioned. It’s not just these angels but other ladies on Timesnow, like Navika Kumar, Arnab, Rhythm and Rhyme, also use this term to describe Modi. So I wonder why these folks get so agitated over the term Presstitutes. At other times we have heard terms like mass-murderer, hero of hatred and so on being used recklessly by all the editorialists. 

They also call communal riots “genocide” and “pogrom” knowing well they are lying. But these scumbags and scumbaginis expect they should be treated honourably, respected for all their nonsense and be spared the agony of insults that they heap on others.

Arnab doesn’t have a good memory unless it is fed by pieces of paper from his assistants. He forgot how he witch-hunted Nitin Gadkari over 19 episodes based on flimsy accusations by an AAP member. He forgot how he and the entire media witch-hunted N. Sreenivasan of BCCI over the IPL betting issue for three weeks and blacked out all other issues. Sure, you cover these allegations and scams but don’t claim to be ignorant of deliberate and well-planned witch-hunts. The TOI group carried some 107 odd negative articles on the CWG. Are we to believe these guys were really interested in the truth or justice? Was the TOI reporting without motives? Surely not! The excessive coverage was because TOI didn’t get the contracts that went to the Unholy Trinity of HT-NDTV-CNN-IBN through practices that weren’t entirely fair. What do you call this? Journalism or Presstitution? I bet if Times group had got the media contracts you may never have seen the 107 negative headlines. That’s the work of Presstitutes. We know how the media has reacted against Shinde and VKS; let’s sample what the people have to say on SM:

During the discussions on the adventures of Tarun Tejpal on TimesNow, Arnab himself admitted the media had wronged by not taking up and following up on the Radiagate episode. How conveniently the Presstitutes blacked out and buried the story is a major crime. Most of these Presstitutes were also aware of Tejpal’s misdeeds. It is undeniable that these Hammamis do not report on corruption in their own ranks and therefore earn the contempt of people and names that describe them pretty well. Before the 2013 state elections in November-December quite a few channels were openly campaigning for the AAP party. Even if the Presstitutes deny it they can’t deny the overwhelming evidence that points to this malicious conduct of fake debates and discussions. The ultimate proof of the political pimping came in the form of Ashutosh who was sacked from IBN7 and had to join his masters in AAP. Pics of him being bedmates with the AAP party also came into public domain. There are other scumbags like Punyaprasoon Bajpai and Anjana Om Kashyap of AajTak not being very different. The political pimping wasn’t different with Rajdeep, Barkha or Sagarika who have been long-time political doormats. One of the most read articles on this site still happens to be “The AAPSucker Proxies”. Here’s another image that is popular with people and I don’t think anyone is under any illusion (and it comes from an MSM cartoonist, not SM):

Recently, Deepak Chaurasia of India News (formerly with every Hindi channel on earth) was voted India’s Worst Journalist – 2014. He was indeed a surprise winner and the reason being he is alleged to have doctored a video of child-abuse using children and persons who were unaware of the scam. There also appears to be an FIR against him. Heard any news channel reporting on such pathetic activities in the media mafia? There are other journos who wantonly abuse politicians and people in general. And that is the reason the MSM is facing flak from every quarter. This is apart from financial frauds, tax frauds and sexual transgressions at work places. There is a history of how the MSM has obliged and colluded to cover up many crimes of the govt. Why be offended with the title of Presstitutes? I wrote in “Rajdeep On Deception Lane” that very long ago someone from the media gave the most stinging description of journalists and their character. Here is John Swinton of NYT from 1880:

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes”.

Between VKS and Swinton there isn’t much difference in the description of the crooks. Till a while ago the PCI chairman, Markandeya Katju, himself was behaving like a political tool. He was not only running a political campaign but also ridiculing Indians at large. His nonsense had to be ended by a stinging post from Arun Jaitley in which AJ delivered a severe slap: “Retired judges must remember that the rental for occupying a Lutyen's bunglow post retirement has to be political neutrality not political participation”. There are many media Presstitutes occupying Lutyen’s bungalows and govt flats and as long as they do so they will remain political doormats. The media mafia really has no business to feel hurt. They should cleanse their Hammam instead.