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.

 

Assam & Azad Maidan - How MSM Sibalises Riots

Here’s what Kapil Sibal said last year: “People have been asking why we can't just prosecute individuals who post hate-speech instead of blocking sites but there are three reasons why that's not workable … each time material of this kind becomes the subject of legal proceedings in open court, you will have protests, mobs, perhaps violence — even if the media is responsible, and doesn't report the details.” Someone else lent strong support to Sibal in his attempt to censor the internet with this: “I've had to deal with stone-throwing mobs on the streets because of some moron in the United States.. Each time, people could have got killed. For me, this isn't an airy-fairy ideological issue, it's a real problem.” This is none other than Omar Abdullah, CM of J&K. Relax Mr.CM, there might be morons in the US but it’s the morons at Azad Maidan (AM) that indulged in unprovoked stone throwing and violence on August 11, 2012. So how do we use the AM story? Let’s check with the MSM.

Till August 11 there was hardly any incident where material from the internet could have been blamed for violence on the streets. I guess both Sibal and Abdullah have been quiet since the violence at AM wasn’t communal but unleashed by one group on its own. The violence wasn’t by Sagarika’s “Internet Hindus” or Barkha’s “Bigots”. If that had indeed been the case then Sibal, Abdullah, Sagarika, Barkha, Rajdeep, Ashutosh and more would have come out with all guns blazing. Instead, our news channels didn’t know where to look or who to blame for what happened. And then some even had the gall to blame the social media for provoking people.

This is a tweet by the mother-in-law of MSM sermonisers, Ashutosh of IBN7, he blames some “gangs” on Twitter. If he has seen some gangs making the provocation he doesn’t know who but wants others to identify and prosecute them. One can safely believe that he hasn’t seen any and is indulging in lie-mongering of his own kind else he could have openly named some people or gangs. The man considers himself a ‘journalist’ and makes terribly loose statements frequently on Twitter without any specifics. If Bollywood ever wanted an actor to portray fake outrage at the drop of every 12-rupee coin, Ashutosh would be their man.

Let’s take a look at a tweet by Sonia Singh of NDTV. Again, she too claims people are putting up images that can create ‘tension’ without verification. Once again, she tweets without any specific reference to any image. It would be safe to assume she is referring to the same gang as Ashutosh and we all know who that gang is. Don’t we? My response to her tweet is also in the image. Truth of the matter is that the online folks on websites and twitter posted accurate images of some criminals from AM. Some of these were also reported by news websites like Firstpost. Some images were captured by Atul Kamble of Mid-day who was assaulted by policemen.  Hmm! Not to be left out, Akash Banerjee of Headlines Today jumps into support SoniaSingh. He says ‘self-check’ not possible in social media which is why MSM is needed.

First, nobody has said MSM is not needed and there’s no context. Second, there’s a history of lies and bloopers from MSM which Banerjee’s third rate channel makes him forget. His own super-boss, Aroon Purie, once plagiarised and blamed jet-lag for it. And then as recent as a few days back a major news paper’s website announced Dara Singh dead three days before his actual death. DNA announced Vilasrao Deshmukh dead on August 7, a week before his actual death. As for sensitivity, Banerjee’s channel was the only one to flash tits of the Guwahati molestation victim. And has the MSM already forgotten how they brought hell on Sarabjit Singh's family with the wrong news of his release from Pakistan? So Banerjee and his tribe would do well to look inward before sermonising.

Media crooks frequently utter nonsense on twitter and their channels and when confronted and questioned they play victim and wrongly complain of being abused. Scientists are about to call this phenomenon ‘Barkhadrome’! Truth: None of these unworthies and their channels had the honesty or guts to question the threats issued by Asaduddin Owaisi on Muslim radicalisation. Events of AM followed immediately after his threats in parliament. It’s actually quite a few from Twitter who gave the warning signals which even the Mumbai police seem to have missed.

Here’s a tweet that mentions gruesome pictures being circulated in Mumbai to provoke muslims to attend the protest meet at AM. These were supposedly pics of muslims who were butchered in Burma. I am quite certain the Mumbai police too would have got these fliers if these were circulated to citizens so openly everywhere. Neither Ashustosh nor Sonia Singh had the courage the point this out but then come out like angels sermonising. MrsGandhi’s tweet’s timeline is 1.57 am on August 10 which is more than 24 hours before the AzadMaidan gathering. This is apart from SMSes that were being relayed according to the police themselves. 

That’s not all, the tweet from @Pushpraj4U from the ground mentions groups getting into local trains in Mumbai and shouting slogans. This was confirmed on August 13 in an NDTV program itself by Sonia Singh. How come news channels missed this too? Or were they sleeping on their jobs? 

Incidentally, a fake handle,   @officialskynews tweeted Margaret Thatcher’s death on August 14 but was quickly dismissed as a rumour by other tweeters. That’s how social media works unlike MSM which perpetuates lies unless challenged by social media.  

Now, let’s get to the juicy part where both Ashutosh and Sonia advise to check and recheck before tweeting images or provoking people. Far from tweeting rumours or lies many on twitter have been very careful and were verifying each news item and each report and each image in tweets. Along with others I too tried to verify the images that were received in a leaflet by @MrsGandhi. And what comes up is shocking to say the least. The images in the leaflet were faked to provoke muslims. The images were from earthquakes and other incidents in Thailand or China and had nothing to do with Burma. 

I tweeted information about the site which showed the mischief that many muslim leaders were indulging in to provoke their followers online and on the ground. Farhaz Ahmed, a Pakistani, in his blog PakAlert Press explains systematically how images of deaths were misused to provoke muslims. His post was in the context of Pakistani social media and not India. In India it was Muslim leaders who planned the agitation who used fake pics and that wasn’t through social media. It is just that both Ashutosh and Sonia Singh would have found the same info as I and others did and could have been specific about whom or which group is misusing and abusing social media. They did not! And it’s not very hard to tell why!

There are three interesting images of individuals that are disturbing. Two are of those vandalising the Amar Jawan memorial which was tweeted by many and also carried by online news sites like Firstpost. There’s a third image of a man carrying an automatic gun through the streets at the scene of violence. (See Youtube 0.23) All these three images were buried by all the news channels. Not one of them was outraged at these disturbing images. Now I would like Ashutosh or Sonia to answer if these pics were mischievous and faked by Twitter.

Were these images not available to them? They should have flashed these images or at least the faces of these criminals so that police or citizens could identify them. Nothing! As for Akash Banerjee, it would have been better for Headlines Today to have shown the faces of these thugs instead of cleavage of molestation victims. All the violence, including two people killed, was in support of victims from fake pics that were used by the leaders of the protest at AM. No channel reported the truth. Not Sonia’s NDTV, not Ashutosh’s IBN7 and not Banerjee’s Headlines Today. So my modest suggestion to these media celebs is to look inward and not sermonise social media.

So what’s with the rant against the Twitterati and social media by these media celebs? Now that’s where Kapil Sibal comes in. First he has made no secret his wish to censor the internet and had faced flak from every corner. What’s his reasoning? It’s that there was potential of the internet, social media sites to incite violence. Even communal violence! AM could have been handy but unfortunately from the wrong party. So media hacks like Ashustosh and Sonia are doing a great job for Sibal. Keep accusing Tweeters of posting fake pics, unverified pics and messages, of provoking Hindus and Muslims without any specifics and there you go; the perfect recipe for Sibal to act upon. None of these news channels have shown any courage or nerve to report Assam or AM accurately and honestly. 

At the time of writing there are rumours of Assamese and NE citizens being threatened and that there’s an exodus of thousands from Hyderabad (A.Owaisi’s constituency) and Bangalore. There were special trains organised for them to leave at Bangalore (From late on August 15th to early hours on August 16). Not one of the many 24X7 news channels had any report on the facts on the ground. Instead, celebs like Barkha were tweeting silly nonsense, unreliable information with no real source and even colouring events with clever communal tweets. Truth is, Barkha, Sonia, Ashutosh and others in MSM do have an agenda unlike most on twitter. Real threat is that all of this may not end with Assam alone. Not one word from MSM on these threats. If not for social media they may have even totally blacked-out and buried all of these incidents including Assam and AM. Fact: unable to face the onslaught of fast dissemination of information on the social media these media celebs cook up allegations against it. Sorry, won’t sell anymore, no matter how much they Sibalise riots and violence.