Stenographers & Stray Dogs

Whenever a political turn or event happens who do our reporters run to most? You guessed it – Digvijaya Singh. And what does he offer them? Nothing but filthy utterances against others and mindless statements that aren’t even fact-checked. His own party is on record stating that his statements are not “authorised”. Yet, DS with no political position or responsibility and clearly over-the-hill, is the Guru for most TV editors. The reporters seek his comments like Stenographers and faithfully relay it. By evening, on many occasions, based on his silly utterances, you will find DS doing a full-fledged interview with Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai or Rahul Kanwal. It’s a well-planned and organised routine. Did I just say ‘stenographers’? My apologies, someone else has a different take about stenographers. We will get to that.

Let’s call this paragraph Chapter- C for reference: Can you figure out who this guy is? “He was overjoyed… He did his mandatory piece to the camera and rushed to office. Once his script was done, he waited for a call from his Editor. No call came. For hours, video editors sat with the material. He was not allowed inside the editing bay. "I sat in a corner of the office like an outcast though I was the key person in the investigation," he recalls. And then, all hell broke loose. All he could hear was two words as an explanation for the volte-face: ‘inconclusive evidence’. The editor, who had not talked to him so far, asked if he needed police protection. For what, he asked? "I felt like a stray dog," he says and then resigned from the channel and took a bus home”. Sounds like an errand boy, doesn’t he? But he’s a reporter. His channel made him feel like a stray dog as he says. The man could well hold the key to one of the most infamous episodes in India’s political and media history but his story was shut out because his channel and his boss wanted to suppress the story.

Meet Amber Lyon, she has a similar story. She’s not a journalist covering India and the story may not have a direct relevance but her channel, CNN, does have a stake in India. Let me just quote the story (edited excerpts) from LibertyBlitzkrieg:

The Amber Lyon story is just the latest in a series of articles that expose the total Joseph Goebbels like censorship rampant in mainstream media today… This is precisely why alternative media sites are taking off.  They provide the only outlets left for genuine journalism… Back in March 2011, CNN sent a four person team to Bahrain to cover the Arab Spring.  Once there, the crew was the subject of extreme intimidation amongst other things, but they were able to record some fantastic footage.  As Glenn Greenwald of the UK’s Guardian writes in his blockbuster:

In the segment, Lyon interviewed activists as they explicitly described their torture at the hands of government forces, while family members recounted their relatives’ abrupt disappearances…She spoke with government officials justifying the imprisonment of activists. And the segment featured harrowing video footage of regime forces shooting unarmed demonstrators, along with the mass arrests of peaceful protesters.… Despite these accolades, and despite the dangers their own journalists and their sources endured to produce it, CNN International (CNNi) never broadcast the documentary. Even in the face of numerous inquiries and complaints from their own employees inside CNN, it continued to refuse to broadcast the program or even provide any explanation for the decision. To date, this documentary has never aired on CNNi…. In March 2012, Lyon was laid off from CNN as part of an unrelated move by the network to outsource its investigative documentaries. “At this point,” Lyon said, “I look at those payments as dirty money to stay silent. I got into journalism to expose, not help conceal, wrongdoing, and I’m not willing to keep quiet about this any longer, even if it means I’ll lose those payments.”

The ‘dirty money’ Lyon is referring to is the ‘severance package’ she got from CNN for getting rid of her. And just like the reporter in Chapter-C she too must have felt like a stray dog. Naturally, most editors have turned their ground reporters into stenographers who take a dictation and transmit the sound-bites. Reporting that is fine but there is no follow up from the studio staff or anchors to “verify the correctness and accuracy” of those sound-bites. Anything that is sympathetic to the ruling party passes without any challenge. But hey, that’s an insult to even stenographers as Glenn Greenwald brilliantly explains in his article "Inept Stenographers":

Journalists' excuses for their bad behavior -- it's necessary to get quotes -- are both fictitious and irrelevant…. A common criticism of establishment journalists entails comparing them to stenographers, on the ground that most of them do little more than mindlessly write down and uncritically repeat what government officials say. But stenography is a noble and important profession: they’re the court-licensed officers who, with astonishing speed and accuracy, transcribe the statements of all witnesses, lawyers and judges in judicial proceedings. If establishment journalists were to replicate actual stenography, it would be an improvement on most of the work they produce….  “And that explains why establishment journalists provide this service to these political officials: because they serve them as spokespeople, not report on them adversarially”.

Think of the journalists who are embedded with a political party. You can easily identify them on TV. They even interpret body language of ministers or even Sonia Gandhi for you. You can also easily replace any party spokesperson with these journalists. They have become the spokespeople. I agree with Greenwald, Stenographers are far nobler. Crony media bosses treat some of their own as stray dogs as the reporter in Chapter-C feels. Then there are stray dogs elsewhere too. You will suddenly find them spinning strange theories. Sometimes it will be in support of the ‘cronies’ who can’t tolerate any criticism. Sometimes they will suddenly unleash a campaign for Priyanka Vadra as PM candidate. Oh do remember, at times like these they will refer to her as ‘Priyanka Gandhi’ for effects.  NYTimes itself admitted that MSM news is nothing but censored propaganda. If that can happen in a true ‘free speech’ society, imagine what it would be in India.

Gallup, the respected research company, published a poll on reliability of TV and newspapers in July 2012. They carried out a survey to find out confidence of Americans in the media. Not surprisingly, the confidence in TV news has fallen from 46% in the early 1990s to a low of 21% in 2012. Newspapers didn’t fare any better. From a peak of 51% around 1978 the confidence has fallen to 25% in 2012. This kind of decline would be true for India too except that there is no one measuring it. There is no one acting as watchdog over our MSM either. This gives them the license to run their propaganda and lies unhindered. Now that’s where opportunity lies for people to open up alternatives. Nope, not for more news but for the Truth.

So what about the guy in Chapter-C? One has to wonder how much he was Censored. That "feel like a stray dog” is Sidhartha Gautam of CNN-IBN who quit immediately after the Cash4Votes sting that he was ordered to conduct. That Editor is none other than Rajdeep Sardesai. Why did Gautam quit? Was there a severance package like with Amber Lyon of CNN, IBN’s partner? Gautam, according to his new employers, gave a “rehearsed” testimony to the parliamentary committee on C4V. (IndiaToday August 5, 2011). The 2nd para that I called Chapter-C is also about Gautam from an India Today article of April 6, 2011. Stenographers are noble. Treating ground level reporters as stray dogs is the tactic for some editors to run their well-oiled propaganda machinery. With the ruling party in trouble again, another C4V is not too farfetched.

Rahul Gandhi's Truth-O-Meter

Politifact is US based web-magazine that fact-checks the utterances of key politicians and public figures. It also has a ‘Truth-O-Meter’ that measures the truthfulness or falsehood of the statements made by such public figures. If you haven’t given it a look earlier I encourage you to do so. The Truth-O-Meter is a registered trademark but this once I will use their meter for my favourite politician – Rahul Gandhi. It is safe to say Rahul Gandhi came into his own at Bhatta-Parsaul with his ‘mounds of ashes and dead bodies’. Since then he has been going from strength to strength; with his game-changer (as he himself humbly called it) speech in August in the parliament and since November 14 has been on a roll. Some image-specialist must have advised RG to turn his voice into a growl and behave like the angry young man. And the Indian media loves that. The slavish media also reports and telecasts his every speech and utterance but doesn’t find the time to fact-check all that RG says. So let’s look at a few of the prince’s profound statements as well as by the media.

Indian Express (Dec 17) “Four days into his mass contact programme, Rahul Gandhi’s speeches may be becoming repetitive, but his public meetings are drawing huge crowds in this Mulayam Singh Yadav stronghold.” Hmm! Considering that the live telecasts hardly showed these ‘huge’ crowds this is hard to believe and in the absence of any image as evidence has to go down as not exactly accurate.

Indian Express (Dec 17) RG Quote: “How many of you go to Mumbai and Delhi to work? Do you find development there? How many of you have mobile phones? Do you know who brought mobile technology to India?” People go to work to a lot of places but what is this about mobile phones? RG asks the question but leaves the answer to the imagination of his audience. Well, the mobile phone technology first came into India around 1995 during Narasimha Rao’s govt. Of course, crediting Rao for anything is a Congress crime. Still, mobiles got fully introduced only in 1996 during the subsequent govt of Deve Gowda.

Computers: RG: “In 1980 Rajiv Gandhi talked about computers and people are benefited today. Until and unless leaders think long-term UP cannot progress..” This one has to be an extra-ordinary nonsense that passed without a question. Congress returned to power in 1980 after the Janata Party and Rajiv Gandhi wasn’t even very active at that time. He became active only after the death of Sanjay Gandhi in June 1980. Also, computers as we know it became popular only after IBM introduced the PC in August 1981 although personal home computers existed since mid-70s.

Expressbuzz: On the fourth day of his five-day mass contact programme here, Rahul said "farmers are facing problems as 60 per cent of vegetables go waste.. we brought FDI in retail so that they could sell their produce directly". 60% ? It is true that vegetable-produce goes to waste for many reason but there is no authentic document to prove the 60% claim. There are some reports that quote 30-40% wastage but this 60% waste claim is clearly a figment of imagination. But I doubt any villager is going to ask RG!

"A packet of chips is made from just half a potato," he added, virtually turning the opposition to FDI into a conspiracy against farmers." Hahaha! Obviously, Rahul Gandhi has never been in the kitchen trying to make chips. Oh and potatoes come in different sizes so even if one takes the average Indian potato this is simply a ‘chip from the old block’ of Congress jokes.

Rahul dubbed the anti-FDI position of Congess's rivals - ranging from SP, BSP to BJP - as a betrayal of farmers, while pitching FDI in retail as a panacea to farmers of this region, known as the 'potato belt' of UP. Well, if the FDI in retail policy had to be shelved for the present it is more because of Congress’ allies and not because of the opposition but one can pass this off as election rhetoric.

Potatoes: And finally, RG says the market price of potatoes is Rs.2/- per kilogram but a packet of chips sells at Rs.10/- His inference is that FDI in retail would have got the farmers a much better deal. Well, he doesn’t tell us the weight of the potato chip packet but never mind. What the brilliant RG misses is that there is already 100% FDI in the potato chips business. Pepsi, being the largest seller is something that the villagers or the media is not going to question RG about.

So there you go, if the media were to carefully analyse the utterances of Rahul Gandhi, as also other politicians, they will realise much of these are mere nonsensical statements with no real substance in them. The “elephant in Lucknow eats your money” maybe somewhat true and entertaining but that’s just about it. And that elephant in comparison is much smaller than the dinosaur at the centre.

Note: The ‘Truth-O-Meter’ from Politifact is used only for demonstrative and educational purposes.

Sponsored Fear

By now there is hardly any politician or editor who has not written or spoken about FDI in retail. There is nothing much anyone can really add and I am no economics expert and don’t have a stand on it. I simply believe that retail FDI is neither good nor bad and will not make a significant difference. But it sure might help the real estate business which is in the doldrums for a while. “In my local market, shopkeepers say that even the smallest shops are worth a crore” So writes economist Swaminathan Aiyar in TOI. He must be kidding or out of touch with reality. If you go to a kirana store in the suburbs of Mumbai any shopkeeper will tell you that the ‘tile’ on which you’re standing is worth a crore. So Aiyar calls it a battle between the ‘Aam bania’ and the ‘Aam Aadmi’.

Aiyar adds: “Dominated by banias, small shopkeepers are notorious for cheating customers through adulteration and fiddled weighing scales. They are also notorious for evading sales tax and income tax. That's why the bania is widely despised (although it is wrong to tarnish all with the same brush)”. Really? If this man is an economist then I count myself as a rocket scientist. The biggest crimes against state and aam aadmi haven’t exactly come from small traders but from the biggest corporations. The biggest frauds haven’t come from banias and corner-shops and I need not go into a list of such looters. To the credit of the wiseguys in the Congress they have managed to make almost everyone get into the debate of FDI. Let’s take an example – the one of Big Bazaar (BB). Any supplier dealing with BB would tell you that they have to accept an extraordinary terms of credit, sometimes even up to six months and still remain unpaid. And when BB does badly the first ones to disappear are the poor check-out clerks and bagging attendants. So much for the huge employment that large retailers will generate. Another one, Subhiksha, after grand pronouncements quickly disappeared. These debates in the media were not all spontaneous. Some of them appear to be ‘sponsored’ (as they usually are), especially on TV channels.

When faced with a bad season in parliament on 2G scam, inflation, black money, terrorism, Lokpal bill, it was important for the ruling Congress to come up with bold action. So just around the third day of the winter session of parliament they drop the FDI bomb. This was neither an economic event nor a political event. It’s called “Wag the dog” and a media event. The law of distraction by phenomenon. It’s a strategy by which the public can be distracted, for a good length of time, from important issues, by one which occupies more news time. This strategy works usually when you suddenly have a war which puts everything on the backburner. But in absence of war a media-event will help. This is precisely what Retail FDI was – a media event forced by the ruling party. And what better trick than to instil a good deal of FEAR among citizens about some monster called FDI. It’s always a great strategy. So you had the NDTVs, the CNN-IBNs, TimesNows and all the major and minor newspapers out on the topic.

Sometimes help comes from unknown quarters. The Mullaperiyar dam came into focus with its own fears and politics. Politicians and people of Kerala drummed up the fear of the dam cracking up. They might have had some genuine concerns and in response politicians and people from TN rubbished the claims of the dam being a threat. Any PM would have intervened to quickly reassure both parties of action and fairness.  Should MMS have intervened and brought about a truce between the two states? Are you serious? This was a God-send that should be welcomed at a time when fear is the key. And on cue our media goes into another frenzy. FDI and Mullaperiyar, that’s a combination that is tailor-made for the orgy that happens nightly on TV. I cannot but be reminded of these famous lines from Martin Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver’: “All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the street…” That much pretty much describes the banal nonsense on night time TV.

Fear helps. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma probably never had so much exclusive time on TV as he did on the FDI issue. Articulate as he is, Sharma did something the Congress would have considered a crime in any other situation – he even cited Narendra Modi being in favour of FDI. And guess what.. NDTV played up that interview over and over again, more often than they normally do, to push the FDI agenda. Clips from that interview where Sharma mentioned Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh being in support of FDI were played out a zillion times. Manmohan Singh, in between, found time to suddenly visit Imphal and inaugurate a new Assembly building. The success of fear-mongering finally culminated in an all-India bandh by over 50 million traders on December 1. Mission accomplished for the Congress!

Is that all? No, not yet. From the time parliament session commenced in November the clown prince, Rahul Gandhi, had only one thing on his mind – change Uttar Pradesh in 10 years. He did not attend parliament even for a single day and was wisely busy with the UP campaign and the youth congress rally. What’s his game? More fear of the Mayawati govt, of more UPites turning into beggars if Congress wasn’t brought back to power in the state and how the Elephant in Lucknow was eating up all the money meant for the aam aadmi. In hind sight Rahul Gandhi’s campaign was the only comic relief in this season of fear. Does RG have any views on FDI in retail? You will know in 10 years! Not enough!

Manmohan Singh mentioned it is “difficult to roll-back FDI”. I had jokingly tweeted asking why and if the kickbacks were taken in advance. Well, here’s the answer: It is reported that Walmart spent over 60 crores in lobbying for retail FDI in India. Where exactly does lobbying money go in India? Ummm, maybe some PR firms like the one Nira Radia operated? Maybe a small percentage but a good chunk has to go elsewhere where real decisions happen. So with parliament being stalled with all this FDI thing and other issues our media comes up with another gem. Both NDTV and CNN-IBN start a campaign, “No work, no pay” for MPs.

“No work, no pay” for MPs if parliament doesn’t work. It must take an extra-ordinary helping of stupidity for the morons in the media to further mislead and deflect the discussion on issues to such silly campaigns. If the Kirana banias are so anti-consumer as Swaminathan Aiyar suggests there is no real reason to believe that foreign businessmen coming into India are going to be exceptionally friendly. They aren’t going to be here for charity either. Such perverted arguments fuel the fears that a failing govt thrives on. Aiyar believes every shopkeeper is worth a crore, so much are our MPs worth? You’ll need a flashlight even on a sunny day to find an MP who isn’t worth crores and yet our stupid media peddles the “no work, no pay” argument. Nothing but mindless populist dialogue that you will find in a cheap Bollywood movie. The govt creates the fear and the media plays the sponsor.

But even organised and sponsored fear has to take a breather. The death of Bollywood legend Dev Anand shocked everyone and news channels covered it with flashbacks and obits. For once, even if it was repetitive,  it was nice to hear just good old Dev Anand songs through the day on Sunday, December 4. The nation, including political leaders, came together to pay homage to this great artist. But make no mistake, fear will be back. Corrupt governments throughout history have used fear to survive. In 21 century India they have a sponsor – our news media. Sponsored fear will be back.