Editors' Access Baggage

So the mafia is angry. The mafia is frustrated. It is all starting to show. They want the PMO to be friendlier to the “Editors” mafia and open up communication lines with them. On any other bright day I would have said it’s a fair demand but not when it comes to our media mafia. It is not a big secret that we have some of the most corrupt and incompetent editors in the history of our media, especially TV. Ever since Narendra Modi formed the new govt he has kept this crooked bunch of thugs at a safe distance and rightly so. Just as he has shut down the privilege pipelines of many Babus he has also shut down some “privileges” of many media crooks. Let’s read what the demand of the Editors Guild of India is (Report):

“A statement issued by the Guild said that a "top-down, one-way interaction in a country with limited internet connectivity and technological awareness cannot be the only answer for large masses of readers, viewers, surfers and listeners. Debate, dialogue and discussion are the essential ingredients of a democratic discourse… By delaying the establishment of a media inter-face in the Prime Minister's Office, in restricting access to ministers and bureaucrats in offices and in reducing the flow of information at home and abroad, the government in its early days seems to be on a path that runs counter to the norms of democratic discourse and accountability," it said.

Hmm! So our crooked editorialists who crawled all these years as slaves of a dynasty suddenly talk about democratic discourse and accountability. Let us ask these people what accountability they have. You know, if there are riots in Saharanpur or Moradabad they scream Modi is responsible, Modi should act when it’s the State govt that is in charge of law and order. Take the case of Barkha Dutt, the alleged group editor of NDTV, and their recent nonsense (I prefer to stick to the recent instead of going into the history of NDTV crimes):

Now, NDTV has regularly and consistently trashed Modi and BJP with fake news and twisted news items. Whenever people point this out to Barkha she grandly claims she is not in charge of their website or Twitter account. So what exactly is an editor responsible for? In a newspaper, the editor is responsible even for the content of advertisements that appear in the paper. That’s the law. But Modi is responsible for Saharanpur or Pune but SoniaG or MMS were never responsible for even rapes in Delhi. This political pimping by “Sickular” editors has not gone unnoticed by people. Under the Sonia-MMS decay, all these editors had been “Durbaris” who enjoyed all the luxuries in the world while accusing everyone else of abusing their official positions. How did MMS operate with the media? Here’s a shameful Durbar he conducted with only FIVE editors of select newspapers in June 2011 (mostly made up of Congress cronies like Kumar Ketkar):

Does that look like a formal or regular press meeting or a private “Durbar”? I remember that because I called it PM's Press Meet - 'Friendly Fire' and here is what I wrote back then:

“I believe it’s very unfair to call it a ‘press meet’. It looked like a luncheon meet of the ‘mob’ for a friendly discussion on the state of affairs of their turf. It’s strange you would think. A Prime Minister holds a press meet with five select editors from the print media and then needs to be defended by his own spokespersons. That is precisely what Manish Tiwari and Ambika Soni were doing on  June 29.

Some of the firm assertions of Manmohan Singh at this meet were “I am not a lame duck PM” and the media is an “accuser, prosecutor and judge”. I agree with the media part though. That is their general approach to all issues. Other than that, the PM generally blamed the opposition for the lame duck tag. These statements were made when most of the ‘chosen’ editors were ones who are known to be friendly to the Congress.”

Is this the same nonsense that the Editors Guild is demanding now? Don’t forget, the same MMS held a previous meeting with only TV editors (in February 2011) as if they are some privileged class of royal durbaris. I am sure many will remember Harish Khare snubbing Arnab Goswami in that private meet telling him it is not an “inquisition” of the PM”. Barkha, who didn’t honour the PM with her presence then, later lamented that none of the editors talked about Pakistan. iRudali! It should also be remembered that on both the occasions MMS called editors only under the heavy burden of scams which he had to whitewash and not as a “routine” interaction. Unfortunately for the editor-mafia, Modi does not have any scams so far that he has to wash or defend. And Modi is absolutely right in keeping this mafia at a good distance. They are known to have twisted every word he has uttered in the past. Therefore, it is proper for the PM to speak directly speak to the people or communicate through social media. Some of these editors have also wanted the same social media dead or regulated.

The editors are demanding that the new PM and the PMO restore the old “coterie” through which Barkha ate “Golgappas” at PM’s parties and relay to us when SoniaG was happy or unhappy as advised by Ahmed Patel or through which juniors like Pallavi Ghosh reported planted gossip from the PMO or Congress office. Of course, all this is in the interest of “Democracy” as they dramatically claim. Access Journalism is a curse on journalism itself. Access Journalism, which is what our editor-mafia is seeking shuts out genuine reporters and their work and replaces it with bogus soundbites and “breast-fed” reports. How criminal are these Access Journalism specialists? Let me replay an old video from 2009 of Jon Stewart and it should  shock you how the “Access” journos lie to you, don’t care to ask real questions and suck up to criminals (Video edited to relevant portions – 6-17 mins):

There is nothing that I need to add to the video. All these “Access” editors do the same thing. They chummy-up and don’t bother verifying any reports or any information but base their entire reporting on political-swing and gossip. Every single day they troll Narendra Modi with something or the other; with fake news and deadly headlines. Take a look at these:

NDTV (Hindi) apologised for their nonsense in the first pic. This is a routine with NDTV and other channels as they play mischief with headlines concerning Modi (or BJP). I call it deliberate mischief  because I have never seen such a mistake happening with SoniaG, RahulG or Congress. The motivation is obvious for the Hate-Modi brigade. And these same editors now beg for a durbar? What about the second pic above on dates of Modi’s US/UN visit? Why in the world would morons at CNN-IBN tweet about a forthcoming speech on September 17 on September 25? Do they have any logical explanation? None! What about the other three rogues – ABP News, NDTV (again) and TimesNow? All of them uniformly concocted the date of October 27 and then some engagements on October 28 and 29. How? I tweeted MEA India to seek a clarification and Syed Akbaruddin tweeted back stating the dates given were very clear:

With all the nonsense that these editors can spin on their own why do they want “Access” to PM or PMO? They anyway write all the crap in the world about the PM without any relevance or truth. They have been doing so for over 12 years now. Lies, filth and absolute trash is what they peddled and they are still doing so with many G-37 morons as accessories. There can be a new beginning only if they acknowledge and do penance for their crimes (Like Tarun Tejpal decided he would do). I have a small, modest suggestion. These editors can start by writing Modi a small letter of penance:

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I forgot the infamous “Puppy” episode with which these same editors spread a mountain of lies implying Modi wanted Muslims dead. Well, I have saved that in case I have to write a sequel. Before I leave, I would like you to take a look at the newly constituted Working Committee of the Editors Guild:

“According to Ajay Upadhyay, General Secretary, Editors Guild of India, the 15-member Working Committee includes Sachidanand Murthy, Raj Chengappa, Shravan Garg, Barkha Dutt, Coomi Kapoor, Shekhar Gupta, Jaydeep Bose, Sanjay Narayan, MK Razdan, Vijay Naik, Seema Chishti, Sheela Bhatt, and Kumar Ketkar, among others”.

Some of these members belong in a rogues-gallery and not in any working committee of editors. They don’t deserve “Access” but the “Axe”.

PS: You can now buy the book "Social media as watchdog" with Credit/Debit cards.. Please click on the image link of the book on the right margin of this page to follow the process..

MSM Prepares For War On Hindutva

The Supreme Court called ‘Hindutva’ simply a way of life. A way of life that has absorbed many in a spirit of live and let live. But as in the past the next few months you can expect our MSM to demonise Hindutva as evil. You will hear stuff like “Hindutva will destroy India”. You will hear “Hindutva is not secular”.

When the Congress party held a ceremony to upgrade Rahul Gandhi to Vice President in January 2013 they had also ferried 300 media slaves to Jaipur. They were put up in hotels, wined and dined at the party’s expense and they delivered the results. They cried when RahulG spoke. I just call it the “Badminton speech”. None of the cronies in the well-fed MSM even asked why RahulG was elevated or what practical difference his elevation makes considering that he was No.2 with or without any titles. That is the smaller part though. The slaves naturally didn’t even touch upon a more important question. What exactly had RahulG accomplished in 9 years of his political career that was worthy of an elevation? His political resume so far has zero accomplishments, poor parliamentary attendance and a long list of moronic utterances. In contrast when the BJP appointed some new national management team the entire MSM broke out in ‘Swine flu’.

People often ask me why I watch this or that channel, especially NDTV. The best answer to that question is what a prominent political observer told me: “If I want to get some idea of the Congress thinking and hints on their strategy or tactics then watching NDTV is a good exercise”. No one has the credit of evolving RahulG as much as NDTV. So what happened after the BJP announced their new National Executive or new management, whichever you want to call it? Take a look at the image from NDTV’s debate by Barkha Dutt on March 31. The usual people from BJP and there’s Shahid Siddiqui, Swapan Dasgupta and, of course, Kumar Ketkar. The title of the programme is the screen of the agenda-direction of the Congress: “Team BJP = Team Modi”. Siddiqui is nobody’s baby anymore after his interview of Modi sometime back. SwapanD said Modi is “Primus Inter Pares” and concluded his usual simple point. I think even Ketkar understood that bit. That brings us to the two Congress panellists; Barkha Dutt and Kumar Ketkar. And both of them earnestly dropped hints on the Congress tactic for coming months. Naturally, who else!

First, let’s deal with the evolver BD. Among many appointments, she mostly talked about Varun Gandhi, appointed general secretary and then had a discussion with Uma Bharati who has been appointed VP. These two aren’t the only ones, there are a dozen more secretaries and vice presidents but why attention on these two? Hindutva! BD suggests that because one of the VP of the party is Uma Bharati the BJP had returned to the Hindutva agenda. That is the line the Congress is going to take. Never mind that the party has never claimed to have strayed from Hindutva. Next BD also implies that because Uma Bharati has been inducted there may be a signal to the return of what she calls “Mandir politics”. In the next few weeks you are going to hear Ayodhya and Mandir politics quite frequently from the MSM. Get ready!

The rest of the decisions didn’t matter much to BD. That’s it for her and for other news channels too. So that leaves us with the great editor and political analyst: Kumar Ketkar. Let me quote some gems from him first (not verbatim quotes, his statements are in blue):

The BJP has been bulldozed into inducting Modi into the parliamentary board.

Hmm! Let’s translate the same statement for the Congress. KK would have said: “RahulG has been elevated to VP position due to an overwhelming demand from cabinet ministers and party workers”. It is no secret that Modi energises the cadres and other leaders but also masses who see him as a PM candidate. One could smell burnt steak in the NDTV studio.

The BJP does not look like a national party that it claims to be as there is no representation from the East, South or NE in the new management.

I’m not sure KK was analysing a political development or a cultural programme on “Folk dances of India”. Prakash Javdekar reeled off names from various parts of India to reject KK’s argument but that was not really necessary. You know, we should forgive KK, after all he’s an “editor”. For the record, Mayawati’s BSP which is largely a single-state party is recognised as a “National party” by the Election Commission. This is small trivia and should help inconvenient nonsense for the likes of KK.

India has a centrist party in Congress, there are Communist parties and there is space for a Rightwing “Secular” party.

Congress is a Centrist party? Any sincere political analyst will tell you that the Congress is nothing more than another Communist party extension. We’ll have to forgive KK again. He’s an “editor”. Nobody reminded him who inserted the word “socialist” into our Constitution. Now the clincher here is: “Rightwing Secular” party. That is rehashing the Congress tactic that BJP is not secular. In other words the media is on a red alert to start screaming Modi is not secular, is anti-minority and BJP is “communal” again because of the media’s imaginary Hindutva.

Can the BJP call itself a modern Rightwing party? Even Centrist Congress has Rightwing of its own.

I suppose there is no way that the BJP which was formed 125 years ago under evil Hindus can anyway be a modern party in any sense. Can it? Of course, the Congress and Commies who came into existence after RahulG’s birth in 1970 are truly the modern parties for KK. The Congress which honestly elects its president and office bearers by nominations and a democratic vote is a modern party for KK. The Congress which has a president for life is obviously the “modern party” for KK. Yeah… we get it!

It is nice deception by people like KK, BD, NDTV and all other slaves in the MSM to even ask the stupid question if Modi had bulldozed the party or if “Team BJP is now Team Modi”. It doesn’t occur to them that they are slaves to a party that has been a “One-Gandhi” party since Jurassic Park. KK wants representation from all parts of India? Ah well, we can ask Narendra Modi to go around the country claiming he’s a Kashmiri, he’s a Brahmin, he’s a Dalit, he’s an OBC and he’s a Gujarati. Which is exactly what some great “leaders” do and are applauded by our media, aren’t they? Whether they like it or not, Narendra Modi has reached where he has and has earned his position by sheer performance and not by being a lucky sperm. Performance? Well, that doesn’t count for NDTV or any other media outlet.

Here is something that will shock you. Not once in the entire programme did any of Modi’s critics, including BD, discuss “Muslims”. I guess they are now bamboozled with the fact that the whole theory of “Muslims are against Modi” has fallen apart. It is one more hoax that has crumbled. Muslims who are ideologically against BJP and Modi will remain so regardless of any political development. By elevating Modi to major posts and by implying he is their PM candidate the party has also sent a signal to “imaginary” members of a non-existent NDA. This also disturbs the media and they are going to lose sleep over it.

The awful truth is that in recent times the greatest governance and development work has come from Non-Congress states. KK’s stupid notions notwithstanding, modern ideology is one of governance and development. His imaginary implication that there is no Rightwing secular party is a spin from the Congress text book. It is only worn out, termite-infested parties who are still stuck in the old habits of doles and quotas. The MSM is going to declare an all-out war against some imaginary “Hindutva” agenda and paint some BJP management members as bringing in “Mandir politics”. The agenda was carried forward by KK and Saba Naqvi on TimesNow last night. Predictable!

BabaRamdev: Media's Mudslinging-Season-2, Episode-1

In a tweet on August 8 I had predicted some serious mudslinging against Baba Ramdev (BRD) when he starts another campaign at Ramlila on Thursday, August 9. No it didn’t take the IB or RAW to tell me that. I just recalled how last year CNN-IBN had inaugurated mudslinging season against BRD as he started his agitation in June 2011. This time Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose (the eminent Social Genius) are not alone. They are joined by master ‘News-Breaker’ Bhupendra Chaubey from their own stable. And then there were others like Madhu Trehan, Suhel Seth (The Item-Girl specialist) and a few more. We will come to Chaubeji and the rest a bit later.

First things first! Let’s start with the common question by all anchors, all anti-BRD panellists and of course, Congress. Why is BRD’s assistant Balkrishna appearing in posters with terrorists like Bhagat Singh and Rajguru at Ramlila? That’s blasphemy! Oh wait, it’s not me calling them terrorists, it’s our own school text books calling them that. And who allowed such textbooks? ICSE and the Congress govt of AP did. Even Mahatma Gandhi reportedly did not protest the hanging of Bhagat Singh. I did not see a similar protest from the media when heroes like Bhagat Singh were called terrorists. Did you? It’s alright, as they say one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. In this case one has to wonder who the other man is. Not to forget, when Anna’s ‘secular’ movement pulled down the large back-drop of ‘Bharat-Mata’ the media thought that was fair and there were no questions.

You see, idolisation is fine with the media only as long as it is for the Gandhi family. They can be anything or anyone. Take Rahul Gandhi. He can be Kashmiri, he can be Dalit, a Muslim, a Sikh, an Allahabadi and he can be a Brahmin as well. If there were a Chameleon’s Association they would have been seething in anger and protest. Not our media. But RG didn’t start that trend. It was started by Nehru then followed by Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi.

Hell, I forgot someone in between! The great saviour of India: Sonia Gandhi. Five years back Congressmen in MP dressed her up as the brave Rani of Jhansi in posters (don’t miss the cute little Rahul in the back-pack).  In true spirit and bravery of the Rani of Jhansi SoniaG battles all evils that threaten India and her people. Oh, I’m sure even in that case you will recall how strongly the media protested and Rajdeep, Arnab, Barkha, Chaubeji were all lambasting the Congress for insulting the memory of the brave Rani. No? They didn’t? Okay, so little Balkrishna appears with many other ordinary men in a poster with heroes and that’s the biggest problem for media. Exemplary unbiased morons!

Now, we can come back to Chaubeji. On August 9, he got up early and got out early and headed straight for Ramlila grounds to confront some women in the crowd. He asked them if they came on their own or were truck-rolled into Ramlila. To his surprise they told him they came from far off places in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and such states. Not enough! So he goads another woman: “There are people who allege BRD has evaded tax, accumulated wealth and illegal properties?”. Hmmm! The woman replies with nonchalance: “Woh bewakoof hai!” (They are fools!) So Chaubeji got bitch-slapped over and over again with his silly questions. His questions tried their best to slander BRD but in vain. And he had stated in a tweet that he had the most “explosive” details about BRD’s tax evasion. Well, one sincerely hopes those explosive details don’t bomb the way Chaubeji did at Ramlila. So from last year our Mr.Chaubeji has now become Mudslinger Jr., next only to his boss.

And if Chaubeji does his thing in the morning can his boss, Mudslinger-in-Chief, be too far away? Rajdeep Sardesai started off early morning too with a stupid tweet asking if Ramdev can get some rains. Mind you, no Baba, no Swami, no Guru … nothing but plain ‘Ramdev’. Such is the contempt that our media gurus hold for him. Had it been a mullah Rajdeep would have addressed him as “Imam Saheb”. Well, you see BRD is clothed in saffron and Rajdeep’s loathing for that colour and Hindu traditions and customs is not such a big secret.

So at night Rajdeep repeats Chaubeji’s question: “Can Ramdev become the face of Anti-corruption?”. Someone on Twitter responded by asking if a bargirl and waitress can be the head of the UPA govt why BRD can’t be an anti-corruption crusader. Never mind! So RS asks Congressman Mani Shankar Aiyar the question and about crowds at Ramlila and MSA responds by stating “It’s a flop show”! Rajdeep turns to another panellist, Devender Sharma, and asks for a response. Sharma states a stunning fact: “The biggest flop in India is Congress’ youth icon Rahul Gandhi although the party will not accept it”. I would have to say going by history and facts Rahul Gandhi’s failures would actually be considered more than a flop. those would technically count as a total disaster. The difference is: Rahul Gandhi rides in the back-pack of Jhansi Ki Rani unlike BRD.

Hmm… so this Devendra Sharma wasn’t very obliging. So Rajdeep turns to a trusted RSS-hater, Kumar Ketkar. And because Rajdeep knows him to be a RSS-hater asks him a leading question: “Is BRD backed by RSS?” . Happily, Kumar Ketkar lets off a well-strung rant about BJP, RSS and BRD being the mask of these forces. KK implies, without saying it, that RSS is anti-national and to that Tarun Vijay shoots a few bullets calling KK “Friend of Pakistani supporters and ISI supporters in the media”. So you can see how Rajdeep wanted the debate to go. The idea was neither black money or corruption or BRD’s movement. Once again, it was how to trash BRD. Mudslinging at its best! I think both Mani Shankar Aiyar and Kumar Ketkar are scumbags from the filthiest of waters. But hey, don’t take my word for it! Listen to someone who is usually more profound with his loathing of the Twitterati: Nikhil Wagle. His tweet says a lot about about MSA and KK and their filthy language.

It’s not over until Justice Arnab sings it’s over. So apart from CNN-IBN, TimesNow too had a hilarious debate. Nothing particularly outstanding in that show except for Madhu Trehan outrageously charging BRD with “duping common people” and when asked about BRD’s ability to draw crowds, Item-Boy Suhel Seth responded with: “I can get item-girls from Bollywood and get you crowds of 30000”. I believe that is perfectly in sync with Suhel Seth’s job description. These are the stupid utterances of Trehan and Seth that pass for debate.

The singular chant of all anchors and media celebs is that BRD has been issued notices by IT department and allegations of illegal properties, whose private jets he flies and so on. Firstly, the IT and ED notices started only after BRD’s agitation last year. We all also know how the IT and ED work lately. LK Advani rightly stated: “The UPA survives because of its ally the CBI”. That’s how IT and ED are also used by Sonia Gandhi and the govt against adversaries and then their media stooges tom-tom that message as if BRD has been already proved a criminal. Nobody expects BRD to work miracles or expect black money to come back in 3 days or corruption to end immediately. He may not even know how the system or govt works. But there has to be a reason why the Chaubejis, Rajdeeps, Madhus, Aiyars, Ketkars and some more indulge in this extra-ordinary mudslinging against the man. Maybe it has to do with a colour or maybe it has something to do with phonecalls from upstairs. But either way, welcome to Mudslinging: Season-2 Episode-1.

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