Where The Dogs Of Society Howl

A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied “The one I feed the most”.*

There is a reason why a certain breed of dogs shouldn’t be fed beyond a point. This is the question Narendra Modi seems to have raised in a meeting of the party heads on December 24. Here’s what The Pioneer reports: “Why do senior BJP leaders turn up at news shows on issues involving not so important Congress leaders? And why is that the BJP spokespersons give a sound ‘bite’ at the drop of the hat? These and many more such issues plague the mind of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who unveiled his media strategy before members of the party’s election campaign committee that met on Tuesday”.

One of the worst attributes of BJP spokies is to turn up on every debate on TV even when they know it is nonsensical, scripted and fixed. On December 26 a court in Ahmedabad accepted the SIT report on the accusations filed by Zakia Jafri against Modi and several others in the Gujarat 2002 riots. This report was also found to be fair by the SC which did not find any merit for an intervention earlier in 2011. Following the Ahmedabad Court’s acceptance of the SIT closure report all that the BJP needed to do was a presser to state that the 2002 issue, where Modi is concerned, is closed and that justice for victims and those involved in the riots and killing should continue due course of law. Instead, like fools the BJP spokies were all over on TV once again defending against motivated crap. They don’t learn. After 11 years do these people still believe the media wants to hear the truth? If they do, then I have to say this is a sorry bunch of lipstick-hunters. The tweet I’ve quoted indicates the hatred in the media and no court is acceptable to them. Another bimbo has called the SC judges “crackpots”. Why bother arguing with them?

The best course after a victory is to let the dogs of hatred and calumny fight it among themselves and push back. You don’t need to feed the evil dog when you’ve already won. After the December 26 acceptance of the SIT report by the court the headlines and comments were many. Modi not found guilty said some! The media bimbos who claimed this remain ignorant that this wasn’t even a trial of Modi but a petition by Zakia to start a case. The comic Times Now reporter from Ahmedabad even called Zakia’s lawyers “defence lawyers” when she wasn’t an “accused” in anything. He further commented on whether Zakia will “appeal” the court’s verdict. This is as legally-bimbo as our MSM folks get where law is concerned. Fortunately, the biggest legal-bimbo of all was on vacation or it could have gotten worse. Narendra Modi was neither under trial nor was there ever a case or FIR against him in the Gujarat 2002 issue. That’s where the other headlines get interesting. Here’s one from TOI on December 27:

Smart, isn’t it? Keep throwing mud and dirt at someone for 11 years yourself and then claim his shirt was soiled. Since Independence the witch-hunt of Modi has been the single biggest ever. I would also rate it as the biggest media crime ever. Almost everyone used similar headlines. TV’s ‘Hate-monger in chief’ Rajdeep Sardesai was no different. I had to explain to this extreme hate-monger that the mud he hurled doesn’t amount to taint:

And you know what? This Rajdeep gets angry and upset even when someone points out to him that he called Dawood a "patriot" which is actually a fact. The truth is the court found no case for charging Modi and found the petition by Zakia unacceptable. One cannot help but sympathise with the lady. She has been led up a political ‘yellow brick road’ to a fake sense of justice by those who acted on behalf of political powers. Those who fooled her are today richer by crores while she still seeks justice. Those who fooled her also subverted true justice in the process by diverting the entire process and focus to hang one man. NDTV, one of the chief media-accusers of Modi, holds out highlights from the Ahmedabad court verdict:

On the evening of December 26, after the verdict, Commie mouthpiece Brinda Karat was out again with sound-bites still holding Modi responsible for the ‘genocide’. Earlier, her party comrade Sitaram Yechury (one of the famous #65Jaichands) had coined a new convenient term ‘communal pogrom’. I believe, if anyone now calls the 2002 riots a pogrom or genocide it should be treated as contempt of court and, more importantly, contempt for truth. All the politicians and media crooks who have used these terms are nothing but illiterate, uneducated morons and liars. While, politicians opposed to Modi are predictable and shameless I consider the media crooks to be more shameless. Someone created a wall of shame for those who ran the malicious campaign against Modi for 11 years. A few were forgotten (and maybe some more are left out) and I added those faces to this “Black Wall of Shame”:

It’s not Modi but many of these faces that now stand tainted with their lies and fake reports. Some of these faces may even have serious allegations against them. They say politics is the last resort of a scoundrel. I believe that needs a change in our times. We fairly know what to generally expect of politicians but it’s the MSM that has become the last resort for scoundrels. News media should have stood for facts, truth and logic but has become just another last resort. A resort where the dogs of society howl. Since the mid-2000s the SM emerged as strong alternative to these rogues. If not, you can imagine what destructive campaigns these faces would have carried forward unchallenged. A tribute to this “Wall of Shame” would be appropriate:

So goodbye yellow brick road/ Where the dogs of society howl/ You can't plant me in your penthouse… What do you think you'll do then/ I bet that'll shoot down your plane/ It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics/ To set you on your feet again/ Maybe you'll get a replacement/ There's plenty like me to be found/ Mongrels who ain't got a penny/ Sniffing for titbits like you on the ground. **

On their part, the BJP spokies foolishly think the dogs of society were only after Modi. They weren’t! Since 1999 a systematic campaign has been carried out against the right wing party for the Congress plus Commies and everyone knows it. It started with NDA being re-elected (after Jayalalitha knocked them out with 1 vote), then Kargil bashing, “coffingate” and then Kandahar. The party must decide whether to feed the good dog or the evil dog. So far the evil one hasn’t managed to win where Modi is concerned. But there is a lesson to be learned because they are not going to stop their hunt as we shall see in a future post.

In this entire 11-year episode there is clearly only one winner; Narendra Modi. He won 4 elections, is seen as a top performer and his popularity has grown beyond expectations. His detractors now simply don’t know how to combat the man. Now they suddenly think Arvind Kejriwal is their saviour. Goodluck! They just don’t have an answer. In all this time Modi was the one who carried himself with dignity despite the vulgar campaign against him.

The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me. ***

That goes for many political parties and the entire MSM where the dogs of society howl, and all those detractors in India and abroad. They will continue with the same old measurements. Modi has moved on to new measurements of performance. He never fed the evil dogs. We are now into the final phase.

* & *** Quotes from George Bernard Shaw.

** From “Goodbye yellow brick road” – Elton John/Bernie Taupin.

India's Worst News Channels - 2013

Americans are traditionally good at branding and marketing. However, till 1991 Hollywood, whose movies are distributed across the globe, had one serious problem. They didn’t have a news media brand that could be identified globally. BBC was known universally but no American channel had such wide recognition. All that changed on January 17, 1991 when a small crew stayed back in Baghdad to report on the first Gulf war. In a few hours CNN became a household name across the world. CNN was the first 24X7 news channel in the world to report live from various sites; particularly disasters, accidents and incidents. 1991 was also the year private channels came into India. Most of them borrowed the same format of CNN but, unfortunately, borrowed the worst from American media. While CNN has since had an international version our news channels became 24X7 without having enough news content. They mostly report from Delhi, Mumbai and other Metros. Naturally, this meant filling up time with irrelevant stuff and a heavy dose of Bollywood, Cricket, excessive repetition of stale news and most of all political witch-hunts.

Before long, these private channels realised they didn’t have a revenue model to sustain themselves and thus came in political propaganda, witch-hunts, sponsored programmes without declaration (which they now declare). Other sponsored programmes include summits, conclaves, sham awards and some even using political clout for survival. They also give each other all kinds of awards so it is fair that we have a people’s version of the ‘Razzies’ for the worst news channels. Therefore this poll was conducted here and we have the results.

A bit about the poll: Voters were allowed multiple choices and therefore the total number of voters (4052) and the total number of votes or percentage share will obviously not match. Only news channels that grandly call themselves “national” channels were included in the poll. And being a govt propaganda channel Doordarshan wasn’t included. Besides, DD doesn’t have the same problems and challenges as the private channels. The results and tabulation are appended to the post.

Here are the five honourable winners of “India’s Worst News Channels” poll:

5. IBN7 – Being one of the latecomers in the Hindi news category IBN7 never seems to have picked up at all. Worse, the managing editor of the channel, Ashutosh, has become more of a political activist than a news channel editor. There is a particular form of contempt for anything that is “Hindu” that pours out of this channel that is most unbecoming of any outlet claiming to be a news channel. Who else would want to dress up an Islamic terrorist as a ‘saffron’ terrorist? Ashutosh may not like a political party or its leaders but to be constantly pouring out hate-messages doesn’t do much for viewership either. I am surprised Raghav Bahl didn’t shut down this channel or at least sack the editor. In any case, I expect there will be a time not too far in the future when this channel may wind up.

4. NDTV India (Hindi) – Their website says: “This 24-hour Hindi news channel stands strong as one of India’s leading credible news channels – preferred by an audience which seeks quality programming and pure news, rather than sensational infotainment”. I honestly don’t watch much of NDTVIndia but for a channel that is as much a political mouthpiece for Congress to claim “credible” is good imagination. And there is hardly any channel in India that is “pure news”. Here’s a challenge: If you can name the editor of this channel then you are probably someone who knows their business because I had to check twice myself. The only redeeming feature of this channel appears to be the popular show with Ravish Kumar, otherwise they are no different from their English mother when it comes to “Congress ke taraf se defend kar dena”.

Being the Hindi sibling of their English channels both IBN7 and NDTV (Hindi) change their character dramatically (from their English versions) to include a lot of mindless drama and BigBoss and Saas-Bahu stuff which seems to sell with Hindi audiences. This is staple diet for AajTak and ABPNews which top the Hindi ratings. This is, of course, in addition to Bollywood and Cricket which are common across all channels regardless of language. Here are TAM ratings released on December 14:

Even in TAM ratings both IBN7 and NDTV (Hindi) are languishing at the lower end. There also appears to be a problem with the branding gurus at these channels. It is doubtful viewers want brand extensions in multiple languages. In that respect, although people are aware, viewers don’t easily confuse AajTak and HeadlinesToday to be the same brand as they might with extensions of NDTV and IBN. There are also other local Hindi channels which they are competing with which aren’t named here.

3. Times Now – Clearly the market leader in English news currently and therefore less disliked than others. Much of the entertainment from this channel comes from the nightly circus with Arnab Goswami. While sometimes enjoyable, Arnab’s style has also started irritating viewers and his over-aggressive behaviour has motivated other anchors and reporters of the channel to misbehave with those they target for questioning. Along with IndiaTV, TimesNow can share the credit for destroying the concept of ‘breaking news’. Mindless headlines like “Sonia gets into her car”, “Sonia reaches PM’s residence”, “Judge enters the court room” or “Modi remains silent” are flashed and screamed as breaking news. Every 2 minutes through the day some silly nonsense is breaking news. The only advantage TimesNow has over other channels is that Arnab still remains taint-free and enjoys the value of ‘personal integrity’ with viewers.

2. CNN-IBN – I often call this a “mom and pop” stores. As with their Hindi sibling CNN-IBN too becomes a political activist quite frequently. Their editor Rajdeep Sardesai and deputy Sagarika Ghose are both unfit for journalism. They would have made better Christian missionaries for something like World Vision. The entire IBN group had to go through the trauma of firing over 300 employees and doesn’t seem to have a business model. People are yet to forget shameful episodes like Cash4Votes, unwarranted defence of SoniaG and RahulG, playing defence for Robert Vadra and, of course, being anti-Hindu in tone of their content. It remains a mouth-piece of the Congress but given the party’s downturn in recent times the channel has switched to propping up the AAP party. The channel does have some good journalists who are often left to do minor programmes. As with Ashutosh, both Rajdeep and Sagarika are known for their hatred for Modi and the right wing. Sagarika too should have been sacked long back but the ones who scream the most about nepotism and moral corruption are usually the ones who also fuel it the most. Ignoble excuses like “tyranny of distance” or not enough “body count” to report certain incidents will be the permanent hallmark of CNN-IBN.

1. NDTV – There isn’t anything that NDTV isn’t No.1 at, is there? Whether it’s worst journalists or worst channel, NDTV rules! Each year this Congress propaganda channel only grows more brazen in its nonsense, lower in popularity and (probably) deeper in debt. How the channel which makes consistent financial losses and keeps rewarding its top personnel is a mystery. The taint attached to the top personnel of a company always sticks to the organisation too. The unexplained dumping of a CBIcase against Prannoy Roy, allegations of financial jugglery, Radiagate of Barkha and their hate campaign against Modi add up to this channel being voted the worst. It is obvious that NDTV survives and gets away with things only due to its political capital and clout. An anchor of this channel wanted to question the SC about some ruling. They hold a sham award function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. They even use fake pictures and videos to report a serious disaster like Uttarakhand floods. I estimate a certain level of trauma for this political channel whenever the govt at the Centre changes. Till then they will enable us to see the “larger” picture or send us reports from the “north lawns” of the White House. Thanks also to NDTV; we have come to read every news item as “alleged” news. They are deservedly the No.1 in this particular contest; India’s worst news channel.  

The channel voted worst in the poll has fallen even behind a relative newcomer like NewsX. Most readers of this site perhaps watch more of the English channels and therefore the worst ones could also be the most watched, given few options in English media. However, the votes polled proportionately reflect the viewer ratings by TAM too in order of popularity. Here are TAM ratings released on December 14 for English news channels:

It is also worth noting that each of the English channels claim they are No.1 in viewership with deceptive claims for different time-slots and events. Reminds me of the race where USA was declared coming in “second last” position by the propagandists. And the race had only two people; a Russian and an American. Do read Moneylife’s “TV channels hoodwink readers with misleading advertisements about themselves”. It is not just about themselves these news channels hoodwink people; they hoodwink viewers on many issues. It is increasingly hard to tell the difference between govt and news media. The watch has long gone out of the “watchdog”. But people are indeed able to see through them as the votes for the worst channels indicate. Our congratulations to the winners!

Poll results and tabulation

 

TAM rating figures… Thanks to @ASRaghunath.

5 Million Thank Yous

It brings great satisfaction and happiness to see this blog touching Five Million in total readership so far. The journey will continue. At the beginning of the year it touched 1.6 million in January 2013, therefore 3.4 million were added during the current year.

I have been often asked if the articles here make any difference to the MSM discourse. It might have made some difference or nothing but I have no measure of it. My attitude with the MSM on this has been “You do what you do best; I do what I do best”. When it started, the tagline was “Crooks and Liars in the Indian media are the greatest danger to our democracy”. I still stand by that line considering the variety of propagandists, peddlers of untruths and even anti-nationals who float around as media persons. But there is something that is more important and that is reflected in the current tagline. We may not have the power to change others but we do have the power to change ourselves by what we consume. It is easier to change ourselves than to change others.

Thus, when the time was right I changed the tagline to what this site represents. It’s not them but we who should be careful how we consume the news they deliver. It’s used like the statutory warning on cigarette packs. Most of the time the MSM content is not even news; it’s just opinions packaged as news. Some of it quite poisonous! Parents care what goes into the body of children as food and beverages. People should also care what goes into their heads. 2014 is an important election year and the MSM will raise its pitch in bogus campaigning and political propaganda. The final phase of their hunting season is just around the corner.

Many journalists do follow and read this blog and acknowledge the contents in private for obvious reasons. Most of all, many readers have now started their own blogs or websites to write about current affairs or topics close to their heart. I consider this one of the best outcomes from this blog. Consequent to requests by some readers I also had the chance to publish a compilation this year titled “Social media as watchdog”. Many sponsors have distributed it free to students and citizens in general to help see the MSM through another lens. During the year this also gave me the chance to address and interact with small groups in various places.

Readers of this blog and bloggers and writers elsewhere on the SM and also on Twitter, FB and other forums made it absolutely clear that the MSM does not have a monopoly on national discourse anymore. Those who have access to the net now watch the news but double-check for accuracy on the SM. Together we have made facts more important in the public domain than opinions and propaganda.

So once again, Thank You for reading, commenting, celebrating, suggestions, inputs, for sharing and spreading the word about this site. We celebrate for a moment and move on.