CNN-IBN: Fake Debates & Communal Incitement

Narendra Bhatti of the Samajwadi Party bragged that he got Durgashakti Nagpal the UP SDM suspended in just 41 minutes. He said it publicly and then claimed he was misquoted. On July 31 the foul-mouthed Azam Khan who whined for being “insulted” on a trip to the US made another hateful comment on the Durga episode. He said: "Ram naam ki loot hai loot sako to loot lo” (You are allowed to loot in the name of lord Ram). I wonder how his community would have reacted had he quoted his own religious icons. Such is the shameless behaviour of members of the SP. Perpetrate hate and play victim. We’ll get back to this story a bit later.

Once upon a time, not very long ago, you needed a license to possess a radio or a transistor. When TV came in, you need a license to possess and watch the TV. Some smart-alecs in the GOI even wanted to bring back the license system for TV. Read this:  “Almost every new medium of communication or expression that has appeared since the dawn of history has been accompanied by doomsayers and critics who have confidently predicted that it would bring about The End of the World as We Know It by weakening the brain or polluting our precious bodily fluids”. Books, movies, TV and Radio shows have a history of inspiring crimes. I doubt anybody condemned JD Salinger because ‘Catcher in the rye’ inspired Mark Chapman to kill John Lennon. Surprisingly, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster have never been tried for ‘Taxi Driver’ inspiring John Hinckley’s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. So when a hate-channel, anchored by a hate-filled racist puts up a topic “Who’s afraid of social media” she is doing exactly what the doomsayers did in the case of Radio and TV.

This was aired by CNN-IBN on August 1 at the Ramnath Goenka journalism awards function. Frankly, I doubt the late Goenka would allow some of the people on the stage or currently in the Indian Express anywhere near him. So Sagarika introduces the topic with some choice descriptions of Social Media (SM). She tries to balance her moronery by throwing in descriptions such as “instrument of freedom” to describe SM. But her real epithets were “New gorilla in the room, bull in a china shop, subversive, destabilising and instrument of propaganda”. Aha! Imagine, one of the most hate-filled people on the SM is anchoring a discussion on SM. That’s TV hypocrisy for you. They even discussed whether SM should be regulated. Oh… when it comes to Islamic terror remember how they talked about the “root cause”? Well, you could say the “root cause” of SM is the Internet. So to cleanse the evil in SM it is necessary to get rid of the internet itself. Right?

Alright, for all the media morons who debate SM on TV, I would like to ask why when there is evidence of TV images provoking violence there is absolutely no regulation of News TV? There’s scientific evidence TV has known to provoke anger, violence and psychotic behaviour. I’m not joking. Just read my past article “Victimhood justifies violence”. People are known to throw shoes at TV or break the screens in anger across the world. Some have known to be provoked to more serious crimes. Shouldn’t TV be regulated? Never mind. And the discussion wasn’t how SM could be used more productively but “who’s afraid of SM”. Well, nobody except the people in the MSM and Govt are afraid of it and they try all they can to brand ordinary people as subversive or propagandists when the biggest subversive elements and propagandists are on TV and in newspapers every single day. One political party even wants to “hire” journalists for their campaign. Can the MSM fall any lower than being looked at as commodities?  

I have identified CNN-IBN as a communal channel that frequently puts up articles, news items or images that insult some religious group or the other. In some cases their unverified reports and hate-mongering deserve to be even legally tried. Were they different in the case of Durgashakti Nagpal? Here’s what the hate-mongering channel headlined:

Mosque demolition? Did Durga order or demolish a mosque? While the reporter screams her head off CNN-IBN puts up such provocative headlines. Is such a headline not enough to incite violence? Especially when you think of the Azad Maidan riots of August 2012 were provoked by fake images you can imagine what such a headline can do. Mind you, the reporter Marya Shakil hadn’t reported anything provocative; she was just doing her job. It’s the hate-mongering editors at CNN-IBN who should be held responsible for this provocative headline. Oh yes, the one who frequently cries over SM also happens to be a Dubiousity Editor at CNN-IBN. And who did they have on their SM debate? There was Manish Tewari who can’t complete one sentence without “anarchy”. There was Kapil Sibal who has left no shoe unturned to strangle the internet itself. These are the people adorning a “Ramnath Goenka” function. Goenka would have cancelled the event had he been alive.

Fact remains, Durga hadn’t demolished any mosque but an illegal wall or as other reports say warned the villagers to not build an illegal wall along a mosque. She had done nothing wrong. Real reasons behind her suspension and the SP vendetta? Let’s read the words of CNN-IBN itself: “Nagpal, during her tenure as the sub-divisional magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar, had cracked down on the sand mining mafia. She had recently seized 24 lorries involved in illegal mining and form April to June, under her watchful eye, the mining department impounded 297 vehicles and collected a fine of over Rs 80 lakh”.

It should be clear to any observer that ahead of the 2014 elections and the threat of Narendra Modi creating an impact in UP the SP is whipping up communal passions. Durga was just about handy to appease Muslims and inflame their passions. It also remains a fact that whenever it comes to enforcing law we are now compelled by what will or will not offend Muslims or other minorities. Modi demolished 80 illegal temple constructions in and around Gandhingar in Gujarat. But he’s the one who’s “communal” and the bozos in SP and our media channels like CNN-IBN are supposed to be “secular”. This is the grave danger to this country that is being covered up by TV media. Are these channels dangerous? You bet they are. They’re not only the first line of defence for the corrupt they are also the biggest liars who place events and personalities in the wrong contexts to make a corrupt living.

In the first six months since Akhilesh Yadav took over as UP Chief Minister in March 2012 there have been at least seven communal riots. ‘Riot after Riot’ went on in UP while the media played the slave and covered up the violence and reporting of those riots. As they happened, it was people on the SM who relayed the news of the violence. I haven’t seen any channel demanding arrest of the perpetrators or seeking justice for the victims. Did you? Well, you will often find hate-mongering and fear-monger from these “seculars” about communal riots, when most of the worst riots have happened under their very nose (Digvijaya's Desperate & Dangerous Communal Call). How to engineer or get away with communal riots is an idiot’s hand-book you will have to pick up from the “Sickulars” or media channels like CNN-IBN. In the meantime, don’t let any media bimbo lecture you on SM or any kind of media. Nobody is scared of SM and nobody is scared of corrupt MSM.