Why Indian MSM Wants Social Media Dead

In recent times Herman Cain, an Afro-American candidate, pulled out of the race for the Republican party’s nomination for US Presidential election in 2012. Three women from his past had alleged sexual harassment by Cain which eventually forced him to abort his campaign. In contrast, Abhishek Manu Singhvi (AMS), MP and Congress spokesman, resigned on April 23 from various posts after his alleged sexual adventures were leaked through a video on the internet. That was enough for the Mainstream Media (MSM) and even PCI Chairman, Justice Katju, to start screaming for controls over the social media. The sex CD which involves AMS and a female lawyer was reportedly made by AMS’s driver and according to AMS was “fake, doctored and morphed”. How a driver went to Darbangha (Bihar) and found enough money and support and morphed a tape will remain a technological wonder for a long time. His alleged motives are “dog-bites and low pay”. Seriously, many of us may complain about our salaries but going to the extent of morphing our bosses into sex videos is taking even revenge too far. Tsk, never mind!

The case was brought to public light not by the driver or by the MSM or by the social media. It came to prominence when AMS filed a police complaint against the driver and got an injunction from the Delhi HC against airing of the CD. On what basis the HC gave the injunction is another mystery and it almost sounds like pre-screening. Naturally, people wanted to know what was on the CD and what the facts were. This is where the MSM failed as it completely blacked-out the story. The court had stayed airing of the CD and not the reporting of the story. It was then that the story spread like wildfire on Twitter, Facebook and other social media and finally parts of the CD were uploaded by some on the internet.

In response to the public clamour for the story Rajdeep Sardesai even responded by calling them “Eternal Voyeurs”. Such is his disdain for ordinary people. Rajdeep also asked why the Opposition was silent over the issue, as if they, or any political voice, should determine what the press or media should be reporting and discussing. A dead give-away. 

Even so, when the cookie finally crumbled, the MSM wasn’t discussing the AMS sex incident, they were busy debating whether ‘Internet is above the courts’ (For uploading the CD against the court injunction) and some like Justice Katju and Sagarika Ghose were discussing ways and means to ‘check’ the social media.

Nothing would please our MSM (and some politicians) more than to see the death of social media. It has come to challenge their monopoly, their bias, their spins, their lies, and their selective reporting. In the US the Internet media has seen the death of many newspapers and quite a few TV channels. Some 300 newspapers have died in a small country like UK. Unlike print and TV, social media requires the regular MSM and public figures to be interacting with people sensibly which is where they have failed in India. Public opinions can be suppressed in newspapers and TV but not on the social media. So while raging against the people on the social network and wanting to desperately ‘check’ them the Indian media really needs to understand the way social media works and harness it productively and profitably. Comments under the post “Media as cover-up artist for Seedy Singhvi” will reveal how even keen news-watchers were totally unaware of the AMS incident. That is how successfully the MSM blacked-out the story.

The Internet wasn’t created in India. The Internet didn’t evolve in India. None of the major social media engines were created in India. For all its other problems the US still remains a country with absolute freedom of speech. President, Pope and even religion are no exceptions to such freedoms. Books are not banned and books can be burned. Nazi group marches through Jewish localities to offend them is allowed. Protests at funerals against dead ‘gay’ soldiers, in bad taste, are allowed. Bad taste is not a crime. Therefore, for Internet and social media to thrive in the US environment wasn’t as big a challenge as it is in India. Mind you, the same laws that punish defamation or illegal activities otherwise also apply to social media in the US. It does in India too. It is just that in India free-speech is largely reserved for the powerful and the MSM. Now that the situation is changing it’s causing unease among many in the media and politics. US citizens over many years have grown used to and cherished their freedom of speech. Most of them know what to believe and what to ignore. The Indian govt and media simply doesn’t trust ordinary people to have the good judgement over issues.

If the AMS CD was uploaded on the net it was because the media didn’t discuss it. It got uploaded because people generally believed that this level of gagging by a court and black-out by MSM can only mean there is truth in the story. That a prominent lawyer like AMS would seek an injunction and instead of continuing the FIR against the alleged conspirator reach a settlement with him further reinforces the belief that the CD is neither morphed nor doctored. Apart from the frivolous discussion; “Is Internet above courts” on CNN-IBN (who else but Sagarika Ghose?) and other channels, NDTV even discussed if ‘India is going the US way’ on the media issue. Among participants on NDTV was Shoma Chaudhury, editor of Tehelka, a near-gossip tabloid, and the same tabloid that famously used call girls to do their jobs. That is enough said for morality in media.

If there is evil in the social media, it is prevalent elsewhere too, particularly in the MSM and politics. It is how we respond to it that counts. It is not easy for someone to survive in the social network by constantly peddling lies and misleading information. In Indian media it is definitely possible and sometimes it even seems they are paid for it. For those screaming about morals so much in the MSM there is an example of a prominent journalist Keith Olberman who was suspended from his channel, MSNBC, for a small but undeclared donation he made to politicians. In contrast people like Barkha Dutt are celebrated in our media despite established wrong-doings. In the US Barkha Dutt would have been permanently trashed and out of the media for good. So people like Rajdeep Sardesai would do well not to sermonise on morality, which he often does. The likes of Shoma Chaudhary, Sonia Singh (NDTV), Sagarika Ghose should also be frequently reminded of the sordid NOTW affair in UK. That tabloid is what much of Indian MSM should be compared to and not values of ‘Freedom of speech’.

In the last US presidential election Youtube was successfully used by CNN to allow ordinary people to put questions to the candidates and have them debate the issues. Many other clips from Youtube are also used by US news channels in their reports. Why Indian media cannot find productive use for social media other than promoting egos of individual journalists is simply the fear of sharing their turf. Forget harnessing social media productively, the frequency with which our news channels twist and manipulate tweets to suit their agenda actually amounts to abuse of social media by them.

The MSM perceives a loss to the social media on the issue of AMS, his sexcapade and his final resignation. This is hardly the truth. Social media did not bring AMS down. In the final scene of the movie ‘All the President’s men’ WaPo editor Ben Bradley chides Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein thus: “You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit”. That’s right half the US didn’t know and didn’t give a shit till Nixon finally resigned. That was despite tremendous coverage by the Washington Post and a few more newspapers. Here we are, an entire MSM blacking out the AMS story and they want the world to believe it is the evil of social media that has to be ‘checked’.

Social media didn’t bring AMS down. He brought himself down with his dirty deeds, social media just showed the courage that MSM did not just as Woodward and Bernstein didn’t bring down Nixon on their own. MSM, and Justice Katju, would do well to partner social media rather than try to check it. If ever ‘Power to the people’ made sense in a democracy it is Social Media. Celebrate it!

April 10 - The Day News Media Died

Never has there been a prolonged campaign of calumny against a single individual as the one carried out by our media and certain sponsored activists. All of that came to an end on April 10. The report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) finally established there was no evidence that Narendra Modi was involved in the Gujarat riots of 2002. The decade long campaign of evil finally died a gruesome death. Some of the most prominent names in the media also died a symbolic death. We remember those names and many more and pray that in the death of the news media there will be newer ones who will find their conscience. In ever loving memory of the conscience and careers of:

Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Harsh Mandar, Mallika Sarabhai, Mukul Sinha, Sanjeev Bhatt, Nidhi Rasdan, Sagarika Ghose, Praful Bidwai, Javed Anand, Javed Akhtar, Manish Tewari, Prannoy Roy, Vir Sanghvi, Vinod Sharma, Cedric Prakash, Hosbet Suresh, Arnab Goswami, Dipak Parasher, Ashutosh, Nikhil Wagle, Kumar Ketkar, Rahul Sharma, Sreekumar, Karan Thapar, Shoma Chaudhary, Ashish Khetan, John Dayal.. And Many More Nameless Faces

In Fond Memory of The News Media

In his book 'The Death of Media' writer Danny Schechter states that “We can’t fix America without fixing the media” The Death of Media shows why the fight to change our media is bigger than any political fight yet. It's not true for just the American media but equally true for the Indian media. We can't fix our political struggles without cleaning up our media first. A good part of our media died on April 10, 2012. Let's celebrate the death of evil.

Fascists Will Reap The Whirlwind

There can be no more pretensions. No more defence. No more self-righteousness. Fascist Sonia Gandhi and fascist Manmohan Singh must go. So far, in each of the scams, many have supported the PM as still being clean despite the huge scams that had unfolded and keep unfolding. No more! Both Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have not only presided over neck-deep corruption, they have now presided over SIN! Sins against ordinary and peaceful men, women and children. The HAND they hold up to beg for votes from the Aam Aadmi has over and over again been raised to slap the Aam Aadmi. The same hand has encouraged or presided over stealing of public funds, atrocities on innocents and proposing draconian laws.

“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power”. - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In my previous post (The fast & the spurious) I had mentioned that some of our media outlets not only indulge in yellow journalism they also play the role of the anarchist. The midnight drama involving Delhi police carrying out a lathi-charge and lobbing teargas shells on people who were sleeping is as good a symbol of anarchy as you can get. With channels like CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and Star News firmly on the side of the government in tarnishing Baba Ramdev directly in every which way possible the government was emboldened to carry out action they think they can get away with. As expected not one single media channel has termed this action as criminal and disproportionate.

It is now beyond tolerance of a democracy to have a foreigner and a foreign born person with little understanding of this vast country to be dictating actions and laws for this nation. Anna Hazare has already asked for the government to resign and it is a valid and fair demand. Demands on Lokpal, black money etc. can now wait for a fresh government. The first demand has to be clearly that foreigners or foreign-born people who are not of Indian origin should not be holding any public office. It is not just Sonia Gandhi who should be out of any public office. The fact that this Congress is attempting to promote Rahul Gandhi as a future PM of this country bodes ill for India. This nation is under danger, clear and grave danger.

The extra-constitutional body called the National Advisory Council must be disbanded.  It has become almost a parallel government ministry outside the regular norm. A coterie of people who are close to Sonia Gandhi work to draft and impose draconian laws on this country. It has become a resort for anti-hindu people, some who are embroiled in legal cases. Teesta Setalvad, involved in criminal cases and seeking anticipatory bail, is on the draft committee of the Communal Violence Bill. If this NAC has its way very soon being a Hindu will automatically amount to being a criminal. This must not come to pass. (Read the analysis of this draft bill at Calamur and Offstumped.)

This is also the same government that refuses to take strong action against separatists and those accused of sedition. Wait, it actually rewards people like Binayak Sen, by elevating him to the planning commission. He has already been convicted and is out on bail and at the very least they should have waited for him to be exonerated. I had also warned in my post ‘This Dog Bites’ that the main worry against Ramdev is neither corruption nor black money. The main worry for the Congress is clearly the colour of his clothes and the elections in UP and other states in 2012. And post the atrocious attack in the middle of the night Congress spokespersons continue to ridicule and tarnish Ramdev as if he were some national enemy. Imagine the confluence of a thousand gutters and you can imagine the stench flowing out of the mouth of a Digvijay Singh. Our media celebrates this gutter mouth as if he were some spiritual leader.

There never was and never will be any serious attempt on the part of this corrupt government to either tackle corruption or to tackle black money or bring back money. What is that? Setting a thief to catch a thief? But there is no doubt that the agitation will now intensify. The Congress has sowed the most violent wind. The whirlwind will follow.

Also read:  Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi Should Be Held Criminally Liable...

Namo & The Ass-Licker Factory

After a round of the December 2007 Assembly elections in Gujarat here is what Praful Bidwai, a ‘prominent’ journalist wrote:

“Is the tide turning in Gujarat? A month ago, most Gujarat politicians, social scientists, activists, bureaucrats, and citizens agreed on the dead certainty of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the Assembly election — but with a smaller margin. Today, they say, the BJP could lose — despite the Congress’s timid campaign... All exit polls after the first-phase voting in 87 constituencies (of a total of 182) forecast a vote-swing away from the BJP. NDTV forecasts a loss of 13 seats for the BJP, placing it behind the Congress. …Current estimates of the BJP’s seats tally by government agencies vary from 70 to 80 seats, way below its 2002 score of 127. Even the party’s assessment is reportedly that it’s sure to win only 63 seats; and optimistically, another 15. The BJP is clearly on a downswing in Gujarat…..”(Read the full pack of Bidwai's crap here)

You’re smarter than Praful Bidwai. Yes, you may have guessed that those exit polls came from NDTV of course. I wonder where Praful Bidwai is today. Not only did Narendra Modi come back to power, the BJP rebels were thrashed and the Congress was nearly decimated. The BJP returned to power with an even greater majority than in 2002. There must be a reason for these fake exit polls and fake articles of doom by the likes of Praful Bidwai.

Recent events in Karnataka indicate a pattern with the Congress. Losing power in a state is unpalatable for the Congress and therefore it will go any length to destabilise a state government, especially if it has the BJP. If you thought the Bharadwaj episode was just a constitutional issue, you are probably wrong. It appears to be a well-rehearsed act by the Congress to keep rattling the BJP government in Karnataka and make all efforts to destabilise it. It also helps to distract from the various misdeeds of the UPA government. Did Bharadwaj really think the centre would dismiss the state government? You can bet on his last underwear he would have never expected that.

Hate Modi and be rewarded!

Back to Gujarat elections in 2007. Following his victory both NDTV and CNN-IBN did a bio-pic on Narendra Modi. They told us about his village (Visnagar near the oil town of Mehsana), that his family and relatives got no benefits from his being CM, that he started life as tea-stall worker, and that he belonged to a ‘Ghanchi’ family, (An OBC group). Not many people in Gujarat knew if Modi was OBC or Brahmin or SC, our news channels made sure everyone knew. Not once in any of his campaign has Namo invoked caste, class or any issue of that nature. His worst statements were reserved as a response to the ‘maut ka saudagar’ rant by Sonia Gandhi. Well, I don’t really think Sonia Gandhi could have come up with that and in all likelihood someone like a Digvijay Singh would have written that speech. The Congress paid a price for it. And unable to digest the victory of Narendra Modi, media crooks like Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi went to the extent of calling Gujaratis ‘an effete people’!

Communal riots are not new in Gujarat. They are a historical and tragic fact. The riots in 1969 were one of the worst ever. Who was in charge then? In 1985, under the last real Congress Chief Minister, Madhavsinh Solanki, there were anti-reservation riots. This then turned into a communal riot. Guess how and who turned that into a communal riot? In those riots the Hindus paid a heavy price with their lives and there were whole families of Hindus that were burnt alive. At that time the most notorious gangster, Abdul Latif, was propped up by a political party. Guess which one? And what was Madhavsinh Solanki’s pet theory for elections? It was called KHAM – Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim. If you need first hand lessons on how to divide a society, just call Solanki. If you search for real reasons why the riots of 1969 and 1985 happened you will, at best, find flimsy excuses and at worst political engineering. There was no severe provocation as is the case with the 2002 riots following the Godhra disaster. Not that any of the killings can be justified and they shouldn’t. The Hindu anger wasn't built up overnight on February 27, 2002. There is a history to it.

Yet, 2002 is often referred to as genocide or pogrom. The Congress, the media and Modi’s opponents revel in such descriptions. Modi-hater Vir Sanghvi is on record calling him a “mass-murderer”. This is a term often repeated and referred to by the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt. Rajdeep even referred to the mass-murderer title at a Hindustan Times seminar where Narendra Modi was an invited speaker. Such deep hatred for an individual does not come from one’s own conscience, it is cleverly engineered. I can understand a muslim victim of the riots nurturing a deep hatred for Modi. There is no reason why the media and many others should have jumped on to that ‘engineered’ band-wagon.

Today, this hate Narendra Modi gang is not a small group, it is an Industry. The industry has new captains. One is Sanjeev Bhatt, the IPS officer, whose conscience struck after nine years of pondering. In hearings by the Nanavati commission Bhatt is now fretting and fuming over questions of his own checkered past. Will it destroy Narendra Modi? No, it will make him more popular. And, of course, the latest to join the industry is none other than Anna Hazare, who had previously complimented Modi. Here is what I wrote in ‘Sense & Senility’:

“Anna Hazare’s campaign has been called a comic revolution (Manu Joseph of Open magazine) and ‘rule of the unelected’ by many media persons. Nothing wrong with the first statement. Every revolution has a comic side to it. How else does one explain the presence of Swami Agnivesh in this campaign?  Hazare had made it clear that no politician will share the stage with him. Agnivesh was, is and will be a politician. There’s the irony. And then like most stupid politicians even after his victory Hazare goes around giving interviews to the media. The man hasn’t learnt in all of his 71 years that the media exists to destroy and poke holes into every action and word of any leader.”

Since 2001 Narendra Modi has been under a scanner, almost under a microscope. Not once has there been any mention of scams or corruption against him. The murderer tag did not work, so they will now try the corruption tag. He has proved to be ‘untouchable’! Yet, Anna Hazare now thinks his ‘corruption’ tag against Gujarat will work. A small crowd of the Congress workers and the media may cheer. But I can tell Hazare that he has now managed to further alienate Gujaratis. Given there are states like Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Delhi, AP and some more if Hazare really thinks the corruption movement has to start from Gujarat then he and the Congress are expecting to strike Gold in that state it is likely he will raise a poultry farm and end up with egg on his face. As for the likes of Swami Agnivesh and Mallika Sarabhai the less said the better.

There is the extra-constitutional body called the National Advisory Committee (NAC) chaired by none other than Sonia Gandhi. It has currently drafted a Communal Violence Bill, that will make it easier for the centre to dismiss a state government on the flimsiest of reasons for any violence. It is also a body to reward Modi haters. Teesta Setalvad, with cases pending against her and she having sought anticipatory bail twice, is a member of one the NAC committees. Harsh Mander is a member. Lately, Binayak Sen, out on bail, has been elevated to the Planning Commission probably because it was a BJP government that prosecuted him.

Media outlets like Star News, Hindustan Times and earlier India Today frequently come up with banana polls that show Rahul Gandhi as the most popular future prime minister. Will they be rewarded? Your guess is as good as mine. Read the full analysis of these opinion polls at www.sandeepweb.com.

Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh, Jayanthi Natarajan, Teesta Setalvad, Anna Hazare and many such people need to learn one simple lesson. The people believe the opposite of what the media tries to hammer as truth. Nobody believes the likes of Barkha Dutt or Rajdeep Sardesai except their own team members.

Ever heard of the famous speech by Mark Antony praising Brutus after the killing of Caesar? Public reaction is usually the opposite. The more they despise Narendra Modi the more popular he becomes among his electorate. The media in its desperate bid to bring down Modi is indirectly doing him a favour. The likes of NDTV and CNN-IBN and at the start Star News created this Namo industry. It is not Narendra Modi who is falling, it is the Congress and the media that are repeatedly being proved foolish. If they really intend to bring down Modi, then they should shut up and not mention him for a long time. But knowing our crony media, that will not happen and they will continue popularising Modi. Thanks to Modi haters, the BJP recently managed to win not only all Municipal elections but they even swept all the Panchayat polls. So much for a corrupt Gujarat!

Ratan Tata had said “if you’re not in Gujarat, you’re stupid!”. Anyone that hates Gujarat or calls it a den of corruption has to be a MORON. I wonder whose ass these people lick!!

Media As Emotional Blackmailers

Kandahar hijack case of IC-814. Most of us will remember the wailing protest scenes of families of hostages that were constantly on our TV screens. In particular Star News then, with the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt, spared no effort to show the distress of families against a very delicate situation facing the government. The emotional drama was played out over and over again till your heart started weeping. Make no mistake; everyone felt the sorrow and distress of the suffering families. But a line was crossed by the media then when the government was faced with a critical situation. A hijacked plane in a hostile territory, surrounded by an enemy nation on our border with little direct access for any strong action. All that would have contributed to the hostage exchange with the release of terrorists then. And consequently political parties will forever have the opportunity to label that act as weak reaction or surrender to terrorists.

None can forget the shoddy journalism of many in the media during the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai. Mikes and cameras being shoved into the faces of distressed families or into the faces of those who managed to escape or were rescued.

Then come to the recent case of Maoists kidnapping an IAS officer in Orissa. Once again the emotion-charged distress of families being repeated over and over again on TV. That being done there is again the case of hostages being held by Somali pirates. Angry, annoyed and distressed families over and over again being shown on the screens to vent their anger against the government.

They keep fear alive...Our media feeds on the tragedy..

In every such incident of hijacking or terrorism the families suffer and go through immense pain. But does it really serve the nation or decision making to repeatedly show their plight on TV? It would have been enough to show it once or twice. But the endless interviews with families, some wailing, some chest-beating all of it goes on non-stop. One would think rather than wanting to see an end to a crisis the media would like it prolonged so that they can get an extended run on the emotional drama which is all so tragic. Nobody, nobody loves a tragedy like the media does.

Despite the pain that individual families will definitely go through in such situations it is the responsibility of the media to ensure a balance in what they show. Instead of showing wailing families all the time complaining about the inaction of the government they could very well call some strategic experts for discussions on diffusing the situation. A nation cannot make decisions on security, negotiate with hijackers or have dialogues with pirates based on just the emotional state of the suffering families. In the end this is the same media that will bring up the idea of India being a ‘soft’ state and then have more discussions on that.

It is one that thing that our governments have never evolved a clear policy on dealing with hostage situations. The frequent trading of criminals for hostages is definitely not a long term healthy policy for any state. As with the 26/11 carnage who knows, the pirates and the Maoists might have been watching TV all the time. This could well explain why the Maoists kept increasing their demands. Any government has to be sensitive to the concerns of the families of hostages but at the same time the larger responsibility is not to sacrifice national interests or consistently appear to be succumbing to hostage-takers. Lives are lost for many causes. Sometimes the media needs to put the nation first.

Feed a mouse a cookie, the next thing it will ask for milk. And the media is doing a very good job of feeding the cookie and the government will comply by feeding it the milk. A hostage situation is nothing more than good ‘soap’ for our media. Sense and Sensibility, that is for someone else with courage.