Thank You..

It’s over two and a half years since this blog started. It is with a sense of happiness and satisfaction that I note this blog crossed One Million views on October 16.2012. For a small blog in some corner of the world I consider it a decent accomplishment. I would consider it an even greater accomplishment if it manages to push many more to write. I have, of course, been inspired by many wonderful writers on the net; writers whose names would make a very long list. They aren’t from the regular media. All of them had something in common which I learned: They weren’t just bold, but in writing, they were never afraid of being wrong, they took the opportunity to say what they believed or assessed to be right. In this post I will share a few personal notes.

Like many, I have observed news media for a long time, national and some international. It was a thrill to see TV news channels adopt a strong adversarial role with the govt in the late 90s. It was only in 1999 during the Kandahar episode that I felt something wasn’t really right. Then, it was in 2002 during and after the Gujarat riots that I sensed the channels had gone far beyond reporting. They were actually concocting lies and fake stories. Naturally, most of it was quite shocking and disturbing. Program after program reported over 2000 deaths, 3000 deaths, mass rapes, foetuses ripped apart with no authentic evidence for anything. By 2004 it was pretty much clear that these news channels were not in the news business but in politics. Some NGOs joined hands with the media too. People we thought were social activists were actually “paid political hacktivists”.

I had a TV in a small office from where my partner and I operated an online business. I was mostly alone in the office and hardly watched but had the sound on to catch any sensible news. Then we got to watch the Cash4Votes in 2008 and that too brought outrage but passed. That year the US presidential election was also interesting with the possibility of a black man becoming a president for the first time. So that got a lot of attention. It was soon after that election, on November 26, that late at night I caught some report on terrorist attacks in Mumbai. This went on and on and I watched till 4am next morning before quitting. At home next morning I thought it would all be over but when I got back to office I saw things had gotten worse. On the evening of November 27 I tried calling a TV channel at least 3 times to complain about their terrible coverage of the attacks but couldn’t get through. In the following months I watched the Chetanya Kunte–Barkha Dutt episode over “shoddy journalism” on the net and that was disgusting to say the least. It was evident that media celebs had a clear contempt for social media and bloggers.

In March 2009 I registered the website MediaCrooks.Com but still didn’t write for a long time. At first we wanted to focus on the ‘financial’ channels but then the stock markets had already crashed since October 2008 and there wasn’t much to write. There were many blogs and sites that wrote about politics, religion, history, ideology etc; most of them great ones. Thus the thought of writing about news channels and only about news channels, be it print or electronic. I had no idea what to write other than what would read like complaint letters to a newspaper. The other idea was to write “reviews” of programs but that would have sounded like movie critics. The first post was made on February 2010 and for about 9 months there was hardly any readership for the site. I recall the readership count till November 2010 was around 400 or thereabouts.

It was then on November 18, 2010 that Radiagate broke and when Open magazine crashed, this site carried all the tapes in a single file without interruption. Since then there has been steady increase in readership. MediaCrooks is intended to be a critique of media without meaning to be merely a serious academic exercise. Without sacrificing accuracy and facts it was always and still is meant to be fun-reading.

Among many stories that inspire, one is definitely the story of Bob Woodward (Of Watergate). People may or may not know but Woodward was sent to cover the hearing of the Watergate burglary not because he was a great journalist but because he was an average journalist. His supervising editor even referred to him as a “Schmuck” who could have been fired. Even his newspaper, Washington Post, had initially considered Watergate just an ordinary burglary which is why they sent a ‘schmuck’. The rest is history. Their meticulous research and inquiries should have inspired many of our real journalists. They didn’t use call-girls, prostitutes and spy-cameras for “sting” operations or entrapment. Does it sound a lot like our very own J. Gopikrishnan of 2G fame? I also rely on the P&G principle: “Facts count, Opinions don’t. What is right is more important than who is”. Even in medical situations an opinion is usually a ‘considered assessment’.

In the current context the media will have us believe that corruption fighters like Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejriwal have come up because politicians have become unaccountable or have decimated our institutions. Only partly true. This is an outrageous half-truth that is being spread. Their spurious argument is that these activists have taken the place of the Opposition in a democracy. This is as far from the truth as Russian is from Tamil. These activists have come up because our media has failed. Our media has stopped being a watchdog. Whatever IndiaToday unearthed about Khurshid may have been possible with all other scams too. Our media failed. Whatever other scams were unearthed by CAG could have been done by the media too. How many times have media used RTI to expose govt misdeeds? Why should a country even need specialist “RTI activists” as they call them? If a small journal like The Pioneer and J. Gopikrishnan could expose the 2G scam what does it say about other news media with greater muscle and influence?

Far from exposing, many in the news media have, in fact, been operating as defence lawyers for the criminals in the govt and politics. With most media celebs swarming around NCR like insects attracted to the honeypot, they fail to acknowledge most crimes have happened right under their own noses. Much of the news media is also now a “political party” that is part of the crime. The anti-corruption activists have replaced not politicians or Oppositions but the news media which is too busy with Bollywood, Saas-Bahu stories, silly Cricketainment and Tamasha in general. At a time like this investigative journalism should have peaked but in India it’s practically dead. That is why I consider a corrupt media the first and biggest threat to our democracy more than politicians.

Many posts on MediaCrooks have been based on readers’ comments. Many have come through emails that I receive. Where possible they have been acknowledged. There are many individuals who have recommended the blog through Twitter, Facebook, SocialMedia forum and even in private circles. Many SM sites have reproduced posts from here. There are professional online news sites that have used content from here. Even IAC has prominently featured some posts on their site. I would love to thank every individual and entity that helped to spread the blog and its message. Naming each of them would make a very long list and run into many posts long.

I would just like to thank all of you for reading and for supporting this site. It is more than I ever expected. I also hope many more such sites come up and many more write about issues that concern all of us in general.

 

NDTV Needs A Lie-Detector

Looks like Digvijaya Singh (DS) was out of order or away for a few days for some reason. That’s why the nation was shocked that our news channels weren’t rushing to him for first comments over Robert Vadra scam or Salman Khurshid scam. Rest your fears, he’s back and in good form. Here’s what I wrote in the post ‘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…”

Okay, good old Diggy is back but Barkha Dutt is away on a “sabbatical”. Poor Sunetra Chowdhury (SC), who often stands-in for BD, had to be the ‘bakra’ that had to interview DS. Somewhere Sunetra has mentioned in the past that she was disappointed at not getting to interview Rahul Gandhi, who she is supposed to cover. Never mind! Rahul’s mentor Diggy is not a bad substitute. You can view the interview and the summary on NDTV’s website which appears under the title: “Never attack family: Digvijaya Singh's lesson on political ethics toArvind Kejriwal”. Hmm! Lately, with all the corruption and scams the moment some public figure mentions “family” the only family I can think of is the “mafia family”.

So SC probably landed up with a scripted set of questions for DS. Nothing wrong in that, it’s always good to do some homework. True to form, DS also gave what looked like scripted answers. There’s only one more thing I wish NDTV had added; a polygraph machine with DS’s hand wired to it (Something like with Tyra Banks in the pic). And NDTV could have shown images of the live action on the polygraph when DS gave answers. Haha! I hope that dream of mine comes true one day. Here’s something from the interview by DS:

"He (Arvind Kejriwal) came to me in 2005 or 2006 with Swami Agnivesh and requested me that I should promote his name to become a member of the NAC. Probably Soniaji was wiser than me, so she refused," Mr Singh told NDTV. It’s possible Kejriwal aspired to a seat on NAC but not because DS says it but because AK has quite a few of his colleagues on the NAC and maybe he aspired to it. But I seriously doubt even AK would run to “kiss and tell” kind of guy like DS. I credit him with greater intelligence. AK’s friends on the NAC would have had greater influence with SoniaG than DS in that decision. AK hasn’t so far denied Diggy’s claim so let’s leave it there. The more interesting comment is this one:

Mr Singh, speaking to NDTV said, "There are ethics in politics. Never attack family. The Congress never attacked (former PM) Atal Bihar Vajpayee's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya or (senior BJP leader) L K Advani's son and daughter. Have we ever said a word against them? They have a private life of their own." Really? See, this is my problem with NDTV and their fake reporting. It’s one thing to do an interview and report it verbatim like a stenographer but altogether a different thing to fact-check what was said. Over and over again NDTV, and other channels too, have peddled DS’s nonsense without a qualifier or a fact-check of their own. This is why it appears that they are peddling lies.

Now here’s something interesting from a news report. I wonder if you can call it a news report though. This is from the Congress party’s mouth-piece called “Congress Sandesh”. It’s a report from their wonderful activities in April 2001. This is a screen shot from that report:

Yeah! On March 25, 2001 the Congress proudly observed “Dhikar Diwas” as reported. And along with PM Vajpayee they also burned effigy of Ranjan Bhattacharya. This is the “family” that DS is referring to in his interview with Sunetra. So I can safely call DS a liar when he claims Congress never attacked “family”. Now, I don’t find anything wrong if an adult member of a political family is attacked for any wrong-doing. On what grounds is DS crying over the attacks on Robert Vadra for attacks on him over land scams?

The principle of not targeting family members is informally practiced in US politics. Generally, that is applicable to private “affairs”, sexual misconducts, divorces, drug addiction etc. This does not apply to corruption through use of govt offices or accumulating wealth through corrupt means. This is where NDTV fails. They interview Diggy frequently and reproduce his trash without stating the facts. For the sake of argument if family members are to be exempt as political targets why didn’t DS condemn Priyanka Vadra for using even her kids as political leverage? Look at the pic! Not only did she get her minor kids on stage there are sycophants garlanding them. The kids look amused and uncomfortable. Clearly, Priyanka using her kids for “emotional” appeals to voters is fine but targeting family members for corruption is wrong? Who the hell is DS to make these stupid rules anyway? For the record, his own party mouthpiece proves him wrong. Will NDTV now nail his lies?

Like I mentioned it would be good fun to interview DS with a polygraph wired to his hand. But hey, on second thoughts I feel even NDTV needs a polygraph machine when they report or use sound-bites from these interviews. I’m sure once NDTV earns some money they can buy a lie-detector and have it wired to their telecasts for the benefit of viewers. 

India Today Matches Khurshid's Bad Behaviour

There are some who believe that the two reporters from the India Today (IT) group, particularly Deepak Sharma, who had conducted a supposed sting operation, put up a great spirited fight and a gutsy performance against Union Minister Salman Khurshid (SK) during his Trust scam press conference on Sunday, October 14. This is nothing but poor understanding of certain codes. A press conference is not a boxing match. I have long observed reporters behaving like uncouth, uncivilised people at press conferences. They shout over each other, they scream, they heckle, even throw footwear and worst of all, they ARGUE with the one who is holding the presser.

Those watching might get a thrill out of the drama but reporters do not have this license. (Hey, even I enjoy the drama). There is a line reporters cannot cross. Reporters don’t have the right to interrupt, right to scream or right to argue no matter what the provocation. They are not entitled to keep poking till they believe they have got the answer they want. Not done. This is where the two IT reporters at the presser came out poorly and seemed to have lost their sense of decency. Frankly, reporters are not even entitled to a Q&A if the speaker so desires. He can just make his statements, say thank you and walk away. Media cannot demand vociferously for him to answer questions, especially not answers they want to hear.

Mind you, there are some who might construe this as a defence of Salman Khurshid. Far from it! SK behaved like a barbarian, like an animal and for all his claims of ‘Oxford education’ he appeared to have been educated in some sewer. He was terrible in his choice of words and a third rate character for threatening reporters with some action or the other. Considering SK is involved with some educational institutions he demonstrated what one should teach children not to do. As a lawyer, if SK had done the same thing in a court of law he would be cooling his heels in a small prison cell.

This was neither a court nor a trial. Therefore, no matter what the speaker at the presser does reporters do not, I repeat, do not have the right to badger or argue with him. Even if they don’t get answers, they don’t have a right to argue. Even if the answer is not satisfactory they don’t have the right to fight or argue. Even if the speaker refuses to answer any question at all they do not have the right to argue. All that reporters can and should do is ask decently and listen to the answer or the silence. They may get the chance to ask a follow up question but they have no business to indulge in arguments. SK would have been well within his rights to just make his statements and walk off and not even take any questions at all. That is the practice and norm. Watch this video of Obama talking to reporters from June 2012 (1.07 minutes). One unruly reporter heckled him:

Obama was right in what he said. He even said “I didn't ask for an argument”. After the exchange Obama didn’t answer any questions and left. He is within his rights to do so. Here’s what the American press generally reported about the incident:

In a remarkable display of unprofessionalism, Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro heckled President Obama as he delivered remarks in the White House’s Rose Garden regarding a shift in immigration policy Friday afternoon. Munro’s angst is apparently connected to comments the President made in March of 2011… Munro, the video indicates, was attending the remarks with a temporary press pass.

Obama was simply far more polite than the stupid SK. Reporters can go back and report their interpretation and rant in their newspapers. In this case India Today has a channel that can condemn SK and rant about it all day and night. Let’s deviate a bit. In the US, since 1966 it is mandatory for law enforcers to read out a suspect his Fifth Amendment rights. This is popularly called the Miranda Rights. You may have heard the statement prior to an arrest or custodial interrogation: “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law”. Simply put, the “accused” has the right not to answer. The Fifth Amendment provides that an “accused” can choose silence instead of answering any question that may have the potential of “incriminating” himself in a crime or trial. If this right is not read out to a suspect, he cannot be prosecuted. The onus to prove guilt is on the prosecution and not on the accused. In this case, the onus of proving guilt is on IT and Arvind Kejriwal through demands of investigation followed by prosecution. They can fight for that. But they are not entitled to fight “their accused” at his own presser. In this case the presser is not even a trial or a court. Although the presser wasn’t a trial, SK was there to defend himself not incriminate himself. He has the right to answer what he wants and how he wants (doesn’t include bad behaviour). The media can dissect his responses in their reports. Let’s see a few clips from this presser (1.30 minutes):

Evidently, the media has shown SK’s bad behaviour but they have chopped out the agitated reporters of IT group. Not surprising. The agitated and animated behaviour of the IT reporters and the general ruckus by all the reporters is shameful to say the least. AT one point Deepak Sharma even waved papers at SK and said: “You are the law minister, you MUST answer”. Who the hell is this guy? Is he a judicial interrogator? In the process he didn’t even allow other reporters to grill SK fairly. In India, media is routinely allowed access to suspects in police vans when they are arrested. They are allowed access even into cells inside police station. The police even parade them in front of the media and make them answer questions. This is simply a gross violation of their right to silence, even if we don’t have the equivalent of the Miranda Rights. No accused owes any answer to the media or even to his interrogators. He can choose absolute silence as defence. It is for the prosecution to prove their case and not the accused to prove his guilt or innocence. Of course, the accused is entitled by law to defend and argue for his innocence.  

In the case of SK’s presser the IT reporters may not be satisfied with the answers. They have no right to badger. SK may have issued stupid threats. Reporters have a right to go back and report the misdeed as graphically as they want. Most of all, if the reporters were unhappy they have the right to walk out in protest or disgust. They do not have the right to ‘demand’ answers. They cannot ridicule the one who is holding the presser, no matter what. It is simply not done. Our media folks are known to poke mics into the faces and bodies of their targets. Even that deserves condemnation. They should keep a safe and clear distance from the person they want to question. In short, they are not allowed to behave like a lynch mob.

Some folks choose to condemn or condone bad, uncivilised behaviour by media depending on which side of the political aisle they are or on which side of an issue they are. It is worth remembering that no matter who the person, what the issue or what the case, bad behaviour by media when it crosses the line deserves nothing but severe condemnation. Even barbaric behaviour by SK cannot be a justification for media to misbehave. They should walk out if something is unacceptable to them. They are not entitled to a slanging match. That’s how they can prove they are different from politicians and criminals. Unfortunately, times are such that it’s hard to distinguish the two. Narendra Modi did the right thing when he walked out of a Karan Thapar interview when he found it disgusting. Mamata Banerjee walked out of a public interview with Sagarika Ghose when she was angry. Both sides have the right to do that.

If you were invited to a party where the host behaves badly, what would you do? Fight and argue with him? You might express a polite dissent and at worst you might say thank you and goodbye. It’s his party, he can cry if he wants to. That’s the code for the media too. If they come across a badly behaved savage, they cannot behave like him too, they should simply walk away. That would have been a bigger slap for Salman Khurshid. 

Hush Puppies

There was a time when media would have investigated these allegations, are we doing that now? asks Nidhi Razdan to a panellist about the allegations against Robert Vadra. This was on her show “Left, Right, Centre” on October 10 on NDTV. Then there is another ‘Johny-come-lately’ called Krishna Prasad, of Outlook magazine, who says “It’s easy for Narendra Modi to say 1800Crs. were spent on SoniaG’s health  and run away”..  Health? Run away? Modi has repeated the charge over and over and it still hasn’t been answered by either the govt or the media. What has been churned out is some nonsense about SoniaG’s medical treatment bills and Modi’s question was on her travel bills, not medical. So Prasad now enters the club of fiberals! And the only “running” that Modi is doing is for another term as CM.

So in a discussion on Kejriwal V Vadra a fiberal is allowed to bring in “Modi” and allowed his two-penny twisted thrill. In response to this, Nidhi turns to Meenakshi Lekhi and she starts off: “First I was going to make a different point.. but since KP has brought up Modi…” There! That hurts! Hussshhhh! Nidhi jumps and pleads “No, don’t bring in Modi please.. I beg, I beg you, please don’t bring in Modi”. Haha! I don’t blame Nidhi. You can bring up Modi as long as you want to throw mud on him, but hey, no defences please. For a channel that has hunted Modi for a decade and survived on “slandering” him, to borrow Prasad’s term in criticism of Kejriwal, it is indeed refreshing to see this changed approach. Modi seems to have worn them out and depreciated them.

Going back to the first line in this post.. “there was a time when media would have investigated.. are we doing that now?” from Nidhi, it is amazing that every media celeb keeps asking such questions to others. What are they seeking? Clean chits from some regular panellist? Why not show some honesty by putting out an editorial statement that says: ‘Yes we should have followed up on that ET report. We erred and we regret this lapse and apologise to our viewers and the public’. That would have been appreciated and sins forgiven. People don’t flog people who own up to mistakes. Hush!

By Manoj Kureel (NitiCentral)

For the record, the program started with Salman Khurshid and a mild mention of his Zakir Hussain Trust for Disabled scam. The Trust also has Khurshid’s wife as the Chief Officer. But since the scam broke on Aaj Tak’s channel no other channel seemed willing to pick it up. Doing an “ET” all over again? In contrast, every channel willingly replayed the umpires’ sting by IndiaTV over and over again. Why not! No major political stakes involved in the umpire scam. No damage to the Congress or the first family, is there? But if one goes through the India Today report and the story and list of forgeries and strange denials there seems to be a stronger case against Khurshid’s Trust than even with Robert Vadra. The investigation called “Operation Dhritarashtra” (funny title) doesn’t leave much room for doubt. Suddenly, media reported that the Khurshids have asked the Akhilesh Yadav govt to investigate already. Really? Is there any evidence, written or otherwise, that the Khurshids had asked for the investigation before or after the sting? And why should UP govt investigate? Aren’t the facts with the Khurshids themselves? Hush!

The Khurshids’ Trust story is one that is not being appropriately covered. Headlines Today alone carried the headline: “Minister’s Trust cheats disabled”. Why no debates on such a serious charge; that too a minister who is willing to “die for Sonia Gandhi”? There’s another one brewing and this one, again, is from the CAG. Although, the report is sent for Finance Ministry’s response the CAG has reported a scam of sorts in the Farmer Loan Waiver scheme. A massive scheme of 52000 crores! Let’s read some excerpts from the Times of India report:

The CAG has pointed out serious flaws in the implementation of the over Rs 52,000 crore farm debt-waiver scheme in a finding that can annoy the UPA government besides raising doubts whether it can continue to reap political dividends from the populist programme which turned out to be the gamechanger for the ruling coalition in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls…  Sources said the draft report has pointed out major deficiencies in identifying beneficiaries, expressing the fear that "undeserving farmers" may have cornered the bulk of the waiver at the cost of the deserving beneficiaries belonging to the "small and marginal" category. The findings are contrary to the government's repeated claims in Parliament that benefits accrued only to the eligible.

Debts of more than 3.7 crore farmers were written off by the government under this scheme that brought windfall gains to the Congress. Andhra Pradesh, which accounted for around Rs 11,000 crore of the total disbursal, elected 33 Congress MPs to the Lok Sabha. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, where the scheme was also implemented, too, rewarded the party handsomely. The three states together elected 69 of the 207 MPs elected to Lok Sabha on Congress ticket…  Announced just ahead of the 2009 parliamentary polls, the scheme wrote off the loan liabilities of "eligible" farmers pending till then.

So the biggest beneficiaries appear to be Congress states and UP. All three states paid handsome returns to the Congress in the 2009. Now, we know that the TV channels will explain that this is a “draft” report. However, we have known them to report based on draft reports and even the Congress to wrongly claim that some previous CAG reports were not tabled in parliament even during session under the fake claim of “draft”, even final when report was submitted to the president. Hush!

Then, on the issue of Robert Vadra, media channels have been frequently getting Congress persons like Rajiv Shukla and Sandeep Dikshit to make illegal land allegations against Prashant Bhushan & family. They are also demanding an inquiry. Fine, so what stops them? They are the govt aren’t they? What stops them unleashing CBI or ED or IT on the Bhushans’ land purchases in HP? Even Shanti Bhushan has stated that he is open to any inquiry of any kind by any govt so why are the Congressmen being allowed to repeat the frivolous nonsense again and again instead of a govt inquiry? This is particular so on Times Now. NDTV even had a reporter cover the Bhushans’ land and property in camera. But do any of these channels even have one image of which airline, aircraft or private chartered plane that SoniaG or RahulG use for their foreign travels? Hush!

And even now people like Yogendra Yadav on CNN-IBN and Krishna Prasad are propagating lies about Modi’s “1880 crores” being about SoniaG’s medical treatment. In this case it’s not just these two people but all media channels that qualify to be called LIARS. Still, there is no valid clarification from media, CIC or PMO on the “travels and expenses” on those of Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi. Even Madhu Kishwar’s RTI query remains unanswered. Hush! In a previous post I talked about how ground reporters feel like stray dogs owing to the way their editors treat them. In TV studios the celebs and others feel slightly better like: Hush Puppies!