Apps
Contact
Seminars
RSS FeedNovember 3rd, 2011
On state of journalism in India
Recently, Mr. Markandey Katju, head of the Press Council of India (and former Supreme Court justice) passed rather severe judgment on the state of journalism in India. To begin, I think his comments are welcome in bringing attention to the quality of media (of which I am often a harsh critic, although my criticism is not limited to any geographical boundaries).
But more importantly, he may have overlooked that everything works together. While Mr. Katju may be right in expressing that the education and the “well-read” level of the media people may be less than their colleagues in other nations, but then again, that might be the case of the nation as a whole (depending upon which country you compare India to). As the country itself becomes more educated and “well-read”, so would the media. It is doubtful that a very educated nation would give its attention to media folks who are not well-read or up to speed on the various perspectives. There is a strong competition in the media market in India, and ultimately, that is what will lead to improved “level” (however that may be defined) of the media, than Mr. Katju and the Press Council of India.
It may seem that Katju could have picked a more productive way of making a change by picking a specific issue (such as “Paid News”) than by criticizing an industry as a whole.
August 16th, 2011
When did Ron Paul acquire the Invisibility Potion?
I have been talking about the duplicity of media for way too long – media only covers stories that make “good stories” – we have to find our own news, so we can form our own views.
Best quote:
If all of Huntsman’s supporters met at the same Ames Quiznos, the fire marshal would say: (dramatic pause)
Yeah, that’s fine, no problem. We have some tables open in the back.
August 5th, 2011
Irresponsible Media, and 99 other ways to lie
This from News 24 in South Africa
I wonder why the media never has stories like “Irrational delirium creates $2.5 trillion of fake value in stocks”. Perhaps the answer lies in the various kinds of advertising.
As for the second highlight (disguising advertising as news items), perhaps that is an admission by the media that they no longer know or care about the facts?
October 3rd, 2010
Commonwealth Games 2010 – New Delhi
Ok, finally the Commonwealth Games 2010 are on the way in New Delhi. This is the first time India is hosting an event of this magnitude since the Asian Games of 1982. The media frenzy that preceded the event notwithstanding, the opening ceremony seems to have gone very well and the first videos on Youtube have started appearing.
I feel bad to have missed the opening ceremony, but as far as I was able to read, the conch shells from India, the Tibetan ‘Dung Chen’s and various other musical instruments have left a great impression on the people who witnessed it.
So, what do we make of all the media hoopla leading up to the event? There is a strange case of media bias. Many of the atomic complaints that the media highlights were all true – things lagged, schedules slipped, etc, and the problem isn’t really in reporting that – that is what the media is here for. The bias starts becoming apparent however, when the next day, the same exact information is repeated as “news” with the only addition being perhaps of a quote from one other person. So, the feeling is that the news agencies have to keep a focus on the chaos that existed before. Having found nothing today, they need to keep stretching the ghosts of yesterday. And if some day turned out to be good, the media simply doesn’t have to report it, turning its attention to other important matters of the universe. This is all subjective however, and if it weren’t for a very repetitive pattern, it would really be fine.
CNN takes a different take. It begins with the very neutral headline: Commonwealth Games begin in India “amid security”. One might ask, as opposed to what? Did CNN expect a free movement of people across the parliament, the presidents house and the capital with no security in place. Did the Olympics begin in Beijing (or even in pre-911 Atlanta) without security? Which part of the title is the news?
And then, don’t even get me started on the BBC. I stopped being its reader back when BBC stopped being anti-India covertly (and became overtly anti-Indian). Incidentally – on that note – BBC still hasn’t found any further details on the “gunmen” of 26-11, although it continues to end every piece on India with the standard 3-sentence paragraph about the 3 wars with India’s western neighbor. That’s really great for about two kinds of readers – those who have in coma for about 64 years, and those who want to have 3 sentences for every country so they can get on the big boss or some other reality show. It meets BBC’s agenda of always hyphenating India so that it doesn’t challenge UK’s rightful place (as what, I don’t really know). [I routinely get some emails from UK readers - something like "Please stop equating BBC with UK!" - and I always tell them the same thing - "I cannot distinguish, because BBC is FUNDED by the UK - it isn't just a UK company."]
Anyway, back to the games, the medals tally can be found here: CWG 2010 Medalls Tally.
October 1st, 2010
Facts and Information
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Mark Twain
Every day some or other news comes about that says “Car sales highest in one year!”, “Unemployment at lowest point in 36 years!”. And this, and that! For one thing, almost all of those facts are true. For second, they are also ridiculous misrepresentations. (Unless of course you happen to be reading National Enquirer, in which they are all false but serious representations.)
This doesn’t happen just in the media and news (although, media has the first right to blame due to its power). I came across a recommendation about a candidate: “One of my top 25% students in last 16 years.” So does that mean you had to go back 16 years so that he would squeeze into the 25%? Was he not the top 25% of students this past year?
By amrinder | View this Toon
May 3rd, 2010
Mumbai seige – 18 months after
18 months after the Mumbai seige, it is time to review how badly 2 news media reported it.
- BBC: Mumbai attacks will be go down in history as one of the worst reporting achievements of Biased Broadcasting Corporation. It lead to some unbelievably crass reporting by BBC, where in it chose to report the terrorists as gunmen, and chose to entirely deny the fact that the Jewish center had been chosen by design. Starting from the very first report, it chose to represent India as a country in general chaos with a “history of unrest”, which should somehow justify the attacks there, so that the rest of us living in the “civilized west” can go on with our lives undeterred by this “local Indian problem”, which at least as BBC chose to believe, is not related to “terrorism”. British parliamentarian Stephen Pound referred to the BBC’s whitewashing of the terror attacks as “the worst sort of mealy mouthed posturing. It is desperation to avoid causing offence which ultimately causes more offence to everyone.”
- New York Times: As the Wall Street Journal puts it:
“Meanwhile — perhaps even more disgracefully — a New York Times report on the last day of the siege stated: ‘It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene.’ Has the New York Times learned anything since the Holocaust, when, even after the war ended in the spring of 1945, the paper infamously refused to report that the Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Germans and so on killed in the camps had been Jews, and killed as Jews?”
February 20th, 2010
Lack of Fairness in News Media
From calling killers “terrorists” in London, and “gunmen” in Mumbai (British Biased Corporation), to something as simple as a recent news story on AFP: India restaurant bombing toll ‘rises to 12′ (note the quotes), lack of fairness exists at many levels in news media.
Here is how the story extends:
“The death toll from a blast that ripped through a packed restaurant last weekend in western India, which was claimed by a previously unknown Islamist group has risen to 12, a report said Saturday.”
A little later it says: “The latest fatality was a 26-year-old Sudanese student, Amjad Elgazoli, who was studying at college in Pune…”
So, my question – what part of the title made the editor so nervous that he had to put the toll in quotes? What part of the news report was debatable or not solemn enough to justify adding some quotes?
September 12th, 2009
Give Justice a Chance
It has become commonplace in Indian politics for media to question the minister after the court gives out a verdict. As an example, when Moninder Pandher got acquitted in the infamous Nithari serial killing cases, the media was all over the Indian Union minister for women and child development, Krishna Tirath.
This is not the most conducive way to further the separation of executive and judiciary. The media in this case wants to see if the minister can do anything to further the prosecution’s angle since the judiciary had decided to acquit the charged individual. If the minister were indeed to try that, should not the same media classify the actions as interference in justice and political vindication?
If, say hypothetically, the charged had been found guilty, and the minister interfered with that, would the media and the public find it acceptable?
The minister’s reaction “What can I say when the CBI is investigating the matter”, is fairly acceptable even if a bit ineloquent, since both CBI and the judge can (and should) hold the minister in contempt if minister does make a significant statement.
June 12th, 2009
Letterman and a 14 year old girl
When you witness a spat between a former vice president candidate and a very well respected (and funny!) talk show host, and it gets so personal, you may really wonder – who has more to lose.
Sarah Palin has the potential of going down as one of the funniest (not in a positive way) Vice Presidents we didn’t have. Yet, in this case, it appears to me that if a public poll was taken, a majority of people would say that Letterman crossed the line by including her children in a spat. Multiple rounds of punches and counter punches later, and it appears that a comedian who can get offended by someone taking offense at the jokes does have a fair bit to lose. (Or perhaps, it is just some late onset OCD for Dave.)
One of the things that comedians do is to try a lot of things. Some are funny, and they stick, and you say those things a lot. Others are not so funny, and you discard them. Still others are offensive, and you try to bury them asap! This one in particular is in the 3rd group.
So, just say sorry and move on to the next joke Dave.
June 3rd, 2009
The idiotic CNN and AFP just don’t get it
See the screaming headline on AFP “‘Untouchable’ elected India’s first woman speaker” or the slightly more moderate “India’s parliament elects first woman speaker“. Then read on the CNN’s version, as they say: “Hindus believe there are five main groups of people. The last group is the Dalits. They’re considered impure and are often forced to work in menial jobs. They drink from separate wells and use different entry ways to come and go from buildings.” Notice, the high handedness, the absoluteness, and the lack of any qualifiers on when any of those things happen.
This is journalist at its worst – not reporting what happens, but reporting what the journalist believes in. Let us dissect CNN’s thoughtful commentary line by line:
- “Hindus believe there are five main groups of people. The last group is the Dalits.”. Which Hindus? Did CNN check with all living Hindus, or did they at least use a recent Gallup poll? Where is the citation? I know about a million Hindus, and while a vast majority of them seem to believe that Sachin Tendulkar is a living God, their thoughts on the subject of caste system are extremely hazy.
- Then, it gets better: “They’re considered impure and are often forced to work in menial jobs.“ Considered “impure”, by who? By you, me, or the CNN? Again, the implication is that they are considered “impure” by ALL HINDUS, or at least by a vast majority of them, or at the very very least, by a significant percentage of Hindus. In that case, where is citation (or at least the mention) of the poll or the study?
- Definitely, this journalist has saved the best for the last, because in the end it goes beyond what Hindus believe, into what Hindus do, every day of their lives! “They (Dalits) drink from separate wells and use different entry ways to come and go from buildings.” If you have ever visited India, or interacted with Hindus at other places, have you noticed this? In the middle class Indian cities, do you find separate wells for Dalits, if you find wells at all? In rural India, do you see this happening? Do you see Indian buildings with multiple entraces? The point isn’t that it is happening *somewhere*. The point is the unqualified mega statements made by a journalist who forgot to study journalism and focused on social action instead.
The point isn’t that casteism isn’t a problem that needs to be continuously addressed. Similar to racism in America, it is a problem that exists in pockets, but is nuanced. Making generic society wide statements hardly adds any value.