My piece on the media’s open bias and deception was published today in the Pioneer. Comments as always, are welcome.
Putty in the hands of jihadis
Sandeep B
Instead of raising a din and forcing the Government to wake up to the threat of terrorism, our media is obsessed with the motivation of the killers and whether they were ‘really’ Pakistanis!Before the waves of smoke have even receded, the media machine worldwide has launched itself into a predictable overdrive. Barely a few hours in the wake of the wanton violence in Mumbai, the media began an orgy of speculation, cliché, and in some cases, open falsehood. It was almost formulaic, as though it was orchestrated. The victims as usual were reason, logic, facts, and in one case, history. The language is equally misleading. Very few news reports used the word “terrorist.” “Militant” was the hot favourite.
The standard refrain emanating from this media overdrive seems to be the “real motive” that propelled the terrorists! Because the Deccan Mujahideen and other local outfits figured in the list of perpetrators, the media dished out the “one theory that explains all,” as we shall see. Secular progressives have been peddling this perverse theory for a few decades in the Indian public discourse. However, in recent times, the field has widened. When taken to its logical conclusion, this theory reverses roles where the victim becomes the aggressor. In the current case, it simply means that India deserved this attack for we invited it upon ourselves.
This grand narrative is the sense of Muslim victimhood. The central premise of this narrative rests upon the all-encompassing and institutionalised Muslim discrimination that exists in India. In the wake of the Mumbai attacks, this theory has been revived almost instantly. Several editorials and opinion pieces assert that this attack is proof that anti-Muslim discrimination has reached record proportions. They worry that it is continually driving thousands of Muslim youth to willingly get brainwashed by the Pakistani jihadi industry.
This narrative has now been globalised.
A Time magazine article (November 27) ostensibly tracing the “beginning of (this) problem,” presents a one-sided account of Indian history, which is at once biased and inaccurate. For example, it traces Mangal Pandey (and the subsequent Indian independence war of 1857) as the cause for the final removal of the Mughal Empire by the British! The piece also faithfully repeats the standard clichés about the Gujarat riots.
Another article in the Huffington Post (November 28) blames the BJP for bringing India to this state of affairs! But the most shameful of them all hails from an Indian media outlet. In a news report, it inserts a cunning speculation about the religious identity of a terrorist who was found wearing a religious band on his wrist. The speculation hints at the possibility that the terrorist was Hindu but adds a disclaimer that it is unfounded. While this qualifies as accurate reporting, the insinuation has already been made, and picked up. A prominent observer on a news channel repeatedly emphasised the existence of a “beast” called Hindu terrorism.Amid all this Muslim-victimhood trumpeting, the media seems to have forgotten a basic, simple truth: Common sense. On the contrary, it advertises its lack of common sense with great pride. It brandishes every explanation and analysis except the most obvious. Common sense says that the Mumbai attack is the latest and most severe evidence that the Pakistan jihadi machine has declared a war against India; and that this jihad is no longer restricted to Kashmir. It is well-oiled and, thanks to a pusillanimous Government, can strike at will.
Instead of focusing on national security and kicking the Government awake to take action, the media takes refuge in spinning reams about the psyche and motivation of the terrorists and whether they are “really” Pakistani terrorists and other assorted mindlessness.
Great Post Sir . I would like to know whether you have written anything on Godhra riots as well . Also , have you seen the video in which a bunch of Pakistani’s have analysed the Mumbai attacks ? If not , here it is : http://www.hotklix.com/?ref=content/152704
All this while the government at the center headed by we-know-who has opted to put ‘diplomatic and international’
pressure on the Islamabad leadership. The dictum by which it is going currently, ‘A Resignation a day will keep the anti-incumbency factor at bay’.
Hi Sandeep.
I absolutely agree with you that the media has been pathetic in it’s reporting. While the Army and the Police were trying to deal with the situation in the background of a total absence of any leadership/ crisi plans/protocols the electronic media jumped in all guns blazing in what it saw as a 60 hr block buster. I ti shocking that the media channnels could report live from the site about an ongoing operation. If our “award winning” buffoons from NDTV and IBN had their way we could have the most imaginative shots from the US war on Terror. It is pathetic to see the bosses patting themselves on the back and justifying the most irresponsible peice of news as “information”. As Taj was burning Fox news was speaking to a blogger who enthusiastically talked of how everyone is connected in a global world. So while even the US with all the “embedded journalists” would be coming with small quantum packets of its anti terror operations, our media excelled in mixing , editing and Manufacturing all the ingredients of a B grade Bollywood . Heroism and Courage MARCOS who are so anonymous their families do not know the nature of their work were gladly singing on the TV and providing the required pulp for fiction. It is tragic and absolutely pathetic that the fourth pillar of democracy has seen more value in being the fifth column.
I feel too weary and pessimistic to even suggest a solution. At this stage the emergency period with press censorship feels like the golden age. I can see that over the next few weeks of milking this episode there will be discussions on the role of media in the big fights and we the people etc. In all that tinned discuusions and tinned self congratulations any serious discussion on the regulation of media will be thwarted. Some might talk of self regulation which is a joke.
Finally again and I say this with huge respect to our Armed forces and the Police does it take 60 X x man hours to kill/nab 10 terrorists. I suspect the q will not go well but I think it is worth pondering over.
Ravi T
Just to remind everyone to keep asking everyone they know to vote out UPA. It has been my observation, following Indian strategy for a decade, that Indians who do not follow strategy/politics etc forget and try to be too clever by half, analyzing things to death with their half-baked media-inspired theories. They go off on tangents at every possible point, and in a few days from the incident which put so much anger into them, they have managed to confuse themselves into indecision.
So one thing:
Repeat after me: Throw out the appeasers, ie the UPA. Bring in the BJP. And then pressure the BJP to stop appeasement. This is “Thing to do number 1″. Pakistan etc comes later. Getting the BJP in by itself will increase the sale of adult diapers in Pakistan 72 fold. Worry about the mini Paks that the Kaangress is nourishing in India.
but isn’t this entire blog was dedicated to the cause of establishing hindu victimhood?? then why you have issue with muslimms trying to do same about their victimhood?
let us all be victims!!
The navy chief has come down heavily on the so called secular media
http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120360861300.htm
“The competition among news channels to score brownie points reminded him of the “famous shot†during the Kargil War that led to the destruction of an ultra-powerful artillery gun of the Army. Three soldiers died and the Colonel, who yielded to a woman reporter’s entreaty to fire the gun for the camera’s benefit was dismissed from service.”
“Admiral Mehta said he was disturbed by the “extra heavy reporting†on the attacks. “When operations are taking place, you are reporting that two commandos are going inside. They [terrorists] were in live contact with their masters, who were telling them what the channels were reporting. I think it requires a certain amount of restraint in ongoing operations. Do you really have to give minute-by-minute coverage? Media is an enabling instrument. Today it is a disenabling instrument.—
http://www.askenni.com/archives/2004/07/barkha_dutt_-_a.html
And this female journalist is none other than Burqa Dutt. Seems like there has been a conspiracy to hide the crimes committed by the media.
“What I understand is that Barkha Dutt wanted a PTC — I think, Person to Camera — shot of soldiers during an interview at dead of night. The soldiers did not want flashlight on as the enemy can detect and fire but she insisted. Finally, the expected happened and a few soldiers lost their lives but not Barkha Dutt. This is controversial reporting, despite given her Columbia school training.”
And one media person is blamed immediately another secular comes to rescue
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?id=9e30ef67-5834-4c1a-ac8d-9015b3fd416cMumbaiunderattack_Special&&Headline=Shameful+naval-gazers
“The behaviour of the Chief of the Naval Staff over the last two days has been regrettable, shocking and on a par with that of the worst cowbelt politicians who blame the media for their failures.”
This is what our parasitic media have to say about the Navy whose Commandos did a commendable job.
Shurvo: You have to call spade a spade. Regardless of why this blog is being run, you cant deny the fact of media’s manipulations. Where are muslims victims? In India? i will laugh my &**** off if you say that. Have you forgotten about the reservations and whole list of benefits they enjoy which are denied to other religions. To start with – number of children a family has shoudl be proportionate to their incomes. Can you tell this to families that dont follow this diktat and blame the government for poverty. If you have 7 mouths to feed with single income, how could you call yourself a victim.
Interestingly, the extremist leftwing newspaper, The Hindu, was focusing on *Pakistani* media and on how the latter was allegedly upset that Indian media was not asking the Indian government for proof of Paki complicity in Mumbai massacres. Among the gripes of the Paki media that The Hindu sympathetically aired, one stood out: that the Indian media is more interested in projecting India as a success story.
Now, that should have warmed the cockles of commie fanatics in The Hindu because that is exactly the whine of the Indian leftwingers too. They believe that Indian media should follow their example, for instance, of playing up farmer suicides (with exaggerated numbers of suicides), and downplay our success in economic growth; as a country of people oppressed, victimized and even more impoverished (farmer suicides again) by “neoliberal” economic policies.
So there is for you another dimension in which the interests of Pakistan’s Islamist media and India’s leftwing media align.
Strengthen us with your participation
http://swabhimaan2008.blogspot.com/2008/11/om-ganseshay-namah-om-shivay-om-durgay.html