Blogging and Bias in Mainstream Media

Time for a fox news equivalent in India. May be I will start one. :-)

What you say is true Sandeep. The media has a stranglehold on public discourse in India. What is most unfortunate is that the entire English language media has more or less the same ideological orientation. This makes the media monotonous as we hear almost the same opinions everywhere. The presence of only a few ideological orientations also prevents critical debate. Those who wish to take different opinions are denounced as communal or anti poor (of course without going into the merits of the arguments, and the self declared guardians of secularism dont like to be bothered with facts.) Things have come to this because of two reasons. One is the tendency of the average Indian to lap up everything that is said by the people in suits on tv news channels without critical evaluation. The other is the stranglehold that the self appointed guardians of secularism have on the Indian media. These individuals ensure that dissenting voices like that of Bhosle and Arun Shourie are shunted out (facts are secondary of course, truth can wait, ideology is first, why be bothered with facts?) Fortunately, we have papers like Indian Express which are committed to objective journalism (with gutsy and truth speaking columnists like Tavleen Singh, Balbir Punj, Sudheendra Kulkarni etc.) We need more. Who is going to come up with an Indian avatar of Fox News or Jihad Watch? The time is now.

Atlantean

I donot like Shourie (seller of the nation) and Tavleen singh (elite pompous bs).....I would add swapan dasgupta and Chandan mitra to your list. Daily Pioneer is a true blooded nationalist newspaper (if that is a description).
I am also not in agreement about Shekhar Gupta's Express, i would classify it as another centre of left newspaper.

cheers

Hindus (including Jains and Budhists) who are tired of pseudo-secular governments and media are invited to join Swabhimaan - a movement launched to unite Hindus of India and protect their interests. For more details please visit
http://swabhimaan2008.blogspot.com/2008/11/om-ganseshay-namah-om-shivay-om-durgay.html


STRENGTHEN US WITH YOUR PARTICIPATION

Swabhiman:
"Hindus (including Jains and Budhists) who are tired of pseudo-secular governments and media are invited to join Swabhimaan - a movement launched to unite Hindus of India and protect their interests."

?? I thought _The Hindu_ newspaper was doing precisely that? :-) Why divide attention?

Chandra:

""Time for a fox news equivalent in India."'

Eeeeeh! I threw up and now my notebook is wrecked. You have the blood of my computer on your hands :-)

Media chose to portray the images of heroism, sacrifices, solidarity, unity, business-like precision how crisis was resolved. What would have been the coverage like if BJP was in power?

The coverage would have focussed on the following:

1) How police/NSG appratus was late, lazy, inept and how it cost lives - the testimonials about that would have saturated the live coverage

2) Media would have looked for and focussed on stories where people got killed/hurt in fire or by bullets due to negligence or delay by police/NSG/firemen. We would have been shown the gut-wrenching grief of their relatives and the blame game

3) Media would have given us expert speculations on how terrorists could have been caught at various points during the 3day siege but for the lapses from police/NSG

4) How hostages and hotel guests were mistreated by hotel staff, police, security personnel and how government did little to set up first aid, accommodation, counselling, help. We would have eye-witness account of how they goofed it all up

5) How victims and survivors at the Hotel were given preferential treatment while those at VT station were ignored. How foreigners were given preferential treatment over locals.

6) What did burocracies within security apparatus do and did not do - their lapses would have been the main focus of live coverage.

7) Who are the victims, their intimate profile to humanize them rather than being lumped as abstract collateral damage and victim count, how each victim died or got hurt, what could have been done
to save each of that life etc would have been focus of 24/7 live coverage

8) How deficient were the armaments used by police and NSG, who ordered these armaments, various procurement/money scams would have been uncovered to put the key people in the government on the dock

Indian media specializes in creating customized coverage of such events depending on which party is in power - One can see the sharp contrast how it covers events under congress rule vs BJP rule.

Not sure of the media, but Kerty has his template ready. Anyways, the media has already done the story on faulty equipment, improperly trained personnel and pref treatment to foreigners.

DL:

""Not sure of the media, but Kerty has his template ready""

yep, predictable as ever.

DL

Yes. Indian media is very predictable and its templates are well-defined and so obvious.

Treason of the learned
Gautam Mukherjee

"key reason for this disgraceful vulnerability is not gross intelligence failure, sluggish response, logistical inadequacy, ill-equipped constabulary or a less than high-tech armed force, but that same debilitating dogma that saps our political will. And in a functioning democracy, political will is of paramount importance. It is political will and firm direction that has kept terrorist strikes in the singular-and-never-again category in the UK and the US. And it is the lack of this self-same political will that is responsible for the frequent gouging of India's soft underbelly"

"

The UPA version of twisted reality demands all Indians to shoulder their responsibility towards this permanently aggrieved minority community, even as it harbours, aids, abets and cheers terrorism in mosque, chaupal and home alike. We should simply mop up the blood of innocents, bury and cremate the dead, mouth platitudes for those martyred in our defence, used up like so much cannon fodder, and then return to normality without demur. And wait for the next round of retribution from 'justifiably angry' jihadis"


Full article
http://www.dailypioneer.com/138560/Treason-of-the-learned.html