IS THIS THE MEDIA WE BELIEVE?: 2013

Congress has not remained in power at the Centre for over five decades by being stupid. A large part of the reason behind its staying power has of course been propaganda disseminated through State-run institutions and media outlets.

Now that the latest genetic miracle to come out of The Family has begun to be projected as India’s last best hope against forces of communalism (cough BJP cough) that threaten to tear the nation apart, it must seem only natural to Congress sycophants that his name and his qualities (mostly imaginary) be drilled into the minds of the upcoming generation of young Indians.

The propaganda has already started. The image is from the text book titled Together with English – 5, an English comprehension book. The book is part of the recommended syllabus at Pramati School in Mysore. The school is affliated to the CBSE board.

Seriously? Pappu? A role model? One may, with some effort, get past the lies about his being “confident” and “mature”. But then the exercise gets to calling him a “natural at public life” and even goes to the extent of prompting students to assign qualities like “energetic” to him.

This would be extremely funny, if it weren’t extremely tragic.

DIsclaimer : This post was written specifically for Niticentral and was hosted here --> www.niticentral.com .<-- . The post was subsequently removed without informing author (me)..

If polls were to be held in the social media, Rajdeep Sardesai would almost certainly be 'crowned' Habitual Liar. Sardesai has more than 8 lakh followers on Twitter, more than any other “journo types” of national significance (Barkha Dutt has marginally more but she is nowhere close to being a national leader in league of Lying Journos yet). The vast tribe of InHouse Reporter and a well-oiled PR machine of Limozine Fiberals have ensured that Sardesai's status as “Habitual Liar” on any web platform remains unchallenged. Even a belated attempt by his well meaning critics to target him as "Hamami" or “Sar Dard Kasai” hasn't had any real impact on his soaring popularity in a left-wing dominated mainstream media discourse.

The Social Media (SM), by contrast, has always had a more uneven relationship with the CNNIBN Head-honcho. Sardesai's acolytes would like to suggest that the SM has always been anti-Sardesai and has hounded the CNNIBN's rising star with a ferocity that no other “journo type” in this country has had to confront. Sardesai, as a victim of an Internet Hindu 'conspiracy,' is a narrative that has been played out for over few years now by the Head Honcho and his army of Limozine Fiberals , a narrative that aims to position Sardesai as a one-man army standing up to the might of the social media. The truth, as it often is, happens to be far more complex.

In the 1990s, when Sardesai was a reporter of the Times of India, those who tracked him will remember the failed cricketer-turned-journalist as an artful reporter who always had time for lies. Over endless cups of coffee, Sardesai would speak candidly about contemporary politics and was ever-willing to share his personal experiences. He was, in many ways, even then, a made-for-television journalist: firm and liar, always smartly turned out.

One incident in the early 90s stands out. We were reading a morning news paper and just as we started, found a Sardesai Article. I can visualize someone ringing up Mr Sardesai and asking if he would step in for writing an article for praising Dawood. He knew he was a last minute replacement for writing that article but that didn't stop him burning midnight oil and writing the article, well-prepared and yes, calling Dawood a patriot. Much water has flowed under the Yamuna since then, but Sardesai's love for the lies pre-dates his journalstic rise.

The year 2010 changed Sardesai's equations with Social Media and, in particular, with the Globally based “Internet Hindus”. The twitter was the journo's first encounter with real voice in the age of 24x7 television. The graphic images of the Rajdeep’s Lies stayed in the mind long after the same had been deleted. Sardesai as the man in charge of CNNIBN during the lying episodes became the natural target of the social media frenzy at the time. As someone who covered both the #RadiaTapes and the #HypocriteRajdeep, my experience has left me convinced that no journalist (barring few) can post unbiased news items without a mix of head honcho’s incompetence and complicity. Barkha under Prannoy Roy was just as terrible as Hypocrite Rajdeep: the difference was we had to trend #RadiaTapes for 13 days to bring the horrors into every drawing room. The image of Sardesai as Liar while his channel faked Live Interviews stuck.

It would have been no different had anyone else been the Head Honcho. Sardesai, though, took the criticism personally, believing it was part of an orchestrated campaign by an English-speaking, right wing facist 'social' media. By raising the war cry of Credibility, he tried to transform his channel tweeting into a virtual confrontation between him as 'headhoncho' of ‘Journo Types” on one side and the 'villainous' social media on the other. The result was a long period of combative behaviour, marked by blocking by him, ‘tyranny of distance’ and “bodycount” comment, and, in some instances, even use of “F” word by him and his groupies. Gone it seemed was the Mr Nice Guy of the 1990s to be replaced by a headhoncho intolerant of any form of hard questioning.

That adversarial period is still on primarily after 2010 as the quest for real unbiased news goes on. In the last three years though, there has been another twist in the tale. The cries of the abuse are now, at best, a daliy ritual. Sardesai still makes the fake tweets, but more often than not he is caught for his Hypocrisy. If the CNNIBN story was shadowed by Sardesai at one time, today the social media has done an almost 360 degree turn. Now, it's the Sardesai mantra of body counts and hypocrisy of Waterless Holi that shocks all else. CAG reports questioned and raised valid concerns over contracts to CNNIBN besides other main stream media but it barely get a mention. If the CNNIBN story was once told through the prism of Sardesai, it is now told through the eyes of corporate India. A section of the Limozine Fiberals media has got so carried away that they appear almost as propagandists for a Head Honcho who is seen to do no wrong.

Journalism cannot be public relations; nor can it be character assassination. Now, as Sardesai is poised for his next big leap, may be it is time for the social media to reset its moral compass: is it possible to analyse the Sardesai phenomenon by moving beyond the extremes of glorification or vilification? Can the social media find a middle ground where Sardesai can be assessed in a neutral, dispassionate manner without facing the charge of bias or being a Liar? Or is Sardesai such a habitual liar that even the social media has been united against him? My own personal experience suggests that it won’t be easy to avoid being bracketed as pro or anti-Sardesai. But yet, we must make the effort because Social Media in its purest form must remain the pursuit of truth shorn of Bias and Lies. Sardesai has become a test case for the Social media's ability to rise above the mundane, hit the nail hard on bulls eye and take an apology.

IS THIS THE MEDIA WE BELIEVE?

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Monday, July 29, 2013

#Pappu makes it to textbook!

The curious case of Ashok Gehlot’s Turkish ‘Likes’

NDTV promotes abusive Congress trolls on prime time TV

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Planted Conspiracy Theories by #TwitterNrega & #PMPnrega

Friday, June 14, 2013

Sardesai presents the twitter with its toughest 'Truth' test

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Wharton’s shameful act in refusing to hear the Voice of Emerging India-after requesting for it