Chindu parades "prominent intellectuals" in an attempt to manufacture news

A motley group of leftists have been gathered to speak against the nuclear deal and suddenly Chindu sees a groundswell opposition against the deal. These peoples have proved their "prominent intellectuals" status by supporting the Left and speaking against the communal forces.

The Hindu : Front Page : UPA urged not to act in haste

Prominent intellectuals caution government against the agreement

“Considering that a majority of the Indian Parliament is opposed to the
‘deal’ as it currently stands, it is outrageous and despicable to
suggest that a section of this opposition is taking its cue from China
or Iran or elsewhere, or that foreign policy is being ‘communalised’.
No one needs a certificate of patriotism from the communal forces and
their friends in the media.

The Left Parties have acted in a most responsible fashion in refusing
to join the BJP-inspired moves to bring down this government. They have
not demanded that the agreement be repudiated as such.

Missing sacred facts on Chindu

Socal, thanks for the link. The "allegations" against Pratibha Patil are not presented in entireity. Neena Vyas wrote an article on it with the sole intention to discredit BJP and selectively pick loopholes. The established facts -- which raise considerable questions on her integrity -- have been conviniently ommitted.

Another example is CPM's lead role in Singur murder is an established fact but it turned up as "allegations" on Chindu.

Or how about the CIA report documenting CPM's active role in plotting against India during the 1962 Chinese invasion.

Have I not been documenting these "facts" and "allegations" on Chindu. The pattern is fairly obvious, isn't it. Inconvenient "facts" are conveniently ignored or turned into "allegations". When it is an allegation against the Hindus or BJP, it turns into a "sacred fact".
Call it ethical journalism, Chindu style.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Chindu on UC Banerjee report preaching sanctimoniously- "Facts are Sacred"
http://www.hindu.com/2006/03/07/stories/2006030703141000.htm

Facts nowhere to be seen in Pratibha Patil case. Apparently it is all allegations.

Posted by socal to The Chindu at June 30, 2007 5:14 PM

N.Ram's diatribe

We have known N.Ram's hate-filled agenda for long enough. So instead of debating this article, I shall list down the adjectives used by N.Ram against the BJP:

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : BJP’s bluster

the best spin machine in the political business
belligerent approach to the Presidential election
emerged from it even worse than expected
the party ran the most vainglorious campaign
instinctively aggressive BJP
The less said about the quality of the BJP’s presidential campaign, the better
The party has lurched from one unprincipled position to another
finally reverting shrilly to Mr. Shekhawat
This stratagem has failed ignominiously

And then, there are some misinterpretations tailored to his theory:

projecting an outright victory in the 2007 State contest but also claiming top honours in the 2009 general election
The basis of this confidence? Eight mayoral seats won earlier in a municipal election

This whole article only reminds me of the fall from the great editorial standards that were once the hallmark of this newspaper.

Short on facts and long on rumours

Facts, completeness and background

S. Savitri of Chengalpattu (Tamil Nadu), "who holds The Hindu in great reverence," has several questions about the paper's reporting of the swearing-in of the new Chief Minister in Uttarakhand. The photo caption did not fully and correctly identify those seen. The report — "short on facts and long on rumours" — did not list all the dignitaries who attended. She found all these details and more in other papers. A Congress or a Left Government being sworn in would not "have received such a lackadaisical coverage," she added.

Very well pointed by S.Savitri. But I have a question for Savitri. Why do you still consider The Chindu in "great reverence"?

Preferences or prejudices should not intrude into actual reporting, when fairness is the paper's credo.

Thank you. Now lets get back to praising CPI(M).

Contradicting editorial stance on banning movies

The Da Vinci Code:

Clearance and the Code
CBCNN hailed the tolerant stance of Catholic bodies but lamented on the Government's procedure for clearing the film. It also wondered how the Government would have reacted if the clergy demanded a ban.

The movie was released and the inevitable mayhem followed. State governments imposed a ban. This when Christian nations did not have any problem with the movie. The Christian groups went on a rampage in India. CBCNN meticulously covered all the events. A few are given below:

`The Da Vinci Code' banned in State
Goa bans The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code banned in Pondicherry
Tamil Nadu suspends screening of The Da Vinci Code
Christian groups attack Imax theatre
`Da Vinci Code' banned (in Punjab)

But there was no editorial by N.Ram lambasting the ban by state governments and the violent threats by the Christians. When cornered, the communists scoot.

A lumpen foot soldier, A Srivatsan writes about the ban on DVC.
Films and the politics of convenience

And boy, is he sermoning!

The issue in focus is not which community the government supports and which it does not. In fact, such a discussion distracts from the important issue of allowing multiple views to circulate and foster tolerance of contestations and criticisms.

All the other movies in the list attack Hindu sentiments and they have not been banned. The only movie to be banned involves Christian sentiments. The author is cleverly asking us to ignore government support for Christians because it is *** a distraction ***.

In all these incidents, the films were not banned but screened. Rajaji's response to Parasakthi is worth recalling in the present context. He was unhappy with Parasakthi but allowed it to be screened. He said the course of freedom could not be dammed and things could go on until people learnt themselves about what was worthless.

But the Da Vinci Code movie is banned. So, the state government is wrong, isnt it?

But the State Government can suspend the exhibition of a film if it considers that it will cause a breach of peace. This arrangement has its logic and use. Hence discussion on how a State Government can ban a film like The Da Vinci Code, which is certified by the Central Board of Film Certification, is not entirely valid.

There you go. The State Government is justified in banning Da Vinci Code.

This was evident in the case of Fanaa, a harmless Hindi movie twisted and banned for untenable reasons.

And for further justification, the author is indulging in misinterpretation. Fanaa was not banned by the Government. It was a boycott by the community for social and economic reasons. The Gujarat police offered protection but the theatre owners acted in their best interests. Emphasis : the state did not enforce a ban.

Did The Chindu write an editorial on Fanaa and Parzania? You bet.

Fanaa : New heights of intolerance
Parzania : When bigotry blocks the truth

Soon after he expressed support for the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the State's movie houses were forced to withdraw his hugely successful Rang De Basanti, after party workers from the BJP and the Congress staged protests against him and declared they would not allow his films to run in Gujarat.

Both BJP and Congress protested against Amir Khan. So it is evident that the people of Gujarat entire the political spectrum boycotted Amir Khan. Inspite of all this, the government did not enforce a ban of the film to gain some political score or indulge in sectarian appeasement.

Five years later, his regime shows neither remorse nor respect for the rule of law — which is a good part of the reason why cinema owners in Gujarat are terrified of showing Parzania.

Baseless statement. Just as Gujarat collectively decided to boycott Fanaa, it decided to boycott Parzania. If the regime did not respect the law, it would have banned the movie just like the Tamilnadu government which "suspended" (why this bloody euphemism?) the Da Vinci Code. While Gujarat is willing to ignore communal violence and move ahead with development, The Chindu is indulging in slander and character assasination of Gujarati Hindus.


Is there a difference between the State Government banning films and people boycotting films?

How is it that the State Governments of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Nagaland, etc which banned Da Vinci Code are more tolerant than Gujarat, which did not indulge in banning the films Fanaa and Parzania?

Why is it that the Gujarati Hindus and Modi are sinister, bigoted and intolerant whereas the Christian groups, which went on a rampage against Da Vinci Code, are peace-loving?

Chindu's hypocrisy

When hard news is a casualty

The Hindu's policy of not promoting astrology and keeping out features like astrological forecasts (from the time of Kasturi Srinivasan who described predictions in newspapers as "mass cheating", though he himself personally believed in astrology...

The Chindu never mades bones of its hypocrisy.

We will sue all critics : Reader's editor

When criticism loses its sting

Full postal address — which we ask for as a sensible rule, partly for legal reasons and partly to know the geographical spread of those who communicate...

Insisting on full postal address never made much sense to me. But I was surprised to read that it is required for legal reasons. Legal? Are you kidding me? Mercifully, the Reader's editor clarifies.

There is yet another category that indulges in not professional but personal abuse (I am not the target in these), using words like "mad dog," "stooping to accommodate thugs and manipulating and exploiting Indians," and so on. These writers, assuming the names and addresses are genuine, are obviously not aware that they lay themselves open to a charge of defamation and ensuing legal proceedings. Those who use false names and addresses perhaps do not know that law enforcers have ways of finding out the identity of the offenders.

Any statement that exposes a person to contempt, hatred or ridicule, or tends to injure him or her in the profession or trade, is defamatory under the law. Communication to a third party other than the person defamed is held to be publication and can be a cause of legal action. An attack on the moral character or attribution of disgraceful conduct can be defamation.

This is mild criticism when compared to the hate and venom spewed by The Anti-hindu on Hindus and BJP, for example. But in the megalomaniac world of CBCNN, criticism is treated with utter contempt. The Reader's editor goes to the extent of threatening readers with legal action for criticising the newspaper.

Allegations highlighted as facts

Congress: not just Mulayam protocol

Congress leader makes an allegation against the BJP. CBCNN presents this allegation with bullent-point highlighting at the top. Clearly, CBCNN is distorting facts and views to suit its agenda. That responsible media N.Ram talks about all the time.

"acorn" has a question for N.Ram

A question for N Ram & Co

Anyone who reads CBCNN cant help notice the subtle insinuations it makes to suit its political agenda.

Prasanna's take on CBCNN

The Crumbling Mount Road Marx- Losing relevance

Insightful.

Another great article from churumuri

The column ‘Hindu’ didn’t have the guts to carry

Nearly two-dozen staffers of The Hindu have written in to Churumuri in response to the story Under N. Ram, the Hindu becomes a 'Sorry' paper, providing more chilling evidence of life under the great red warrior, a hyphenated champion of free expression.

But nothing quite captures what we are talking about—the quiet acquiescence to corporate interests—than the paper's mysterious decision to axe this column on Kalanidhi Maran of the Sun TV empire by its media critic Sevanti Ninan three Sundays ago.

The piece, in its entirety, appears on the media website The Hoot (www.thehoot.org). Asked if The Hindu had proffered a reason for not carrying the column, Sevanti says she was merely told that it would be "legally risky", which is another way of saying "due to technical reasons".
...

churumuri: Under N. Ram, CBCNN becomes a ’sorry’ paper

Under N. Ram, the Hindu becomes a ’sorry’ paper

ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: Editors, reporters and correspondents at The Hindu are in a state of shock and disbelief today after another grovelling apology to an automotive major from their card-carrying Editor-in-Chief N. Ram appeared on the pages of the paper.

“In the Open Page article by R.S. Anand titled ‘The way we showcase India abroad’, a sweeping and baseless statement was made about a Kirloskar product, suggesting it was outdated. The Hindu apologises for this unwarranted assertion and withdraws the Open Page article from its website,” the apology signed by the editor-in-chief reads.

The “offending” piece by Anand, a student at RWTH in Aachen, Germany, comprised run-of-the-mill reflections on the Hannover Fair, and contained just two references to Kirloskar—both of them in the same paragraph.

“Companies such as HMT, BHEL, Kirloskar, etc, participated in the (Hannover) fair. My fellow German students were shocked to see the engine displayed by Kirloskar which was designed a century ago. They asked me, ‘Are they still using this one?’” the "offending" paragraph went.

That was enough for Ram, otherwise a champion of free expression on television and in public forums, to go out crawling on all fours.

“Just what does our editor find so sweeping and baseless about that statement,” asked a senior editor of the paper on condition of anonymity. “And anyway it is not the author’s statement, it is the quote of a German visitor."

Hindu staffers are bemused that Ram, otherwise particular about details, should not have published the date of publication of the offending piece—May 21, 2006—in the apology. “It’s almost as if he doesn’t want readers who have back copies of the paper at home to go back and check,” a staffer said.

At the same time, many senior editors and journalists within and outside the Hindu are horrified that the whole article has been axed from the paper’s website although the references to Kirloskar were contained in only one paragraph.

“Look at the irony. We lecture the world on why Da Vinci Code should not be censored. We lecture the world on why Fanaa should not be blacked out. And yet, because some rich family is offended, we remove the whole piece from the website. Is only the paragraph at fault or the whole piece? And what will the author tell his German friends about The Hindu? That the paper has very elastic journalistic ethics, depending on who is offended?” the editor asked.

There is yet a third angle to the apology which is that it comes over and above the head of the much-vaunted Reader’s Editor, K. Narayanan, whom Ram has been projecting as the panacea of all journalistic ills in the country.

“Was Kirloskar’s complaint brought to the notice of the Reader’s Editor? If not, why not? If so, what was the substance of the complaint—that somebody had a view that the advertiser did not like? So, is Ram the Advertiser’s Editor? Doesn't this undermine the position of the Reader’s Editor,” a staffer asked.

The Kirloskar apology is the second inside 20 months since Ram displaced Malini Parthasarathy and his brother N. Ravi in a bloodless palace coup.

On October 20, 2004, Ram published this: “The contents, tone and language of 'Kudos to Tata Motors' by C. Manmohan Reddy (Business Review, The Hindu, October 18, 2004) are highly inappropriate. The Hindu conveys its deep regrets to Mahindra and Mahindra and also to Kotak Mahindra, ICICI Bank, and Citibank for the publication of the article."

In that case, all the “offending” piece did was to lambast Mahindra and Mahindra for showing a “singular lack of responsibility towards the environment”.

“They choose to sell Bharat Stage I versions of the vehicle in large numbers in many of the 11, large and environmentally sensitive, cities where all the other automotive manufacturers have switched to BS II versions—all to save about Rs. 5,000 to 6,000 on very profitable SUVs that cost nearly Rs. 8 lakhs, on the road,” Reddy wrote.

That was enough for Ram to apologise to M&M and the auto finance companies. However unlike in the Kirloskar case, the offending M&M piece continues to remain on the paper’s website along with the apology two days later.

Media watchers say they are not surprised that both the apologies have gone out to automotive companies, which are big advertisers on the pages of The Hindu and many of which are located in Tamil Nadu.

What they find hilarious is that a committed communist should be so servile and obsequious to capitalists.

“Here’s a paper that day in and day out extols Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Prakash and Brinda Karat. And yet to see it saying sorry for such minor journalistic indiscretions, if they are indiscretions, suggests duplicity, if not plain hypocrisy,” says a journalist who has seen better days under G. Kasturi.

"At least with The Times of India, you get what you see. The paper makes no bones about protecting the advertiser's interest. Here on the other hand, free speech is being twisted by a very forked tongue that wants the cake and wants to eat it too."

***

C. Manmohan Reddy’s piece:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004101802971700.htm&date=2004/10/18/&prd=th

N. Ram’s apology:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004102005201500.htm&date=2004/10/20/&prd=th

***

N.Ram lecturing on responsible media...

Blurring of news and views creates problems: Somnath

This guy N.Ram is one hell of a hypocrite, just as all commies.


... the legislature should reform the doctrine of unlimited legislative privileges
A few days ago he instructed the judiciary not to monitor and curtail legislative excesses. Chameleon blood must be running in N.Ram's blood. Or as spindianexpress would say, "plate-phirao".

Silence on this death penalty

Death for former police officer

CBCNN, which opposes death penalty no matter how serious the crime, will not raise a whimper against this death penalty because
- the convict is a police officer
- the convict is a hindu

Omissions by CBCNN

'dravidians' on the rampage in tamil nadu

CBCNN being a Chennai-based newspaper and closer to the action, you would have expected it to cover the atrocities of DMK. But CBCNN is completely silent on this.

In a spot of bother

Parties, students hail verdict

The Amendment to Foreigner's Act, introduced by the Congress, would have compromised the sovereignty and integrity of our country. The amendment protects illegal migrants and make it dhttp://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gififficult to detect and deport illegal Bangladeshi migrants.


CBCNN, which dutifully reports every little thing in communist camp, is silent about the communist opinion on this act. Both, Congress and Communists, have not reacted to this court judgement. Only BJP applauded the verdict. So CBCNN is in a spot. Its ethics and policies does not allow it to give any credit to BJP, especially in headlines. It carefully camouflages it by using "parties" to refer to BJP. Contrast with several articles that appear on CPI(M). For example, this one.

Also refer to this article where Comrade Khare laments,
"the rule of law or rather the Constitution is in danger of being supplanted by the rule of judges" due to judicial activism. Without judicial activism, we would have had this amendment turned into a law, thus hurting India's integrity irrepairably.

Assam Foreigners Order

No editorial on this important judgement.

Assam Foreigners order unconstitutional

Form tribunals to deal with illegal migrants

Parties, students hail verdict

This act is against national interests and the traitors are obviously not happy with this. Hence the silence.

Petro-dollars speaking on CBCNN

Madrasas not breeding terrorists: Arjun Singh

Paswan seeks sub-quota for Muslims

If you are not a polit bureau member of a communist party and you want CBCNN to cover your event, you need to strongly push for minority interests. Wild allegations against the "saffron brigade" can also get you some space in CBCNN. This is the high standard of ethics followed by CBCNN.

Artists ultra sensitive to written word

Music, musicians, and music critics

Vociferous dissenters include the artists themselves, who are ultra sensitive to the written word.

This is not the first time the reader's editor is attacking the critics of CBCNN.

China's "phenomenally lavish" gifts to Indian leaders

http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/29ram.htm

While most of the gifts involve large sums of money and other incentives, leaders are also invited to China, ostensibly on lecture and "get acquainted" tours, and "treated like royalty there," the official said.

Now you know why so many correspondents from CBCNN get to visit China. And they pay back their dues by writing lavish praise about China. Have a look at this article by Harish Chandola, for example.