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Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 05-19-2007

http://rajivmalhotra.sulekha.com/blog/post...me/comments.htm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Rajiv Malhotra comments: on Feb 1 2005 1:26PM
<b>NEW YORK TIMES AND THE UCHICAGO CARTEL:</b>
To uncover the long reach of this cartel and how it placed the recent <b>New York Times article</b>, one starts with <b>Prof. Martin Marty</b> who is one of the most powerful scholars at <b>UChicago’s Divinity School</b>. (<i>This school produces the largest number of PhDs on Hinduism Studies, through its faculty which includes Wendy Doniger.</i>)

Martin Marty now runs the powerful institute of religion at UChicago named after him.
(See: http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/about/index.shtml )
It says, “The Martin Marty Center is the institute for advanced research in all fields of the study of religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School.”

Who is Martin Marty and how does he fit into the Chicago Cartel? He is described on his own web page as “<i><b>an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.</b></i>” See: http://www.elca.org/about.html about this church.) On the question, “Is the Bible the inerrant word of God,” they explain clearly that they are what I would classify as History-Centric and literal. See: http://www.elca.org/questions/Results.asp?recid=16 . They believe that Christ is coming back to raise people from the dead. Furthermore, they assert, “Theories of reincarnation are the antithesis of Lutheran theology.” It is proudly a very “membership oriented” institution in every sense of that term, with a vast third world franchise to convert people.

His bio boasts that he was the senior editor of the magazine, “<b>The Christian Century.</b>” See more about this Christian-centric magazine: http://www.christiancentury.org/ He is described as the nation’s most prominent authors in the field of History of Religions. Along with Wendy Doniger and a few other colleagues, he has helped trained and get influential jobs for a whole generation of scholars and college teachers who now represent Hinduism’s portrayals.

Wendy Doniger and Martin Marty are part of the old boys/girls network and go way back. There is nothing wrong with them being very tight and standing up for each other. See both of these cartel big wigs featured at the Martin Marty Center’s web site:
http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/about/index.shtml

It is only natural that Wendy Doniger is putting her cartel to good use in this PR campaign to demonize Hindus and anyone who criticizes her. However, it is interesting to notice how blatantly these Christian fundamentalists are respected in the “secular” academy/media, because they tend to be well groomed, polished, articulate, with good pedigrees, and most of all, with a good network of contacts (read “cartel” membership).

Such fundamentalist Christians are the “expert” sources used by media to call us “Hindu Fundamentalists”! All evidence of their conflicts of interest, such as their churches’ aggressive proselytizing against Hindus in India, get airbrushed away as a sort of denial by the media and by the scholars who fail to highlight these conflicts when featuring their writings.

The following sequence of events is interesting to track:

1) First Marty Martin wrote a one-sided article in Beliefnet to hit at Wendy Doniger’s critics, titled, “Scholars of Hinduism under attack”. See: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/128/story_12899_1.html In typical Biblical style of martyrdom, it positions the “good” side as “victims” of the “bad” side.

2) But this got largely neutralized when others such as Sankrant Sanu wrote rejoinders on the same portal. See Sankrant’s rejoinder at: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/146/story_14684_1.html

3) Now let us we come to the cartel’s links with New York Times. Edward Rothstein is co-author with Martin Marty in their OUP book. See:
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subj...a&ci=0195144619

4) Naturally, as co-authors it would be natural for them to be close and help each other, and to participate in each other’s networks. So Edward Rothstein wrote the recent New York Times article in which he headlines Wendy Doniger’s critics as “Hindu Puritans”. He goes on to brand those who oppose her as “Hindu fundamentalists” and so forth. Many persons have called the article things like “outright stupid and incompetent journalism”, “insulting to Hindus,” etc. The journalist failed to even contact those he criticized for an interview, presumably out of fear that the truth disclosed might work against his agenda.

<b>Do the higher ups at the Times even know what these hidden links and potential conflicts of interest are? How well-educated are they on the complex dynamics of our Hindu minority’s American situation? One wonders why the standards of journalism that even my son's undergraduate class at NYU learns were allowed to drop in the case of this article. What strings were pulled and for what considerations?</b>

So please stop being naïve about ‘educating’ these cartel folks, etc. They are intellectually and politically armed and dangerous.

Regards,
Rajiv<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The underlining, bold and italics are the writer's. I made a few things blue.
(1) The above is from a comment page for the main article RISA Lila.

(2) Liar-for-gawd Wendy Doniger/O'Flaherty has no business translating from Samskritam when even Michael Witzel has picked out many mistakes from her work. See the article itself.

(3) Christo Wendy and her kids working for christo Univ of Chicago to execute specifically christo purposes:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The Queen's Power:</b>
Her students have been encouraged to go to India with the specific purpose of looking for data on “Christian persecution in India,” even though everyone knows that a genuine scholar cannot embark upon research with the conclusions already fixed[ lxxi ]. Much activism is being disguised as scholarship.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(4) Among the infuriating stuff pointed out in the main article is:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Stanley Kurtz, an anthropologist of India, uses psychoanalysis to conclude that <b>Hindu mothers do not have “a Western-style loving, emotional partnership” with their babies</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Won't tar all of the west here, they don't deserve it. Will speak of christian mothers:
It's true - thank goodness Hindu mothers don't have a christian-style 'loving, emotional partnership' with their babies.

(a) http://atheism.about.com/b/a/140049.htm
Highlights a little christian business manufacturing and selling biblically-sanctioned rods to use on children:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Don't Spare 'The Rod'</b>
Is your child misbehaving? Are you having trouble coming up with the proper means of discipline? If you spare the rod, you'll spoil the child - and there exists the perfect "rod" that will keep your child from being spoiled: a 22-inch nylon whipping stick that will put the fear of God into the little blighters.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Links to an American christo site selling the appropriate biblically defined and approved instrument for beating up kids with.
(b) http://www.tldm.org/news6/child.discipline.htm
Christian site that contains such faithful jewels as:
- <i>Spanking can be a valuable disciplinary tool, Focus on the Family</i>
- <i>Dr. Laura advises parents to use "swift <b>and terrible</b>" correction for defiant children</i> (good-christian woman right there, what a loving mum! Child-beating sadists <!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo--> )

http://freetruth.50webs.org/A3.htm#ChildrenToday also gives book suggestions:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><i>Spare the Child</i> by Philip Greven. Greven cites many excerpts from present-day American Protestant writers to demonstrate that violence against children is still being promoted by Christian clerics.
<i>For Your Own Good</i> by Alice Miller In which the author traces the roots of physical violence towards children in the western world to the influence of Christianity.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 05-22-2007

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sun is set, DMK to tune in Raj TV  </b>
Pioneer.com
K Venkataramanan | Chennai
With the Sun TV group falling out of favour with the DMK leadership, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu has lost little time in seeking support of a rival television channel. It has roped in Raj TV to start a news-cum-entertainment channel that is expected to toe the DMK's line.

<b>The new channel is to be called Kalaignar TV, sporting the name by which DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi is known to his supporters and in political circles for many decades. 'Kalaignar' means 'artist' in Tamil.</b>

Raj TV managing director M Rajendran told mediapersons that the news channel would soon get off the blocks and that it would be the first among 11 news channels it planned to start. It also planned to start a Hindi channel. However, asked whether it had the patronage of the DMK leadership, he did not give a categorical reply, saying 'Kalaignar' could mean any artist and not the DMK chief alone.

Rajendran had told some mediapersons that 'it would function in the same way that Sun TV had functioned.' However, when asked to clarify this point, he was at pains to explain that this meant that it would have news and entertainment content similar to the Sun TV and not that it would toe the DMK line.
........
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
very soon we will have lot of channel, Stalin, Son No1, Son No 2, Daughter No1, Daughter No 2, Wife no1, Wife no 2, Mistress No 1, Mistress No 2 ......


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 05-22-2007

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+May 22 2007, 12:55 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ May 22 2007, 12:55 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->very soon we will have lot of channel, Stalin, Son No1, Son No 2, Daughter No1, Daughter No 2, Wife no1, Wife no 2, Mistress No 1, Mistress No 2 ......[right][snapback]69119[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Owww. Laughing this much is very painful.
As funny as the above seems, the scary thing is, you're right: it could <i>so</i> happen.



Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 05-26-2007

FM and Talk Radio is a new emerging media outlet, which in my opinion, has equal if not more reach and power of influencing, than the TV news channels.

While TOI has the early mover advantage with its Radio Mirchi, it is focused only in Metros. Jagran group has now entered the fray with their Hindi FM: Radio Mantra. USP - reach in smaller towns, keep away from Metros for now. Content-wise, cultural, classical, traditional and Hindi. They succesfully completed their pilot in Panipat, and now are doing a second pilot in Gorakhpur. These are the kind of town in North India they want to focus on.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->गोरखपुर के रेडियो श्रोता शीघ्र ही रेडियो मंत्रा की मस्ती में झूम उठेंगे। दैनिक जागरण समूह का यह एफ.एम. रेडियो चैनल 91.90 एफ.एम. बैंड पर जल्द ही अपना प्रसारण शुरू करने जा रहा है। इस समय इसकी टेस्टिंग शुरू हो चुकी है।
  24 घंटे प्रसारित होने वाले रेडियो मंत्रा के पिटारे में समाज के हर वर्ग के लोगों के लिए खास प्रोग्राम हैं। यदि युवाओं के लिए झन्नाटेदार डिजिटल साउंड के बीच आधुनिक स्वर लहरियां है तो संगीत के शौकीनों के लिए शास्त्रीय स्वरों से लेकर पुराने नगमों की भरमार है। गीतों के साथ भक्ति रस में डूबना हो या जानना चाहते हों स्टाक मार्केट का हाल रेडियो मंत्रा ट्यून करिए। यहीं नहीं स्वास्थ्य संबंधी सलाह लेनी हो या शापिंग टिप्स, या लजीज व्यंजन बनाने के तरीके म्यूजिक की मस्ती के बीच और भी बहुत सी बातों से श्रोता रूबरू हो सकेंगे। यानि पहली बार मनोरंजन के साथ ही जानकारी का पूरा सामंजस्य बिठाया गया। इसके अलावा रेडियो जाकी सेलिब्रेटीज टाक से लेकर श्रोताओं से भी सीधा संवाद स्थापित करेंगे।
<img src='http://epaper.jagran.com/2652007/GKP/radiomantra.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - dhu - 05-31-2007

I've noticed that most reporters sign off with name of cameraman as well. Is this not seen only in India?


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - acharya - 06-01-2007

AP
Bancroft Family to Meet Murdoch Over Bid
Thursday May 31, 8:51 pm ET
By Seth Sutel, AP Business Writer
Bancroft Family, Controlling Shareholders of Dow Jones, Will Meet With Murdoch Over Bid

NEW YORK (AP) -- The controlling shareholders of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. said late Thursday that they would consider a bid from media mogul Rupert Murdoch to buy the company, as well as other potential offers.

ADVERTISEMENT
The Bancroft family said in a statement that it would meet with Murdoch to discuss his bid, which became public in early May. The statement shows a softening of the position of the family members, who had previously indicated that they intended to block Murdoch' bid to buy the company.

The Bancrofts said the family "remains resolute in its commitment to preserve and protect the editorial independence and integrity of The Wall Street Journal," but had also concluded that "the mission of Dow Jones may be better accomplished in combination or collaboration with another organization, which may include News Corporation."

Despite the Journal's tremendous clout in the business world, Dow Jones remains a relatively small company compared with large media operators such as Murdoch's News Corp., whose operations such as Twentieth Century Fox, Fox News Channel and MySpace span the globe. The $5 billion offer that Murdoch made for Dow Jones could easily be paid out of News Corp.'s cash stockpile.

Murdoch has said he would invest in the Journal and ensure its editorial independence, something that the Bancroft family as well as employees of Dow Jones say is paramount to the company's mission.

However, the union representing Journal employees has been steadfastly opposed to Murdoch's overture, saying he would likely damage the paper's quality and compromise its independence. Jim Ottaway Jr. a former board member who controls 5 percent of the company's voting power, has said he is also opposed to Murdoch's bid.

Like several other newspaper publishers including The New York Times Co. and The Washington Post Co., Dow Jones is a public company but remains controlled by a family through a special class of shares with powerful voting rights.

Family control, its advocates say, is intended to insulate newspapers from short-term financial demands from shareholders and to safeguard their independence and protect their mission of public service.

Murdoch, for his part, has said he also understands the importance of family stewardship as his own company is controlled by him and family trusts, albeit to a lesser degree than the control exercised by the Bancrofts of Dow Jones, the New York Times' Sulzbergers and the Grahams of The Washington Post.

Also, Dow Jones has an important difference from the Times and The Washington Post in that no family members are currently involved with the company's day-to-day management. The Bancrofts are also numerous and geographically diverse, with some three dozen adult family members spread out over the country.

From the beginning of Murdoch's overture to Dow Jones, it was clear that the Bancrofts were divided. While they control 64 percent of the shareholder vote of the company, they had said earlier that just 52 percent of the voting power was lined up against Murdoch.

And with Murdoch's offer of $60 per share representing a huge premium of about 65 percent over the company's share price before the bid became public, the approval by purely financial investors seems all but assured.

It remains far from certain, however, that Murdoch will wind up winning Dow Jones, a company he has long been known to be interested in. In meeting with Murdoch and expressing a willingness to consider other bids, the Bancrofts may be trying to encourage other suitors to step forward.

A longtime newspaper owner with many papers in England, Australia and the New York Post, Murdoch has sought to allay the Bancrofts' concerns in a recent letter, saying he would take a series of steps to ensure the Journal's integrity, including setting up an independent oversight board.

"We don't believe the promises Mr. Murdoch has made can be trusted," union leader Steven Yount said in a statement late Thursday. "Dow Jones must remain an independent company if it is to prosper both as business and a journalistic enterprise," adding that the union would do "everything in its power" to ensure Dow Jones remains an independent and trusted source of information.

Murdoch has also said he wants to expand the Journal's reach overseas and online, as well as tap its resources for a new business-oriented cable news channel he plans to launch.

Within Dow Jones, however, opposition to Murdoch remains strong. Writers in the Journal's China bureau have expressed staunch opposition to his bid, and Ottaway and others say they're concerned he might soften coverage of China.






Media In India/elsewhere -2 - acharya - 06-04-2007

Pseudo-secular mafia of Indian mass media - I

V SUNDARAM

India has always been in the grip of Vicious Circle of Poverty for more than 200 years. Soon after our independence, we got into the grip of Vicious Circle of Poisonous Politicians drawn from a few selected families, with firmly established and inherited familial rights, from different parts of India. During the last 20 years we have got into the suffocating grip of a new cast iron Vicious Circle of the Pseudo Secular Mafia of Mass Media.

I am interested in giving a graphic description of an unnatural and artificial world of our own making in India, a celluloid world in which we have abused our wealth, our literacy, our technology, our unlimited opportunity in a land of natural plenty, to create a vicious pseudo- secular thicket of unreality which stands between us and the facts of life. More than 800 millions of Hindus in India in absolute majority in terms of numbers have provided a convenient landscape and opportunity to the pseudo-secular mafia of mass media to create a bestial world of national self-hypnosis. The tragedy is that each of us individually provides the market and the demand for the illusions which flood our experience. The pseudo-secular mafia of self-seeking, soul-destroying and nation-decimating mass media have taken over the country as a whole for their crassly commercial purposes. Criminal invaders and conquerors like Lord Clive and Warren Hastings only molested the physical body of India in the 18th century. Pseudo-secular men in the mafia of mass media have nearly succeeded in destroying the soul of our nation today.

Most of us want and believe these illusions because we suffer from the malady of unabashed and extravagant expectations. The great American psychologist Maslow�the founding father of humanist psychology�coined a term called �The hierarchy of needs�. In India the mafia of mass media have let loose a catastrophe of what I call �The anarchy of greeds�. We expect too much of the world. Our expectations are unnaturally extravagant in the exact dictionary sense of the world�'going beyond the limits of human reason, decency, dignity, decorum and moderation'. They are disgustingly, devastatingly and explosively excessive.

When we try to take a look at our favourite newspaper at breakfast everyday, we are under the delusion that we have an inalienable right to expect�and even demand�that it should bring us momentous events that have taken place since the night before. Later when we get into a car and switch on the car radio as we drive to work, we expect �exciting news�, �thrilling news�, �sexually titillating news�, about events that have occurred ever since we saw the morning newspaper at breakfast time. We expect new heroes every season, a literary masterpiece or a world shaking novel every month, a dramatically spectacular event or a hair-raising episode every week, a rare extraordinary sensation every night. We expect anything and everything. We expect the contrary, the inconsistent, the incompatible and the impossible at the same time and place. We expect small and compact cars which are spacious. We want luxurious cars which are cheap and economical. We hope to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful, active and reflective, kind and competitive. We expect to be made literate by crassly illiterate appeals for mass literacy.

We as a people range from animals to Gods. We pray for you and we prey on you. We are bears for punishment and brutes for revenge. We want to be Everyone, Everywhere, Everything. We are creatures of moods and modes. These ever shifting public moods and modes are being manipulated by the combined conglomeration of self-seeking and wicked men, firms, companies, corporations and institutions, constituting the Menacing Mafia of Mass Media in India, for untold commercial gain at the cost of public interest or national good.

On the cosmetic surface, it may appear that MAN in India, never before in our history, has been a master of his own fate and a captain of his soul as now. Yet never has he felt more deceived, duped, disappointed, dejected, depressed and devastated than at present.

The root of the tragedy is that we are ruled by the following two categories of revolution of ever-rising expectations:

a) Expectations of what the world holds : This cannot be described better than in the words of Daniel J Boorstin: �Of how much news there is, how many heroes there are, how often masterpieces are made, how exotic the nearby can be, how familiar the exotic has become. Of the closeness of places and the farness of places�.

b) Expectations of our power to shape the world: Daniel J Boorstin describes this dimension in these words: �Of our ability to create events when there are none, to make heroes when they don't exist, to be somewhere else when we haven't left home. Of our ability to make art forms suit our convenience, to transform a novel into a movie and vice-versa, to turn a symphony into mood conditioning. To fabricate national purposes when we lack them, to pursue these purposes after we have fabricated them. To invent our standards and then to respect them as if they had been revealed or discovered�.

We keep on enlarging the landscape of our extravagant expectations by constantly seeking, harbouring and nourishing them. Consequently we create the recurring demand for the ENDLESS ILLUSIONS with which we deceive ourselves with gusto and enthusiasm. And the grim sadness of it all is that with this never-ending procession of illusions, we handsomely pay others to make the images to deceive us.

The making of the illusions which flood our experience has become the most important business of India�indeed some of its most honest and most necessary and most respectable business. This aspect or quality pervades not only the business of advertising and public relations and political rhetoric, but also the entire gamut of the business environment as a whole. It is also equally applicable to all the activities which purport to inform and comfort and improve and educate and elevate us. We find that every move or effort to satisfy our extravagant expectations simply makes them more exotic and makes our illusions more attractive. The story of the making of our unfounded and unnecessary illusions�'the news behind the news'�has become the most appealing and exciting news of the world. In short we tyrannize and frustrate ourselves by constantly expecting more than what the world can give us or than what we can make of the world.

What is a 'Pseudo Event' artificially manufactured or created every second every day by the Mafia of Mass Media in India today? The common prefix �Pseudo� comes from the Greek word meaning false or intended to deceive. The very process of political and socio economic distorted development in India during the last 50 years has let loose certain inexorable and immutable forces which have made the continuous manufacture or creation of Pseudo Events not only possible but commercially viable, increasing the Supply of them and the Demand for them. All the time we expect our newspapers to be full of exciting and heart-throbbing news. If there is no news visible to the naked eye, or to the average citizen, we still expect it to be there for the enterprising and intrepid newsman. An energetic and successful newsman is one who can scoop out an explosive story, even if there is no earthquake or a Prime Minister's assassination or a National Civil War. Even if he cannot find a story, he must be able to make or invent one through contrived journalistic dialectics�by his subtle ability to ask tricky questions of public figures, by his uncanny ability to unearth something of surprising human interest from some mundane or common place event or what is known in the world of Mass Media by the cliché of 'the news behind the news'. Daniel J Boorstin has rightly observed �If all this fails, then an enterprising journalist must give us a think piece �an embroidering of well- known facts, or a speculation about startling things to come�. The power to make a reportable event is thus the power to create or make experience. I am reminded of Napoleon's apocryphal reply to his General, who had complained that field circumstances were unfavourable to a campaign proposed by Napoleon: �If ground level circumstances are unfavourable, then all I can tell you is that: 'Bah! I make my own circumstances'�. The newsmen in the world of mass media in India today have come close to fulfilling Napoleon's idle boast by acting as creators of pseudo events, knowing what news value is and to make news happen.

The media doesn't aim at reporting the news; it tries to create the news, imposing its view of the news upon everyone as the final truth. To sum up in the rapier-like words of David Frawley: �The Indian English media dictates against the government as if it should be the real political decision-making body in the country. (Because it is urged and influenced by other foreign agencies and academic institutions such as U Berkeley/U Columbia) It deems itself capable of taking the place of legal institutions as well, printing its allegations as truth even if these have never been entered into, much less proved in any court of law. It has vested itself with an almost religious authority to determine what is right and wrong, good and evil, and who in the country should be honoured or punished... This is called brainwashing under freedom�





Media In India/elsewhere -2 - acharya - 06-05-2007

An open letter to Pseudo Secular Media – India Abroad
11/3/2006 2:30:15 AM Dr. T. R. N. Rao

(An open letter written by Dr. T. R. N. Rao, Ph. D. Loflin Chair Professor of Computer Science University of Louisiana to the Editor of one of the pseudo secular media – India Abroad (a rediff.com group).

Dear Editor, Sir
I am a life-subscriber to India Abroad for over a decade, and I have painfully come to the decision of canceling my subscription and ask you to stop mailing the issues due to me from now on. I took this step to boycott your paper, as I believe very strongly you are part of the machine for pseudo-secular (P-sec) anti-Hindu propaganda. Francois Gautier, an eminent columnist of Le Figaro wrote a year ago: "Oh! Poor India ! Thy journalists are thy worst enemies" (Hindu, March 2002) I came to the same conclusion as Gautier quite a few times as I keep reading your paper. Let me illustrate a couple of cases to prove my point.

In the year 2000, there was a burst of Christian church bombings in South India. Your Eminency, India Abroad, headlined on front pages for weeks and attacked ferociously the Hindutva groups assumed to be the architects of these dastardly acts. You had no proof and gave none whatsoever. You just assumed blindly just as all other P-sec media did. It must be Hindutva. Eventually when the proof came out and that a Muslim outfit, named Deen Daar Anjumaan (DDA), trained in Pakistan, was arrested and found guilty of these church bombings, the whole rogue media fell silent. We haven't heard anything about that DDA outfit or any further details. 'Mum' is the word for it. Your silence is indeed "deafening" as one Rediff writer put it. A much respected professor from Syracuse University (author of many books - his name I choose to withhold here) presented a paper (in a conference held at Stevens Institute of Technology, Sept. 2002) attacking the Hindutva groups for the many church bombings. When I asked him for the source of his points of attack, he said without much hesitation "India Abroad columns". That professor, when I gave the details of DDA and its bloody mischief to him, he expressed his profound shock and regretted his mistake. But, India Abroad! You are no professor and you have no such compunctions. When I wrote a letter asking you to retract all of the lies and innuendo against Hindutva groups, you chose to send that letter to your wastebasket. Do you need a more clear-cut case of your unabashed anti-Hindu propaganda of lies and innuendo?

Last year when Sir V. S. Naipaul of Indian origin received Nobel Prize for literature, we expected some self-congratulations, and praise for that great accomplishment. Alas! Your weekly immediately burst out with two one-4page P-sec columns. As they expressed his masterly command of English prose writing, they are more critical of Sir Naipaul's views, particularly his writings about Muslim countries. One has gone even to the extent of attributing this Nobel to post 9/11 anti-Muslim tirade. Your P-sec writers have very imaginary traits. They also have profusely "bleeding hearts" when it comes to non-Hindus that are killed. It is okay, but why not a few crocodile tears when fifty-six or so Hindu men, women and children were burnt alive in a train. We hear about Gujarat carnage daily without a break. However, Godhra carnage, which started it all, is conveniently forgotten and does not get even an occasional mention. As English language media's misinformation campaign, you play a central role in USA . Professor Romesh Diwan in his column "India Ascendant" (http://sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=298065) suggests a more appropriate name for your paper 'Pakistan Abroad'. He lists a large table of how P-sec media fabricate/slant reports and black out to further their anti-Hindu agenda. I pick a few of the incidents from that table for you here.

Place: Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh; Incident: rape of four nuns; Media Report: blowed up. Blamed: RSS, and Central BJP government and workers; no mention of the state Govt. or tensions due to conversion activity Facts: Rape by converted Christians. Madhya Pradesh Government is run by Congress Media Response: Story never retracted; No apology to the Hindu parties so maligned. No explanation or self-examination for such false reporting.

Place: Manoharpar, Orissa. Incident: Australian priest and his two sons burnt alive Media Report: Blamed Bajrang Dal, and Central BJP government; Facts:

(i). An eyewitness detailed report in Rastradeep, a Oriya Weekly from Cuttack, Orissa, Jan 26, 1999, shows conclusively that the burning is the result of tension in the community caused by forced conversions and manipulation by Dara Singh, a Congress worker.

(ii). Orissa State government is run by Congress and Dara Singh helped the election of its ministers. Bajrang Dal has no presence there.

(iii) A Central Bureau of Investigation officer, Joginder Nayak, told a court of the District and Sessions Judge M. N. Patnaik on Monday that none of the 18 persons charge sheeted in the 1999 Graham Staines murder case belonged to the Bajrang Dal. [" Staines murder accused not Bajrang Dal activists: CBI" January 27, 2003 Rediff.com/news [Emphasis added] Media Response: Story never retracted. No apology to the parties maligned. No explanation or self-examination for false reporting.

Arundhati Roy, a darling of India Abroad and the colonial West liberals, wrote about Muslim young women in Ahmedabad by falsely giving a personal witness-like account of the nature of their rape and burning when in fact they were not in Ahmedabad but safe and sound in the US and this information had already appeared in the print media. The details are:

Fact: T. A. Jaffri, son of Mr. Iqbal Eshan Jaffri, killed in the riots, said, "Among my brothers and sisters I am the only one living in India . I am the eldest in the family. My sisters and brothers live in the U.S. No body knew my father's house was the target.

Fabrication: Arundhati Roy described 'the stripping and burning of two daughters' safely living in the US : "A mob surrounded the house of ex-Congress MP, Iqbal Eshan Jaffri. His phone calls to the Director-General of Police, the Police Commissioner, the Chief Secretary and the additional Chief Secretary (home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burnt them alive. Then they beheaded Jaffri and dismembered him.

Arundhati Roy fabricates facts as neatly as she covers her true Christian name. Editor, sir, let me come to my final point. I have determined to send this letter to as many friends and like-minded Indians, organizations here and abroad to tell them of my boycott and ask them to join me in this boycott if they agree with me. I believe most NRI’s are not going to lie low forever and take the non-sense your P-sec media is dishing out without fear of a counter attack. Your propaganda of lies will be exposed and I am ready to fight for Truth and India.

Sincerely Yours,

Dr. T. R. N. Rao, Ph. D.
Loflin Chair Professor of Computer Science
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette , LA 70504


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 06-05-2007

The great joke that is Indian media - part 2 *must read*


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 06-16-2007

A strange argument - Media Watch - M.V. Kamath
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The question is: what are these Chandra Mohan paintings like? India Today (May 28) gave a description of them to its credit. Reported the weekly: "One of the paintings by Mohan shows Christ on the Cross with his hands and legs visible, and phallus hanging out, spewing semen into a commode. Another one is of Durga killing a baby emerging from her womb, with a trident. The third painting shows Virat Swaroop of Lord Vishnu holding his own phallus, surrounded by several other penises. The fourth painting that is in line of fire shows a Shivling surrounded by phalluses from which Mohan's own bust emerges".
One would like our intellectuals — and our Christian friends especially to tell — what they think of a picture of Christ drawn in a manner described above. Had not a BJP activist protested against such a painting, our missionaries would have gone on a propaganda strike against Modi for insulting Christ. And that painting is an insult to Christ that no sane person should support.
Chandra Mohan is defended by some artists on the grounds that "nudity is a part of the syllabus of Fine Arts". No one questions that. There are beautiful nude paintings which it would be a delight to possess. But showing Christ with his "phallus hanging out, spewing semen into a commode" is not art. It is desecration, pure and simple and it is shocking to realise that no Christian has taken objection to it. Modi and his government deserve to be congratulated for getting Chandra-mohan arrested.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>According to an National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report, quoted in The Pioneer (May 13), the worst hit state in India is Uttar Pradesh with 68 (sixty eight) fake encounters in 2003-2004 and 54 in 2004-2005. The figures for the two years in Congress-led Andhra Pradesh were nine and five. Gujarat reported only one in 2004-2005 and the NHRC is not a sleeping organisation by any account. </span>It would have kept a special eye on Gujarat.


Also, for the information of Mr. Kuldip Nayar and people like him Congress-ruled Maharashtra had 29 cases of fake encounters. Fake encounters are by definition to be condemned. Nobody ever questions that. The Gujarat fake encounter involves a Muslim Mohd. Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi. Kausarbi was disposed of in especially sickening circumstances. But what is the root cause of fake encounters? One is delay in the delivery of justice. Another is corruption, with murderers, terrorists getting away after liberally bribing the police.
Some of the police in Maharashtra who permitted bombs and arms being unloaded openly in small ports have recently been tried and sentenced — after more than a decade. Trying perpetually to make the BJP a scapegoat does no credit to our secular columnists. It only eats into their credibility. Gujarat, sure is against conversion. So are millions of Hindus, including Congressmen of all description. <b>But even the most anti-missionary Hindu would not like to see Christ being dishonoured publicly, as the Fine Arts student at Vadodara's M.S. University Fine Arts Department has done.</b>
Columnists are free to damn Modi. That is their privilege. But in the Chandra Mohan case, the Gujarat government is absolutely in the right. One cannot permit Christ to be dishonoured in the name of artistic freedom. There has to be a limit to the media spewing nonsense to cheat the public.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->



Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 06-20-2007

New 24X7 Hindi news channel Sudarshan TV.

Website sounds interesting and pro-Hindu. http://www.sudarshantv.com/

It has wisely uplinked from outside India - from Thailand.

Organiser wrote about it. (more than a year back)

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sudarshan TV which will be very different in its editorial contents is slated for launch on August 15. “At the time when a large number of people want to throw away their TV set calling it an ‘idiot box’, we feel that this effective medium of communication can be used for spreading a constructive and patriotic message among our countrymen. Everyone should feel that this is my own country and that he too has a responsibility to it,” said Shri Suresh Khanderao Chavhanke, chairman of the channel, when talking to mediapersons in New Delhi.

Shri Chavhanke claimed that his channel would neither telecast any vulgar advertisement or programme nor accept any assistance from the brand owners. “At a time when it has become a trend to show obscene scenes in almost all advertisements, we have requested the advertisers to prepare different kinds of advertisement materials to project their social obligations and not merely think about the commercial benefits. It is good that 12 leading business establishments of the country have agreed to prepare their advertisements to depict the message we desire,” he added.

According to Shri Chavhanke, the Sudarshan TV would project Indian culture and ancient history of the nation alongwith news, hot-talk shows and patriotic programmes. “The motive of the channel is to disseminate the message of humanity and create social awareness and patriotic spirit among the common masses and a zeal for the nation. In the interest of the nation, we would project the proper image of our heritage and culture. We would try to enlighten the people on the spirit of self-sacrifice and work towards the well-being of the society,” he said. (P.K.) <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Bharatvarsh - 06-22-2007

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Do Indian men owe their women an Orgasm?

http://www.jaalmag.com/15121998/slangmatch.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
hope someone call's up rajdeep sardesai and asks him to do a better job at it <!--emo&Big Grin--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

or maybe some guy did the "wham bham thank u maam" on this one and she found the loser sardesai to be the daddy and is all angry now.


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 06-24-2007

strange that the media did not know how Kalam looked like nor were they aware about his achievements.shows how much they are obsessed with page 3 stuff
Kalam’s final misstep
-----------------------
Nearly every newspaper in the country welcomed the choice of Kalam. All we knew then was that he was a low-profile defence scientist who had played some role in India’s missile and nuclear programmes. Few of us even knew what he looked like.
----------------------------------------------------


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 06-24-2007

"Somebody" let loose Vir Sanghvi on Kalam. Psy-Ops on Kalam, what else?


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 07-11-2007

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>HAF Responds to Slanderous Boston Herald Report Headline</b>

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) wrote a letter in response to a Boston Herald article, "Hindus lament divine case of erectile dysfunction" on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 . The article used headlining which was crude and in extremely poor taste.

Published in Boston Herald - July 9th, 2007

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

July 4, 2007

Dear Editor,

The headline for a news report on the Amarnath sacred "lingam" in India ("Hindus lament divine case of erectile dysfunction," Tuesday, July 3, 2007) is an example of inappropriate humor at best and profaning of the sacred at worst.

Modern sexual imagery and obsession should not become tools to abuse and hijack other people's sacred objects and symbols. Your choice of headline to report about an important annual Hindu pilgrimage is unfortunate and in poor taste, and underscores once again the easy temptation to practice flippant journalism when the crying need is serious and thoughtful discourse.

The Shiva Linga is not merely, as you report, "the symbolic phallus of Lord Shiva." The Linga or Lingam is the simplest and most ancient symbol of Shiva, and is said to represent God beyond all forms and qualities. The Lingam is a sacred symbol of that "which is invisible yet omnipresent." According to Hindu seers, the Lingam is a visible symbol of the Ultimate Reality which is present in all of us and in all objects of creation. It is believed that at the end of all creation all of the different aspects of God find a resting place in the Lingam.

Instead of educating your readers on this sacred symbol, you have chosen to pander to the lowest common denominator by resorting to easy and puerile sexual imagery.

Sincerely,

Pawan Deshpande
Member, Executive Council
Hindu American Foundation


http://www.hafsite.org/media_letters_bostonherald_lingam.htm
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->





Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 07-20-2007

<!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo--> <b>TV news to be shackled</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->TV news channels guilty of infringing on people’s privacy could soon be made answerable to a broadcast regulator. This means channels <b>may have to explain the larger public interest behind showing sting operations, and even family disputes</b>.

...............

<b>Certain restrictions on news items on occult and superstition have also been included.</b> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Queen want to control sting operation targeting her slaves, for rest she can call govt caught them doing wrong.
Check on any news on Hinduism, e.g any Puja or auspisious days fasting. COmmies and Christian calls Hinduism as occult and supersition anyway.

Call it "State of Emergency" or sensorship.


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 07-20-2007

Come on BBC 'news', follow suit <!--emo&Big Grin--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> :
http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/EntertainmentNew...ArticleID=31048
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>BBC apologises for lying and cheating</b>
Thu, 19 Jul 2007 10:27p.m.   

The BBC has shocked British audiences by admitting it has repeatedly been cheating and deceiving them.

It has suspended all phone-in and interactive viewer contests after discovering that staff regularly faked competition winners.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Very long link to "TV3.co.nz"
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>BBC official to face committee over sham competitions</b>
Fri, 20 Jul 2007 06:33a.m.

A British parliamentary committee is to summon a top BBC official to answer concerns about a string of fake phone-in competitions that have tarnished its image.

The BBC’s Deputy Director General has been told to appear before the Culture, Media and Sport committee next Tuesday over what the committee says are widespread and systemic problems.

The BBC has suspended all phone-related competitions after admitting it had put fake winners on the air in a number of programmes.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Bharatvarsh - 07-21-2007

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Last week, as two Muslim accused in the July 11 train blasts in Mumbai confessed on TV (by a mysterious coincidence, all channels got hold of the footage exactly a year after the blasts), the news anchors screamed: "This man not only betrayed his nation, but also humanity. Doesn't your blood boil when you see this traitor"?

Narendra Modi could be accused of having done the same. No channel asks these questions about him. These double standards are now part of being a Muslim in India's "vibrant" democracy. We should be thankful hundreds of Kafeel Ahmeds haven't produced a swadeshi version of jehad.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editori...how/2218494.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Who is this traitor Jyoti Punwani?


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 07-21-2007

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Who is this traitor Jyoti Punwani? <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Writes for Toilet newspaper, Communal Combat, .... and known leftist and pro muslim. Also contributes to IMC. Hates Hindus and friend of Teesta and her husband Javeed.


Media In India/elsewhere -2 - Guest - 07-21-2007

NYT - Indian rats

I presume nationalistic desis would consider this as offensive and demeaning to India. Psy-ops against India as the aggrieved and affronted would froth.

The article however is illuminating, truthful, sympathetic, amusing and eye opening regarding the pathetic state of Indian infrastructure.

Why do news reports that paint an accurate and realistic - but brutally expository of failings - elicit the wrath of jingoistic Indians? India is sitting on a mountain of forex cash at present. The majority of it should be splurged on infrastructure development in my opinion. And let the multinationals compete - they are already salivating at the scope.

Indians seem to have a perennial chip of their shoulder. Amusing - except for the last 60 years - Indians have allowed aliens to trample all over them.

Is this a genetic reaction to centuries of being humiliated?