There have been two reports of late in The Times of India which are essentially a giveaway in that they tell us of the rampant corruption in the mainstream media. Let us  look at them one by one.


Neither on the left nor on the right side of the argument

The first report was an editorial published on Saturday, 31^st, May. More than being a report it was a commentary on events. That space in all newspapers is generally for opinion, not a recounting of events, but a reflection on them. To quickly sum it up: it recounted that the White House Press Secretary made some serious allegations against the Bush administration, or more properly, his close associates, Cheney, Rumsfeld, among others. He said that he was asked to lie to the media. He said that the war in Iraq was a very wrong decision. A general format of reports those are inconsequential – like say whether SRK should quit smoking or not – is that in the first paragraph they round off a certain event as it occurred. In the next, they show the countering of, say, the allegation by the party in the line of fire. Subsequently, it shows sometimes what the public at large is saying, say by interviewing some people or simply speculating the impact it would have on the public. So, perhaps in the interest of “fair-play” this particular report then recounts that the Press Secretary is dismissed off as a “left-wing blogger”; and is said to be dejected since the Bush term in office is coming to an end. 

Journalistic Terrorism

The second report was published in the Sunday Times of India, 1^st, June. The report was entitled “Reaping crores”. It said how prices of real estate in Singur, after the land was acquired by the state from the farmers/villagers and given to Tata motor company, have shot up, and so some have seen a windfall.        

• The report mentions “some”: some villagers have seen a windfall. 
• The report quotes a villager saying that it was good that the land was sold off because land is often a matter of dispute among family-members.

The first point is callous since the land-grabbing has benefited supposedly only some. What about the rest of the villagers? What about their stories? Where are they now? To which city did they migrate, where are they begging? An honest report would have done a survey on at least a good portion of the people (say, hundred?) and statistically worked on the data to reflect the state of the whole community.

The second point is the note on which the report ends. How convenient. To find a flaw – innate and inherent. Well, there could be several more points like say, “it is a hard life; monsoons are unpredictable”, or like, “there is better life in cities.” Perhaps TOI shied off. Well, how about quoting the finance minister: the bond between a farmer and his land is a “sacred bond”? 

The report is a slap in the face of hundreds left destitute when the land of Singur was acquired forcibly by the state, for a nominal amount – when no amount can be enough – from the villagers. It is a slap in the face of Nandigram – a nearby village that showed resistance to the state –; at the families of Nandigram who lost their members, more than one hundred lost their lives, they were the victims of state terrorism; and several were injured.  
 

It is a slap in the face of the many millions who have been displaced in the sixty-year old history of the Indian republic due to dams and other “structural adjustment programs”. In public consciousness, the story of The Times of India gives a very wrong face to the untold, tragic story of helpless villagers displaced from their lands.

The Times of India stands guilty of propaganda newsreporting and journalistic terrorism.