…or the Great Joke that is Indian Media, Part XIX.. Please take out a few minutes from your schedule to watch this 7-min clip from IBN on the Bofors Scandal (or as a shortcut, just look at the image below)

Notice anything odd?
If you did, pat yourself on the back! What you noticed (if you did) is a fine (if somewhat blatant) example of subliminal messaging.. What is that? I hear you say…Well, pl watch the clip again..this time more carefully..particularly from 4:46 onwards..
Now tell me, notice anything odd? No? OK, here …

I could not believe this piece of *news* when I first read it..You may not too. Thanks to Sh Krishen Kak and Dr Kalyanarama-ji for alerting me to this. Pl have a look at the image below:

The ‘cartoon’ that led to JU professor’s arrest. From top to bottom: 1. Mamata Banerjee points to Indian Railways’ logo and tells Mukul Roy: “See Mukul, the Golden Fortress”; 2. Mukul Roy points to former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi and exclaims: “That’s an evil man!!!”; 3. Mamata says: “Evil man, vanish!”

Apparently, this “image” – …

or something like that…
I don’t know how many of you read this bit of “news” today morning (emphasis added, throughout)…
We will Close Down All Illegal Mines in Goa: Parrikar
Proposed move could further impact the iron ore industry and drag down mining growth in the country
Read it again…India’s largest selling English newspaper would have us believe that attempts to “close down illegal mines in Goa” will hurt mining industry and “drag down mining growth in the country“. Wait there is more…
..A dip in its production due to the closures will hurt …

These are the headlines that showed up in Google News after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on the police lath-charge at Ramlila Maidan in June last year…Draw your own conclusion(s)…

Ramlila Maidan crackdown: SC pulls up Ramdev, Delhi Police – IBNLive.com
Midnight crackdown: SC raps Baba Ramdev, Delhi police – Hindustan Times
SC blames Ramdev, police for 2011 Ramlila Maidan crackdown – Daily News & Analysis
Baba Ramdev guilty of negligence: Supreme Court on Ramlila crackdown – NDTV
Ramdev, cops slammed by SC for Ramilila midnight mayhem- Expressindia.com
SC: Delhi cops abused power at Ramlila,Ramdev …

In which a “leading” media organisation drops all pretence of unbiased reporting…
Courtesy Jnsbmi, here is a ToI story (emphasis added). Notice the headline and the tweet in which it was mentioned:
Gujarat accounts for 6% of India’s dubious bank transactions
Nov 2, 2011, 12.46AM IST TNN [ Ankur Jain ]
Gujarat has generated the fourth highest number of reports relating to dubious banking transactions in the last four financial years, according to a govt report.
AHMEDABAD: There is something more than that meets the eye with financial transactions in the state. According to …

..or The Great Joke that is Indian Media – Part XVI !
Please have a look at the two images below…They refer to news-reports of certain politicians implicated in a crime. They are both from the same newspaper and are fairly recent (one from yesterday; another from a few months back). Notice anything strange?

Source: Missing woman: Rajasthan Minister is accused of her murder and rape

Source: CBI arrests Punjab BJP MLA for graft, names minister too
I would like to think that the curious omission of the name of the political party to which …

Courtesy Bhaskar Chatterjee, I stumbled on this “map” on a section of the the ToI website:

Might this be a strawman / trial balloon to see how a solution that makes the LoC as a permanent border is received by the public? or am I reading too much into this?
I remember the days when such a map in an Indian publication would have led to copies of the magazine/newspaper being confiscated and/or banned and the offending map censored. I also remember one of the first “official” letters I wrote in the IFS, …

Courtesy JKV, who captured this screenshot of NDTV.com. As he wrote on his facebook wall,
This is WTF Moment of the 30th of March, 2011 AD. Record it in history. Indian Cricket Team toiled for a well deserved victory and moments after the victory, NDTV home page, shows this. Can you imagine?!.

For those of you who may be curious, there are other, better(?) examples of this technique at work.
Somewhat Related: Of high-voltage jolts and spellbound cadres

..and why blocking of blogs is not the only thing you should be worrying about.
Most, if not all, of you must have read about the recent case against Rahul Gandhi involving a missing girl that was dismissed last week. What struck me was this last sentence from the report in The Hindu (emphasis added):
On the basis of her deposition, the court imposed a cost of Rs. 50 lakh on the petitioner and, taking suo motu cognisance of an effort to defame a high-profile person, ordered a CBI probe.
Suo-moto cognisance? I …

I usually avoid posting large sections of articles, interviews etc as “excerpts” but I am making an exception for this one…I stumbled on this interview of Sh Arun Shourie an hour ago – and am putting these excerpts up, given the nature of its contents…Please read on – and please share widely…All is not well, All is desperately not well… More on this when I have some time to gather my thoughts…In the meantime, I am grieving for the country.
*** Excerpts from Karan Thapar’s interview with Arun Shourie ***
Karan …