…Wall Street Journal thinks so.
And if the eminent WSJ says so (in a title, no less), it must be true, right?
During last weekend, came across this half-baked opinion passing off as a news-story (Note: this article is not available for free viewing; Subscription only) “How a Muslim Billionaire Thrives in Hindu India” – note the last two words.
It is written by Yaroslav Trofimov.
If the name rings a bell, there is a reason.
He tried to better his own record in this piece from a few days ago (Sept 19): “In India, …

Most of you would remember the senseless destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by Taliban from a few years ago.
Some days go, I had alerted readers to another attack on Buddha statues – this time in Pakistan – which most media channels (including the revered BBC) chose to downplay.
Two days ago, the Islamic zealots returned to complete their unfinished business.
Excerpts from the story:
“The historic statue of Buddha in Pakistan’s Swat Valley was attacked for the second time in 20 days on Saturday night, damaging its head and shoulders. Militants have threatened …

From Sify: Clashes after Twenty20 final, 5 injured
Excerpts (emphasis mine)
“�…Members of two communities clashed in Gadarpur late Monday soon after India’s victory over Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Cup final in Johannesburg, after which police fired in the air to disperse the warring groups.
…the clash…took place after some people took out a procession to celebrate the victory of Indian cricket team, which was objected to by members of the other community…
…The situation in nearby towns like Kitchha was also stated to be tense but under control…”
I thought our press had …

Great�analysis from Henry Blodget�on why offline media’s days are numbered:
Why Newspapers Are Screwed�(also on Yahoo!�- with The New York Times as an example)
Essentially:

Offline circulation continues to drop but content creations costs remain the same (salaries to reporters/editors)
Online ad spend gets dispersed over a number of others sites (and hence is unable to compensate for the fall in offline numbers/ revenues)
Ad revenues – both online as well as offline – continue to fall
You can fire more than 50% of your staff…but the numbers still don’t work.

“This, in short, is why newspapers …

This is a column from more than 9 years ago but,�interestingly,�the points made by Pritish Nandy – especially with regards to our attitude towards Pakistan -�still appear to be relevant.
I have added my views at the end.
Pritish Nandy on “Defending Thackeray” – excerpts
�
“…The media loves those who wear their secularism on their sleeve. Who claim to fight for artistic tolerance, cultural freedom and secular values, however fake they may be. Even Manjit Bawa and Jatin Das, who have made their careers out of badmouthing Husain are now grabbing front page …

Boston Herald printed an AP news story last week with a dumb headline “Hindus lament divine case of erectile dysfunction” to which HAF had a very sensible and measured response.
I was struck by the contrast with the Danish cartoon controversy. For more on this, see “The Danish cartoon controversy: A contrast in protests“, Michelle Malikin’s “Support Denmark: Why the forbidden cartoon matter” and Tavleen Singh’s article, “The right to laugh at gods”
…and before someone asks, here is my position on the Danish cartoon controversy:
The point is not whether the cartoons …

Back in January of this year, I wrote about the disturbing tendency of media to let sensationalism get the better of accuracy and balance in the chase for headlines.
The topic was AIDS and its prevalence in India.
In that post, I�referred to Tosh’s excellent piece on this topic: “Of AIDS, Indian disasters and Apple IIe mindsets”
I wrote a followup post�last month mentioning how the numbers of HIV-positive patients might actually be significantly lower. It now looks like “the new estimate, drawing from a recent population-based survey, would be lower by …

I read this headline earlier this morning and thought it was a joke… Govt mulls ban on Orkut�
But apparently not… “The (Shiv) Sainiks vandalised a cyber cafe in Thane, Mumbai and demanded a ban on Orkut because of the remarks posted on one of its forums”
“Orkut is used by many destructive elements to spread canards about India, Hindus, our gods and cultural heritage,” said Abhijit Phanse, president of Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena.�
Now I am not very familiar with Orkut but the argument seems to be a bit like: Lets ban the …

A few days ago I wrote this semi-serious post wondering whether I had missed the riots following the Mumbai blasts, the attack on Akshardham and the blasts in Varanasi…�
The post was prompted by reports of rioting in Hyderabad following the Mecca Masjid blasts….It now turns out that there may not have been any riots at all.�
So, what is going on?
If there really were no riots, first of all, I would like to offer an unconditional and full apology to all my readers particularly Muslim readers whose sensibilities may have …

Thanks to Shadow Warrior on whose blog I first came across this extraordinary piece of reporting: “Who says Indian Media isn’t biased?“*about the mass conversion of Dalits into Buddhism last Sunday in Mumbai.
After reading that, I was left wondering how many actually converted (the point is not trivial and this is not about conversions per se – I will write a separate post on that)…but the links below illustrate – once again – how sloppy, inaccurate and biased reporting passes for respectable journalism in India these days… Now read on …