Today's media has the usual hilarious statements by the Sangh Parivar chappies on the Gujarat expose (see http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp, if you haven't already) -- see, for example, Ravi Shankar Prasad's rubbish. The blog below does a good analysis of the perspective within which we now view news, and how the horrific details that have been revealed, and what they say about us a society, can get lost amidst all this.
As Tarun Tejpal says in his editorial: "Read. And be afraid." Tehelka issues should be available on the stands today. If they are sold out (bought up by those who do not wish this to get any publicity), place orders with your newsagents. And, if you think this is paranoid, Aaj Tak, IBN-7/CNN-IBN and NDTV have been asked to switch off by government forcibly in Gujarat since 25.10.07 evening from 7:30 pm. There is a order issued from District Magistrate and District Election Officer, Ahmedabad Mr Dhananjay Dwivedi dated 26.10.07, it states that: From 7:30 onwards dated 25.10.07, there are programmes like "Tehelka-Aaj Tak Khulasa", "Operation kalank" and "Gujarat ka sach" being telecast on Aaj Tak and IBN7 depicting visuals and statements of people pertaining to 2002 communal riots. As per clause 5 of the cable tv network regulation, 1995, no entity can broadcast or rebroadcast any programme, which is not as per programming code. ------ http://www.prempanicker.com/index.php?/site/the_gujarat_tehelka/ Friday, October 26, 2007 The Gujarat tehelka Moments after 7 pm yesterday, we knew the Gujarat riots formed the subject matter of the latest *Tehelka* expose<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp>. And, without sitting through the television coverage on Aaj Tak and Headlines Today, you knew broadly what the reaction was going to be. [To segue for a moment into a side issue, I had every intention of sitting through the television coverage—but inside of the first half hour, I gave up; there is something faintly obscene about a 'special report' on an important issue being broken down into four minute chunks of repetitive sound bytes, sandwiched between 10 minute spells—I timed it—of advertisements.] Scanning blogs, comments on message boards (always a traumatic experience; on an issue of this importance, even more so) and even messages on this forum, I am not disappointed: the reaction is exactly on the lines I had anticipated. These are, broadly, the points being made: 1. Why now, just before the Gujarat elections? This proves the expose is the handiwork of the Congress. 2. Why this riot? Why not other, earlier riots that have taken place during various Congress governments? This proves the media is partisan. 3. Why is inordinate fuss kicked up whenever an incident involves Hindus, while no one says anything when the victims are Hindus? This proves the media is pseudo-secular (or, *gag*, p-sec). 4. Whyfor? Outside of selling many copies of Tehelka (and providing an advertising windfall for two television channels), what good will it do to rake over the past? 5. How can you take this seriously? The media spins the news depending on its political affiliations, so what are we to believe? [See blog for full text.] -- Question everything -- Karl Marx