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Monday, December 1, 2008 at 11:21PM News today seems to be sponsored, by someone who gets to benefit by the news...
It is just something that gets more polarized by the day.
Any fact seems to have two view points, depending on who the target audience is and one starts to scratch ones head to find out what the truth is. That says something about the quality of news.
Some fundamental themes today are:
1. Focus on the exception, not the rule
for example
a. "54 year old Indian man has not brushed his teeth since he was born!" could make the headline here.. they would even go to break that sentence to suggest that Indian men do not brush their teeth..
b. "Billions of people across India have been brushing their teeth since 3000 B.C. till today, starting with neem twigs to the latest Ultrasonic brushes!".
Let's see...
a. makes better headlines.
2. Take sides irrespective of the truth
a. Lashkar-E-Toiba is definitely a terrorist organization and granted there may have been some collusion with Pakistan in the early stages of the organizations creation where ISI had a hand in it, but the organization has been banned by the Pakistani govenrnment since 1998 for almost a decade! Also LET was started in the disputed territory in India, Kashmir which is being claimed by separatists, but is administered by India! So it is not fair to say that Pakistan is responsible for the Mumbai attacks...
b. Al-Qaeda is definitely a terrorist organization and granted there may have been some collusion with Afganistan in the early stages of the organizations creation where the Taliban had a hand in it, but the organization has been banned by the Afganistan government since 19xy.. So it is not fair to say that Afganistan is responsible for 9/11
again a. makes better headlines..
Except for the fact that a. was actually the headline in the NPR news today. Just couldn't believe what we were hearing! The logic was unbelievable.
To top things off, apparently the USA is going to give India all the support it can and also give Pakistan all the support it needs.
Did not quite get the part where Pakistan needs support right now. What am I missing here?
Ps. There are a lot of Peace loving Pakistanis out there and no doubt, they feel bad when all Pakistani's are portrayed as terror junkies. If LET and Pakistan are divorced, then the Pakistani government and the people should have no problem in helping India launch an offensive against LET, no?
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Reader Comments (5)
I see your logic. Yes they should.
the bias was so bad in early 2000s, especially in publications like Time magazine, I completely lost my trust in organizations like cnn and npr. Yea, even npr - they present the news in very serious tones and try to sound unbiased, but they are far from perfect
er- US has to help Pakistan - cos they need their help in fighting terrorism in the Afghan border, see?
US has to side with India since both of us faced terrorism...but they also need Pakistan for their own means. So they have to pretend they are helping both while in reality they are probably gonna sit and drink tea while we work it out ourselves!
"Did not quite get the part where Pakistan needs support right now. What am I missing here?"
look around you, sundar. read about the car makers flying to dc in their corporate jets, the recession, the feds' open-wallet policy. now put two and two together. of course, pakistan needs aid, so do those poor terrorists. how else can they afford their esigner t-shirts and shoes? watch the http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com" REL="nofollow">zeitgeist movie if you have't yet done so!
time was when only the revered bheeshma could decide his own time of death. now, you gotta be a terrorist to attain that exalted level!
- s.b.
p.s.: for those who missed the sarcasm, here's the deal - the usa needs customers for their ak-xxs and other such paraphernalia- the more the merrier. all the better better if these customers fight each other - dead men tell no tales (the pakistanis are being reminded each time the one that got caught speaks out!)
Main Stream Media & TRPs are ass important a consideration ! Its a week since the first bomb exploded.
The sharpnels have done some damage. Our own people and their behaviour have caused a lot more !