“If corporate media becomes impartial and stops serving its political masters, it will command respect of the people, instead of demanding it.”
(Disclaimer:- This disclaimer is for NDTV who unleash lawyers for stamping out free speech. I am neither an admirer of NDTV, nor of Ms. Dutt. My image gallery is proof of that. This article does not explicitly imply or state that NDTV uses fake tweets to distort public debate. I have stated my opinion.)
This show was supposed to be a discussion about the situation of Mr. Shanti Bhushan and Mr. Prashant Bhushan who are being accused without proof. A television channel is expected to be neutral, but this show appeared to be part of a media trial of Bhushans.
So I did a little experiment with this episode available online at ndtv.com website.
Show – The Buck Stops Here on NDTV anchored by Ms. Barkha Dutt. Episode title – “Bhushans: Smear Campaign or Fair Game?”
Date – 20th April, 2011
Methodology – I switched off the sound and made a note of visuals presented during the show.
(Note: I switched on sound briefly only once to listen to Agnivesh’s famous comment at 40th minute, as pointed out by folks on Twitter. This comment has been preserved at Mutiny along with a contest. Thanks to Jayant Gajria for the tip.)
| Visuals in the show had 2 categories of graphics:
Both these are labeled in the screenshot. |
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Visual Category 1 – CAPTIONS
Please note the subtle but aggressive build-up in captions rotated throughout the show:
My conclusion – There is a clear negative spin in captions to defame the Bhushans in a show where they are not present to defend their position. This is also known as a Media Trial
Visual Category 2 – TWITTER BUZZ
Out of all the tweets presented in this visual, I found these most interesting.
Irrespective of the fact whether the Bhushans are corrupt or not they should quit. We can’t give them preferential treatment.….@Forever_Tarun (Tarun Arora)
How can a few unelected, ‘self-declared honest pple’ hijack d democratic process&claim 2 represent 120 crore ppl? #annahazare….@neutralviews (neutral)
caesars wife has to be above suspicion. But having said that there wud b no1 left in civil society since v r all suspect 2sum extent….@iamrana (Rana)
A glance at twitter time-line of these worthies revealed that they belong to the Barkha Dutt Fan Club. Their tweets conveniently supported the agenda she was pushing in this episode.
It reminds me of those suspicious “viewer telephone calls” and “audience questions” which anchors often use in their shows.
The following tweet is more interesting:
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those in eye of storm should quit. the movement is too important to be disturbed by such issues.
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Now Mr. Abhishek Jain is interesting because his account @abhijain03 has only 2 tweets so far!
The first tweet was on 19th March and second just happened to be on the day of Barkha’s show.
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| The non-communicative Mr. Jain has 16 followers out of which 10 are females. Actually, only 9, because 1 girl “Anshu Daga” likes him so much that she follows him through 2 identical accounts! |
The status of these 9 mysterious followers (on 21 April) -
| Name | Twitter Account | Date of First Tweet | Total Tweets |
| Anshu Daga | anshudaga5 | 17 March | 20 |
| Anshu Daga | anshudaga6 | 23 March | 21 |
| Malina Maloo | MalinaMaloo5 | 21 March | 20 |
| Hansika Goenka | HansikaGoenka6 | 21 March | 20 |
| Jayanti Dugar | JayantiDugar7 | 20 March | 19 |
| Deveshi Baid | DeveshiBaid5 | 20 March | 20 |
| Hemaksh Jhajharia | HemakshiJ97 | 16 March | 20 |
| Aashritha Bangad | aashrithab141 | 15 March | 20 |
| Ishta Dalmia | IshtaDalmia4 | 8 March | 21 |
| Jigyasa Gadia | JigyasaGadia3 | 23 Feb | 10 |
List of Coincidences
This means they are not friends. In that case, who are they?
Observations
Note: The following section has been updated. Confusion was caused by the address @ShaliniSharma displayed on TV.
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Do put the ministers on the Lokpal Bill committee under same scrutiny. Can’t wait for that |
Alert folks on Twitter (including Hari, David and Vikas in comments section below) pointed out that NDTV had made a typing error and credited @ShaliniSharma (blank account) instead of @ShaliniSharma_
Ms. Shalini Sharma has made an excellent point. The screenshot of her tweet is presented below:
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| I thank everyone for this correction and sincerely hope that NDTV is more careful in the future. |
Now that the issue of the second suspicious tweet has been resolved peacefully, this post stands corrected.
My opinion that NDTV shows are not impartial still holds because their anchors (English and Hindi) continue being predictable by following the same strategy:
To this list I can now add:
All of this is my personal opinion, and it is possible I may be wrong.
Therefore, I request readers to verify facts from links provided and draw their own conclusions.
(All screenshots on this page were taken on April 21 and 22, 2011)
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Skywatchers are hoping for an impressive show over the next two days, when the Lyrid meteor shower reaches its peak.
Between 10 and 20 meteors per hour can be visible under ideal conditions; but experts say the shower is fickle.
Light from the Moon, which is in a so-called gibbous phase, could interfere with observations this year.
But stargazers are advised to watch in the hours before dawn to get their best views of the "shooting stars".
The radiant, or source, of the shower is located near Vega, a bright star which is hard to miss.
Binoculars or telescopes are not required, experts say the naked eye is best for watching the meteors.
The shower is caused when the Earth passes through a trail of debris left by comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1).
You might think you won't watch it for 8 minutes, but you will. Trust me :D
I remember posting about this on Crackbook when it was announced. I was in Dubai that day.