Thread by @vsirnate

On Indian media (thread):

On 14 Feb a horrific terror attack took place in Pulwama. As @suchitrav and I were reading the news and watching the discussions, we noticed something very wrong with the reporting in the Indian media.

@suchitrav We found that many publications were giving many sets of facts about the incident. We couldn’t understand why. Soon we Saw that all the reports came from “sources” in government.

@suchitrav But why were these sources giving such conflicting information? We didn’t know! So we decided to compile who said what and see what emerged.

@suchitrav We wrote this piece thepolisproject.com/the-danger-of-…

@suchitrav We were very concerned with the way the media wasn’t asking the right questions. So we asked them and pointed some very odd things leading channels and papers did

@suchitrav Basically we realized the media wasn’t going to ask any questions. Even after our report no channel or site every corrected their misleading reports.

@suchitrav Those remain a matter of public record. So we wrote an oped in Washington Post.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

@suchitrav We were extremely concerned about the way anchors were behaving. We didn’t find it funny. We thought the media was responsible in dragging two nuclear states to the brink of war.

@suchitrav Our piece made the news in six countries. If I ever doubted the power of the written word, those doubts were put to rest.

@suchitrav I thought that maybe this was a one off case. War like situations typically see media being used as therapy for a public consciousness which is undergoing trauma. Maybe. But I was wrong.

@suchitrav The same sort of behavior is being exhibited after the elections. No one, barring a few, is following up on the right stories. Instead everyone is pretending that democracy has won the day.

@suchitrav Voter are missing from lists in the millions. No explanation and no doggedness by media to get to the bottom of it.

@suchitrav 19 lakh EVMs are “missing”. No explanation and no doggedness by media to get to the bottom of it.

@suchitrav There is mismatch between votes polled and votes counted. No explanation and no doggedness by media to get to the bottom of it.

@suchitrav There is a mismatch between votes polled and counted. No explanation and no doggedness by media to get to the bottom of it.

@suchitrav My simple question is how can we still consider our democracy to be strong when the fourth estate has collapsed like a deck of cards?

It was so obviously on display during the inauguration of the new government.

@suchitrav Governments will come and governments will go. Some will be decent, others will not. This isn’t about that. It’s about the independence of media. I really want someone to trace the dynasties in government and their connections to journalists. It’s the same families!

@suchitrav Caravan did a good piece showing how ANI was connected to the deep state in India. But there are so many more.

@suchitrav The other thing is if it’s people from the same families making policy, staffing think tanks, staffing universities and the entire media, then where is the space for those without any legacy money?

@suchitrav And the audacity of the new regime is to make everyone think that this is less elitist than previous regimes and people have swallowed this as truth.

It’s not!

@suchitrav So I’ll end with a Pratchett quote which sums up the current situation: “the pen is mightier than the sword only if the sword is very small and the pen is very pointy.”

It’s time to change that!