Grievances of a reader of 18 years : My Letter to Times of India

There are certain aspects of you that you cannot choose, you just get born into it. In a peculiar way, that is what i define my relationship with your newspaper- The Times of India. I read it as a child and have never looked at any other newspaper since.

Maybe its the fidelity, maybe its the format, the look that i am so accustomed to. But then eventually the material comes under scrutiny. The older i have gotten, the more meek and scandalous i have found you.

I am not going to mince any words. The newspaper has become a bastion of classy sensationalism. So many times i wake up to a laughable front page. Some times there is not a front page, but an advertisement staring at my face. Sure you have to make money, but sacrificing your front page is not the way to go about doing it. You might as well attach a 20 page leaflet to cater to your bottom line. There is a difference between reporting the news and selling a story. You seem to have found a niche pandering to the latter. You place higher stock on a Tiger Woods controversy (by giving the front page 9 dec,2009) than you do on reporting the daily happenings in the government. It seems that you have forgotten what investigative journalism is.

There is not article on any government department unless there is a sensational scandal or radical reform. You have stopped reporting the what happens on a daily basis. The argument that repetition can cause disinterest is not the one you should make as i see you reporting about "man made global warming" in the most sensational possible way, trying to scare the readers. You report the now very nearly debunked "science"(myth would be more appropriate) with the alacrity of a politician trying to push his/her agenda through. There seems to be no room for balanced argument. You seem to either be scared or unwilling to report the harsh truth. If you are scared of ridicule or slander, you are really in the wrong profession. If you are unwilling, you are not fit to write anything, even you letter resignation. The only article that is worth reading is Swaminomics.

Some of your "tactics" or strategies to sell more or attract a more "niche clientele" smacks of elitism. For example, the crest edition. You are creating what is called in economics as 'price discrimination'. There is nothing wrong about the concept. Airlines and multiplexes use it to attract different customers. But you not should indulge in it. You cannot paint the truth in different shades and sell it according to price fixing policy. That more than anything points to the fact that you treat yourself as a corporation and not as a medium of veracity.

You proudly claim, almost in a boastful smug, to be largest newspaper in the world. Maybe you have become too concerned in entertaining the masses than doing your primary duty. You might be aware of the fact you are not the fastest growing newspaper. Reading your newspaper, there is no reason it should be.

It is your primary job and purpose of existence to enlighten people and report the truth, undressed and unadulterated. The way you have embraced the modern day culture of pandering to the masses is unbecoming of a newspaper. You are dumbing down the people and there can be nothing more terrible that a newspaper can do.

You seem to more like the proponents of propaganda than a reliable source of veracity. You wield immense power in terms of your reach and the nature of your job. And for all intents and purposes you are abusing your power. You have not reported anything about 'climategate', you haven't poked holes into the very porous government story of the events of 26.11.2008 Mumbai attacks. You do not expose the corruption that is so rampant.

A country's news agencies are said to be the indicator of the state of affairs. During the independence struggle, there were brave and dutiful journalists who did their job because they owed it to their profession. Nowadays, the only iota of loyalty you reporters seem to have is to your paychecks. I wish i could say that i look forward to your reply but i am not naive. You will brush it away and look at new ways to expand you readers. Take a moment and introspect. You are not what a reporter or a journalist is but someone who pretends to be that- a sellout.

Wake up

I'm so glad to be on this blog of mine. The limited appreciation i received on "depths of dexterity" was decaying me. I, only for the sake of sustaining the interest put out a pathetic blog the other day...There are so many things that i wanna say, about the worldly affairs, about the things that i believe concern everyone.

Let me start with the economy. How many of us know how the mini-revival is happening? It is an utter sham. The major financial corporations are changing the accounting rules to make it like they are turning a corner. Goldman Sachs has intertwined itself with the government forming this corporate-government behemoth that is swallowing its rivals like Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns. And how does this affect us Indians? Well the market collapses, huge companies begin teetering on the precipice of insolvency. Our IT sector is predominently service based. And this idoitic concept of "baling out" dying companies refuses to die. The government make them not fire people and keep jobs in their countries(read Obama). Thus, these companies have to cut back resulting in fewer contracts for our services-based IT sector. Once our young, high spending IT sector stop spending, other sectors suffer due to the dearth in demand. For eg : if a demand in the real estate sector goes down, there are fewer houses constructed, i.e. lesser cement and iron needed, i.e. lesser manufacturing. Thus this domino effect consumes a chain. Our economy might not face the worst of the crisis but it is definitely not de-coupled from the economic slowdown.

Once these foreign corporations begin bleeding, there are hundreds of billions of dollars worth of losses. The economies of some countries explode(read Iceland and Latvia). Our country has these protectionist measures which gives advantage to Indian companies. These measures have saved us the worst. Imagine what would have happened if Citibank or Bank of America were as big in India as SBI or HDFC? If GM, Chrysler were as big as Tata? We could've faced something a lot worse than slowdown with 5-7% growth. I hope there is not a lot of disinvestment( selling a part the govt-owned corporations like ONGC, Air India). I am believer in capitalism. But once the big multi national organisations come in, the arm twist everyone to have their way( Royal Dutch Shell, De Beers Diamonds).

And I really want to get this pent up anger against bailout of private sector corporations using taxpayer's money off my chest. That is not capitalism and isn't that what you countries claim to practise and uphold? The govts are rescuing corporations that have made bad decisions. So when they mess up, govt takes care of them. And when they make a profit they keep it. In other words, the profit is private and the losses are public...heads i win, tails you lose?...(Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase).

Maybe this is what fasciantes me or maybe this is what i feel everyone should take notice of. But we all should know if someone is robbing us. Would you like it if someone put their hands in your pocket and stole everything? I know i wont

Independent's perspective

This is not dirty mudslinging. Over the last few weeks, Barack Obama has been saying/doing somethings which I find highly disturbing.

Mainly the health care plan. There was a speech in which he said the following-

"If we do not fix our health care system, America may go the way of GM."

The link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryKGqF28d34&feature=related

around 4:50

Really, isn't that a classic case of faulty cause and effect?

We all hated George Bush for stoking fear, using terrorism as a pretext to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. He, over a protracted period, disseminated insecurity about the safety and well being of the people. He used(his people,he wasn't smart enough) all kinds of fear mongering tactics. Remember when we thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction?

All this was done to lay the groundwork for the something so invade and destroy a sovereign nation. What a sham!!!

Then i heard Obama say the above lines. Obama is using the health care problems and bad economy the way Bush used terrorism. Didn't he campaign for change and painted his opponent as 'more of the same'? REALLY?

I don't know how many of us are keeping track of the financial crisis..but from what I've seen/read/heard, he is making it a lot worse. (Refer the link-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRcnR0AFatA

also

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdVP_sgCETo)

Why should you and I, the Indians care? Because the US casts a huge shadow that puts us in a shade. All that they do affect us. And Obama, the American President is too important a person to be specious.

Bush used terrorism as a pretext to invade Iraq for oil and other business reasons. He made the big corporations happy. Obama is looking to do the same using fear about the economy.

More importantly, he is starting to treat us all like idiots.

Maybe this wont concern many. It should. Didn't Bust and his 'theatrics' affect you?

Obama is fast turning into a well spoken, convincing, articulate Bush. Isn't that too dangerous?

"I am glad Obama is President...But the audacity of hope part is over. Right now i'm hoping for a little more audacity."-Bill Maher