There have been two reports of late in The Times of India which are essentially a giveaway in that they tell us of the rampant corruption in the mainstream media. Let us  look at them one by one.

Neither on the left nor on the right side of the argument

The first report was an editorial published on Saturday, 31^st, May. More than being a report it was a commentary on events. That space in all newspapers is generally for opinion, not a recounting of events, but a reflection on them. To quickly sum it up: it recounted that the White House Press Secretary made some serious allegations against the Bush administration, or more properly, his close associates, Cheney, Rumsfeld, among others. He said that he was asked to lie to the media. He said that the war in Iraq was a very wrong decision. A general format of reports those are inconsequential ' like say whether SRK should quit smoking or not ' is that in the first paragraph they round off a certain event as it occurred. In the next, they show the countering of, say, the allegation by the party in the line of fire. Subsequently, it shows sometimes what the public at large is saying, say by interviewing some people or simply speculating the impact it would have on the public. So, perhaps in the interest of "fair-play" this particular report then recounts that the Press Secretary is dismissed off as a "left-wing blogger"; and is said to be dejected since the Bush term in office is coming to an end. 

This at a time when everybody but everybody, some of the "right-wing bloggers" and many oil experts have agreed that the war in Iraq was to militarily control the region's oil. No amount of criticism can be enough for the TOI. The newspaper has but surely lost it! It never had the courage to stand on the left side of the argument and does not have the balls to stand on the right. All it can do is give a side-line commentary to events as they unfold. It would not express an opinion ' as it rightly should at the editorial page ' regarding the issue.

Journalistic Terrorism

The second report was published in the Sunday Times of India, 1^st, June. The report was entitled "Reaping crores". It said how prices of real estate in Singur, after the land was acquired by the state from the farmers/villagers and given to Tata motor company, have shot up, and so some have seen a windfall.        

• The report mentions "some": some villagers have seen a windfall. 
• The report quotes a villager saying that it was good that the land was sold off because land is often a matter of dispute among family-members.

The first point is callous since the land-grabbing has benefited supposedly only some. What about the rest of the villagers? What about their stories? Where are they now? To which city did they migrate, where are they begging? An honest report would have done a survey on at least a good portion of the people (say, hundred?) and statistically worked on the data to reflect the state of the whole community.

The second point is the note on which the report ends. How convenient. To find a flaw ' innate and inherent. Well, there could be several more points like say, "it is a hard life; monsoons are unpredictable", or like, "there is better life in cities." Perhaps TOI shied off. Well, how about quoting the finance minister: the bond between a farmer and his land is a "sacred bond"? 

The report is a slap in the face of hundreds left destitute when the land of Singur was acquired forcibly by the state, for a nominal amount ' when no amount can be enough ' from the villagers. It is a slap in the face of Nandigram ' a nearby village that showed resistance to the state '; at the families of Nandigram who lost their members, more than one hundred lost their lives, they were the victims of state terrorism; and several were injured.  
 

It is a slap in the face of the many millions who have been displaced in the sixty-year old history of the Indian republic due to dams and other "structural adjustment programs". In public consciousness, the story of The Times of India gives a very wrong face to the untold, tragic story of helpless villagers displaced from their lands.

The Times of India stands guilty of propaganda newsreporting and journalistic terrorism.

I thoroughly believe that the Times of India newspaper has propaganda, an agenda for furthering their own cause viz. their profit and is also part of a 'grand global conspiracy'. Very often you see the colourful box headlined 'celebrate with The Times' where 'the times' has a double meaning. They also have another line viz. 'move with The Times' or the like where again 'the times' means both the newspaper as well as the prevailing times of today suggesting that to read the TOI is to be progressive.  Notice they do not tell us what it is that we must celebrate. They just want us to celebrate. They show an animation of a family holding each others' hands and moving gaily round in a circle in effect celebrating life.  So, the TOI wants us to be happy and content and celebrate life with The Times with the presumption that all is good, that 'the times' are good. Let us ask the question: what should we celebrate? Should we celebrate the growing divide between the rich and the poor or state-sponsored genocide, or that oil has peaked and we cannot continue to live in the system we live in forever, or that the human species today lives at the expense of the "death of birth" of several species? The Times of India does not address key issues; when it does it does not research deep; it provides selective evidence, and one side of the story. The knot is tied when the Times of India sells us good news, happiness, hopes and dreams and raises a toast to us saying, 'Let's celebrate!' which reassures people who do not ask questions or are alarmed into any action. The TOI sells us dreams for India to be a major superpower one day; dreams of a better India in general. They will tell us elaborative stories of the successes of Ambanis and Indian corporations and the growing Indian economy. They will not tell you in how turbulent times we live. So often you see on the international page a news item of a mere fifty words telling that a suicide bomber bombed a US military jeep in Baghdad or that a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself in a public square in Israel. You would never hear of the circumstances that forced the sixteen year old girl to do what she did. All of them, by default, come in the same bracket of terrorists.
You would have elaborate reviews on how India is moving ahead on the path of progress; in other words how much more it resembles western society. The number of flyovers, shopping malls and the metro rail are all indications of progress. You would have elaborative editorial reviews on how Indian economy is growing but would never be told of the cost that is paid in blood by the poor, in Singur, in Nandigram. You would have reports of reaping crores which purposely give a wrong face to the tragic, untold story of helpless villagers displaced from their lands — in the millions, throughout the sixty-year old history of the Indian republic. Displaced by construction of dams, of special economic zones and other “structural adjutsment programs”. 

One may argue that it is important to sell hope and dreams. But that does not mean that a newspaper should hide the bad stories and the gory details. It is precisely this that gives the tag of 'Hindu-Muslim riots' to state-sponsored genocide. This lays the ground-work for right-wing political parties like the BJP to whip up public sentiment — indulge in war-mongering locally and talk of national security nationally — and ask for undemocratic laws like POTA to return.

The least that the TOI can do is to be a bit sober and solemn like The Hindu and stop incessantly blowing the happy harp. But that is how the TOI sells today ' by blowing its happy harp. That is their control and grip over the people. It blinds people into believing that all is good so much so that they can 'celebrate with The Times', which they do. India is an important country today and the collective opinion and perception of the Indian people is important and makes a difference in the big offices that formulate policies that affect the world. The TOI is a stakeholder in the grand global conspiracy to mislead the people so they go about their normal lives while injustice, exploitation, atrocities keep taking place in the poor regions of the world whether within India or abroad, while policies that bring prosperity to some and injustice, poverty, hunger, and white DEATH to others are formulated without the knowledge of the public at large, while the line between plutocracy and democracy blurs day by day.