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Headlines Today is having a panel discussion on blogging today at 1:30 pm. I’m on the panel along with Sabeer Bhatia who talks about his new blogeverywhere concept, Pawan Duggal, the IT lawyer, and Arindam Chaudhari of IIPM. Watch it if you can. I’ll post a transcript next week.

It seems prime minister Manmohan Singh’s honeymoon with the media is finally over. Thank heavens! Here is Sandipan Deb’s hardhitting column on the sheer nonsense that Singh’s press conference was all about. The Indian Express also warns us, in an editorial, that all is not well with Singh’s much-trumpeted ‘rural employment guarantee scheme.

I have an article in The Times of India arguing that the “freedom of expression” is a meaningless right without private property rights. Where these rights are not protected, as in India, many find their freedom of expression violated - like the dancing ladies of Mumbai.

Blogs may not be the first place to get breaking news (TV trumps here) but blogs are faster in circulating news. Here’s a small example. Amit Varma points to a good article by Sebastian Mallaby on the auto component industry in Chennai yesterday. The Indian Express republishes it verbatim today.
I think as filter […]

Last week there was a well written guest piece on the Winds of Change Blog titled Who is Iraq’s KPS Gill?
When India was trying to fight separatist Sikh terrorists in Punjab, a Sikh police officer named KPS Gill played a pivotal role in giving the anti-terrorism effort legitimacy among Punjabi Sikhs and among all Indians.
It […]

I like the Asian Age, especially it’s features in the weekend edition, but I rarely link to articles written in the Age. There’s a good reason. If you use Firefox, like I do, you will not be able to view the Age’s website. Go on, click www.asianage.com. You’d get to see this:
“This page can only […]

What would you say when a media outlet exhorts readers to vote not based on the ability of the candidates in the fray, but on geographical location?
This isn’t about politics, but about the Indian Idol finals. But don’t shrug it off. Will you vote for someone in a game show just because he’s from your […]

While reading this in today’s TOI, I had a strong feeling of déjà vu. I was right. The Times cooly picks up stuff from Steven Lynch’s Cricinfo column and all the attribution it will deign to give is “according to a website.”
Why am I picking on the Times when it wasn’t the only newspaper […]

Ok. This is a rant. I can be nice when I want to, but this time I want to vent some steam about last Sunday’s piece on blogging in the Indian Express.
The very first thing that hit me about Murali Menon is that he didn’t know anything whatsoever about blogs and worse he hadn’t […]

This is why I like the Mid-Day. They actually get their journalists to go out on the “field.” Bravo!
The story itself is one of the reasons why I like Bombay. The city gives people a chance to make money and improve their lot. The piece also gives clues on who all come in the way. […]

There is a very interesting exchange of views between Tavleen Singh and Teesta Setalvad in the Indian Express. Teesta and Javed Anand (her husband and co-editor of Communalism Combat) also list a sample of Communalism Combat cover stories and special reports since 1993 which go a long way in showing that they’re not […]

The Sena tiger was always spotty, but now he’s going potty.
In an expletive-laden 800-word editorial in the Saamna mouthpiece yesterday, Thackeray used uniquely Marathi abuses like ‘Lavanda,’ ‘Akkarmashi’ and ‘Upatsumbha’ to describe Sardesai and attacked the nature and style of his journalism.
Mid-Day was a bit shy of translating the words. Lavanda sounds very close […]

A sure sign of poor journalism is not following your own advice. Vinay Kamat & Harish Dugh present an argument in favour of Sachin retiring now. Regardless of the merit of their points, they spoil it all with this:
Why can’t we just let him be. Or not be.
At least have the courage of your […]

It would be great to have a non-partisan fact check website in India. I came across two via an article in the CS Monitor.
FactCheck.org is punchier and directs itself towards the statements and “facts” bandied about by politicians. In their own words:
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the […]

Cricket madness has seized this country once again and Sony is back to televising the tournament with its regular band of clowns, freaks, and other assorted circus characters in “Extraaa Innings”. (No sign of Venkatesh “Mumbling” Prasad so far, but nobody has silenced Kris “Switched Mouth with Arse” Srikanth yet.)
The tarot card reader Ma Prem […]

Watching journalists unravel their biases is an engrossing though time consuming activity. (and often others do it better). Here are two examples that caught my eye today.
Aniruddha Dutta exposes the anti-gay prejudices in the press coverage of the recent double murder in Delhi.
Davids Medienkritik has a nice satire on how the German media condones crimes […]

A letter in the Economist.
SIR –The Economist has offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Chicago, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco and Singapore—exceedingly expensive cities to employ journalists. There are doubtless thousands of English-speaking journalists in Delhi and Chennai who would bash away at keyboards for far less pay and expenses. I look forward […]

The latest issue of Outlook magazine has a piece titled The
Body Electronic that I found… strange.
It masquerades as an article about exposing the Indian sex sites on the
Internet and how they’re hawking women to willing customers. If I didn’t know better, I’d call it an "advertorial" for the sites in
question. The writer goes all out […]

I am amazed at the rich variety of perspectives for the same story. Read Rediff’s view and compare it with what the New Scientist has to say.
Google News has more.

(I am taking this back. See here)
In response to my post on Rajeev Srinivasan’s Innumeracy, one Mahesh writes
Three conclusions that I can draw from [yo]ur response to Rajeev’s article:
1. You are a non-IITian(so am I..). Thats why you tend to pick on what his background is rather than the article first.
2. I think he has […]