Rumours turned into "News"?

One e mail prank(link at the end of the post) = 10 "investigative reports"= 100 storiesRumours = News... Unconfirmed /baseless reports dished out as "News"
Infallible Indian journalists have been spooked by a delightful Da Vinci Code style hoax played on them. see how convincing the "news" is with supporting graphics!
(sad part: none of them published clarification!- exception being Kannada prabha/ The Hindu )
read more on this hoax...http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/for-indian-journos-april-1-comes-10-months-early/
See how they made fun of cops based on this "news" http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bangalore/Cops_stunned_over_Nazi_mans_capture/articleshow/3178643.cms
On Sunday, almost every newspaper reported the arrest of Johann Bach, an 88-year-old Nazi war criminal, in the jungles of Khanapur, close to Goa, on Saturday.
A classified advertisement inserted by the “Waffen SS” fugitive to sell an 18th century piano was supposed to have led Perus Narkp detectives to the “senior adjutant” who reportedly had a role in the “extermination” of 12,000 Jews at the Marsha Tikash Whanaab concentration camp in East Berlin.
Bangalore based newspapers went to town with the news:
# “Hitler’s stormtrooper held in Karnataka,” headlined Deccan Herald.
# “World War II criminal arrested?” asked The Hindu
# “Cops stunned over Nazi man’s arrest,” said The Times of India
# “Antique piano ad leads police to Nazi colonel near Belgaum,” said the New Indian Express.
On Monday, the up-country papers went a step further.
# “Traced to Goa, Nazi war criminal tried to enter Karnataka, arrested on way and flown to Berlin,” said The Indian Express, Delhi
# “Goa piano ‘thief’ found to be Nazi war fugitive,” said The Telegraph, Calcutta, with a helpful graphic (above) of the flight of the Nazi criminal.
Wanted by Interpol, octagenarian Bach, it was reported, had escaped the Nuremberg trials and evaded justice for over half a century. On the German government’s “Most wanted list” since the end of WW II, he had spent time in Argentina, Bulgaria, Yemen and Canada.
Apparently, the Israeli media had reported his sighting in Calungute, Goa. But V.S. Acharya, Karnataka’s home minister, denied any knowledge. Hemant Nimbalkar, Belgaum superintendent of police, said he was unaware of the incident.
But the papers said Bach had been picked up by detectives of Perus Narkp who are part of the German chancellor’s “Core” team in collaboration with Indian intelligence.
Anil Budur Lulla of The Telegraph “exclusively” reported that “Berlin also had information from Tel Aviv that an old German had bragged about overseeing the genocide of Jews to an Israeli tourist couple in Goa during a rave party a few months ago.”
Deccan Herald quoted a press released issued by “Perus Narkp”. Times of India said the press note was circulated by email.
The Telegraph, quoting “sources”, said that “after further investigations in Goa, proceedings would begin to take Bach to Germany, with whom India signed an extradition treaty in 2004.” Deccan Herald said he would “be facing trial at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.”
And on and on it went.
Well, it turns out, it was all a super prank, obviously played by someone with some taste in western classical music.

Analysis on : http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2008/06/30/indian-newspapers-fall-for-baroque-nazi-war-criminal-hoax/

Stories that are too good to check , in The Hindu http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070152221100.htm

See the text of origial email sent to media: (based on this text, creative writers spun stories in various newspapers) http://goadourada.blogspot.com/2008/06/attn-german-special-police-arrest-nazi.html

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾರಾಂಶ : http://www.gulfkannadiga.com/news-10106.html

29.06.2008: News Scan

ಉಡುಪಿ ಜಿಲ್ಲಾ ಪೋಲಿಸ್ , ಅಗ್ನಿಶಾಮಕ, ಎ.ಎನ್.ಎಫ್ , ಕ.ಕಾವಲು ಪಡೆ , ಗ್ರಹ ರಕ್ಷಕ ದಳದ ಅಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳೊ೦ದಿಗೆ ಗ್ರಹ ಸಚಿವರ ಸಮಾಲೋಚನಾ ಸಭೆ

( ಸುದ್ದಿ ಕೃಪೆ: http://www.gulfkannadiga.com/news-9976.html) Photos by Janardhan Kodavoor

Homage to PadmaPriya, Blood donation etc.,

(photos: Janardhan Kodavoor)

ಜಿಲ್ಲಾ ಯೋಗ ಶಿಬಿರ : healthy body- healthy mind- healthy society

ಸಾವಿನಲ್ಲೂ ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಮಾಡುವ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ಸ್...Political mileage out of personal tragedy? Updated24.06.2008

ಮಲ್ಪೆಯ ಯುವ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ಸ್ ನಾಯಕರು ಇತರರ ಮನೆಯ ದೋಸೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ತೂತು ಹುಡುಕುವ ಮೊದಲು ತಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯ ಕಾವಲಿಯ ತೂತು ನೋಡಲಿ ...ಮುಂದೆ ಓದಿ ...

(ಸುದ್ದಿ:ಉದಯವಾಣಿ)

(cartoons courtesy: Harini/ http://www.daijworld.com/)

Oscar/ Poojari/ Pramod...all are in the race to take political mileage out of a personal tragedy...(when they have other things like price rise, LPG shortage, terrorism, chinese invasion in Sikkim to worry about)

God save our country from such leaders...

(one of them says...one who can not keep his house in order...what can he do for constituency...they have conviniently forgotten that, when their government was ruling they could not protect their own leaders- Indira Gandhi/ Rajiv Gandhi!)

read more in...

http://www.gulfkannadiga.com/news-9608.html

================================

More bloggers/ readers have written about politicization of a personal tragedy...read on...

http://avirules.blogspot.com/2008/06/politics-encroaching-personal-life-in.html

2008/06/24
Politics encroaching personal life in Udupi
ಇ೦ದು ಮು೦ಜಾನೆ ನನ್ನ ಗಣಕ ಯ೦ತ್ರದಲ್ಲ ಮೂಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾದುಕುಳಿತ೦ತಹಾ forwarded e Mail ಒ೦ದನ್ನು ತೆರೆದು ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ಅದು ಶ್ರಿಯುತ ರಘುಪತಿ ಭಟ್ಟರ ಮನದಾಳದ ನುಡಿಗಳು. ದುಃಖದ ಮಡುವಿನಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಅವರ ನುಡಿಗಳು ನಿಜಕ್ಕು ಮನಕರಗಿಸುವ೦ತಹದ್ದು. ಇದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನನ್ನದೊ೦ದು ಸಣ್ಣ ಅನಿಸಿಕೆ.
ಕೊನೆಗೂ ಮೌನ ಮುರಿದ ಉಡುಪಿ ಶಾಶಕರು ತಮ್ಮ ಮನದಾಳದ ನೋವನ್ನು ತೆರೆದೇ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ, ನಿಜವಾದ ಮಾತನ್ನೇ ಆಡಿದ್ಧಾರೆ. ತು೦ಬ ದಿನಗಳಿ೦ದ ಮುದುಡಿಕೊ೦ಡಿದ್ಧ ಮೌನ ಮಾತನಾಡಿದೆ. ಸದಾ ಜನರ ಸೇವೆಯಲ್ಲೇ ನಿರತರಾಗಿದ್ಧ ಇವರಿಗೆ ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳ ಸುಳ್ಳು gossip ಗಳು, ಮಿತ್ರ ಪಕ್ಷಗಳ ಮನನೋಯಿಸುವ೦ತಹ ಧರಣಿಗಳು, ಹರತಾಳಗಳು, ಬಾಯಿಗೆ ತೋಚಿದ೦ತ, ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೇ ಬ೦ದ೦ತೆ ಬರೆಯುವ, ಬುದ್ದಿವ೦ತ ಉದುಪಿ ಜನರ ಆಲೋಚನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬುಡಮೇಲಾಗಿಸುವ ಕೆಲವೊ೦ದು ಅನಾಮಧೇಯ ಹಣಭಕ್ಷಕ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳ ಶೋಚನೀಯ ಬರಹಗಳು ಉಡುಪಿ ಜನತೆಗೂ ಸೇರಿದ೦ತೆ ಶಾಶಕರಿಗೂ ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ಬೇಸರ ತ೦ದಿರಬೇಕು. ಈ ಓ೦ದು ದುಃ ಖದ ಮಡುವಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಳುಗಿರುವ ಶಾಶಕರಿಗೆ ಆತ್ಮ ಸ್ಥಿರತೆಯನ್ನ, ಧೈರ್ಯವನ್ನ ನಿಡುವ ಬದಲಾಗಿ, ತಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯ ದೋಸೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ತೂತಿದೆ ಏ೦ಬುದನ್ನೇ ತಿಳಿಯದ ಕೆಲವು ಮಿತ್ರಪಕ್ಷಗಳ ನಾಯಕರು ಹರತಾಳ, ಧರಣಿಯನ್ನು ಆರ೦ಭಿಸಿದ್ದು ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ಒ೦ದು ಶೋಚನೀಯ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ.
ಈ ಏಲ್ಲಾ ಕ್ಶುಲ್ಲಕ ವಿಚಾರಗಳನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟು, ಬಹುಶಃ ಇತರ ಪಕ್ಷಗಳು ಜನರ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳಾದ ಬೆಲೆ ಏರಿಕೆ, ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ , ನೀರು, ರಸ್ತೆ, ನಿರುದ್ಯೋಗ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳತ್ತ ಕಿ೦ಚಿತ್ ಗಮನಹರಿಸಿದ್ದರೂ ಜನರ ವಿಶ್ವಾಸವನ್ನು, ಬೆ೦ಬಲವನ್ನು ಗಳಿಸುವುದರಲ್ಲಿ ಏರಡು ಮಾತಿರಲಿಕ್ಕಿಲ್ಲ. ಅದೆಲ್ಲ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಗಾಯದ ಮೇಲೆ ಬರೆ ಏಳೆಯುವ ಕಟುಕ ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಉದುಪಿಯ ಜನರಿಗೆ ಸಭ್ಯವೇ?
ಹಿ೦ದು ಮು೦ದು ನೋಡದೆ ವಯುಕ್ತಿಕ ವಿಚಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ಮನಬ೦ದತೆ ಮಾತನಾಡುವುದು ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ತಪ್ಪು, ಇದು ಓ೦ದು ಸ೦ಪೂರ್ಣ ವಯುಕ್ತಿಕ ವಿಷಯ, ನಿಜವೆ೦ದರೆ ಈವರೆಗೇ ಯಾರಿ೦ದಲೂ ಅಭಿವ್ರದ್ಧಿಯನ್ನು ಕಾಣದ ಶ್ರಿ ಕೃಸ್ಣನ ನೆಲೆಯಾಗಿರುವ ಉಡುಪಿಯ ಸರ್ವತೋಮುಖ ಏಳಿಗೆಗ ಶ್ರೀಯುತ ರಘುಪತಿ ಭಟ್ಟರೇ ಕಾರಣ ಏ೦ದು ಉದುಪಿಯ ಜನರು ಮರೆಯಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಸಾಧನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಅಲ್ಪವೂ ಜ್ನಾನವಿಲ್ಲದೆ, ಬೇರೆಯವರ ಸಾಧನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗ್ಗೆಹೊಟ್ಟೆ ಕಿಚನಿ೦ದ ಉರಿಯುತ್ತಾ ವಯುಕ್ತಿಕ ವಿಚಾರಕ್ಕೆ ರಾಜಕೀಯ ರೂಪವನ್ನು ಕೊಡುವ ಹೊಲಸು ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಉದುಪಿಯ ಸರ್ವ ಜನತೆಗೆ ಬೇಸರ ತ೦ದದ್ದ೦ತೂ ಅಕ್ಷರಶಃ ನಿಜ.
ಪ್ರೀತಿಯ ಮಡದಿಯ ಅಗಲಿಕೆಯ ದುಃಖವನ್ನು ಸಹಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಶಕ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ಭಗವ೦ತನು ಶ್ರೀಯುತರಿಗೆ ದಯಪಾಲಿಸಲಿ....
ಅವಿನಾಶ್, ಉಡುಪಿ

==========================

Mr Raghupathi Bhats letter to the editor, Vijaya Karnataka (click to read)

Raghupathi Bhats open letter ...English version in...http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=48122&n_tit=I%20am%20Pained%20to%20See%20My%20Wife%27s%20Death%20Making%20Headlines%20%2D%20Ragupathi%20Bhat

ಚಿಂತನೆ ಯಾ ಚಿಂತೆ? Media criticizes media/ Updated 22.06.2008

ಕೆಲವು ದಿನಗಳಿಂದ ಪತ್ರಿಕಾ ವರದಿಗಳನ್ನು ಹಿರಿಯ ಪತ್ರಕರ್ತರ ಬರಹಗಳನ್ನು ಈ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಬಹಳ ಉತ್ತಮ ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ ವ್ಯಕ್ತವಾಗಿದೆ. ಆರೋಗ್ಯಕರ ಸಂವಾದ ನಡೆದಿದೆ. ಆದರೆ ಕೆಲವು ಓದುಗರು ತಪ್ಪಾಗಿ ಅರ್ಥೈಸಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ನಾವು ಓದುಗರಿಗಾಗಿ ಆಯ್ದ ಬರಹಗಳನ್ನು ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ಮಾಡುವ ಉದ್ದೇಶ ಬುದ್ದಿವಂತ ಓದುಗರನ್ನು ಚಿಂತನೆಗೆ ಒಡ್ಡುವುದು. ಇದರಿಂದ ಯಾರಿಗಾದರೂ ಚಿಂತೆ ಆಗಿದ್ದರೆ ಅದು ನಮ್ಮ ತಪ್ಪಲ್ಲ! (ಅಂತಹವರ ಸಮಾಧಾನಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಅವರದೇ ಆದ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳೂ ಇವೆಯಲ್ಲ ?)

(In the recent past, we have posted many excerpts from the media, regarding the behaviour of present day media. These articles have been reproduced in this blog, to enable a healthy discussion. Many have expressed thier consensus with such articles. However, if someone is offfended by these, we are not responsible for the same- Please contact the respective authors/ newspapers and vent your displeasure)

ವಸ್ತು ನಿಷ್ಠ ಬರಹಗಳ ರವೀಂದ್ರ ರೇಷ್ಮೆ ಯವರ ವಿಕ್ರಾಂತ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದಲ್ಲಿ D S ನಾಗಭೂಷಣ್ ಅವರ ಬರಹ ಓದಿ ...subscribe and read http://www.vikrantakarnataka.com/

ಕೃಪೆ : ಸಂಯುಕ್ತ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ

============================heard somewhere in the blogosphere..." in visual media, they are always late for editing and early for reporting ===========

TV Yalli Hoda Maana...

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In spite of all the outrage on speculative writing in the media, some newspapers/ websites/ visual media continue to write/ air rumours, write articles in bad taste. One such example is a cartoon in Prajavani today. It criticizes the honourable CM of a state. Sick minds in blogging world too fall prey to the recent trend...and reproduce it in their blogs...if the media does it for TRP, bloggers do it for Hits...and ultimately revenue from ads...We do not want to publish the abovementioned cartoon, but click the link to see what we are referring to...

http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/home-is-where-the-chief-ministers-heart-is/#comments
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A NARAYANA ANALYSES THE NEWSREPORTS RELATED TO PADMAPRIYA EPISODE...
(COURTESY: http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/how-media-went-overboard-in-padmapriya-case/ )
# “He has got an MA in sociology but what has he chosen to do?” questioned a headline in the Manipal edition of Udayavani, referring to Atul Rao, the aide of Udupi MLA Raghupati Bhat, even when no one knew the facts behind his role in her death.
And Udayavani wrote as if it was an established case of ‘Kidnap’ even after home minister V.S. Acharya’s own admission that it was a ‘half-kidnap’ case. He is yet to clarify what that ‘half’ really is. What was Udayavani’s source or motive in pronouncing prematurely that it was a case of kidnap?
# A Kannada Prabha report summarily suggested that it was a murder. On what basis?
#Vijaya Karnataka’s reporter questioned Padmapriya’s decision to discard “a life in which she had wealth and prestige”. “Idella bekitte (was all this required?)” he asks. How did the reporter know that the woman was happy in her marriage?
# The Hindu, of all the newspapers, found it fit to publish every word that Padmapriya’s mother uttered while grieving in front of her young daughter’s body, that too with the wrong translation from Tulu. These are the words every bereaved parent in such a situation would utter. Should they be published verbatim? Et tu, Hindu?
# Deccan Herald and Praja Vani are sister publications produced in the same building but while the English paper said Atul was an engineering diploma holder who resigned from his government job and did civil contracts, the Kannada paper report said Atul did his MA, continued in his government job and did contracts in his wife’s name. (However, it is also a fact the best matter-of-fact reports were filed by the Delhi bureau of these two newspapers.)
# All Kannada newspapers in their esteemed judgment started addressing Atul in the singular from day one while the police still maintained that he was only a witness and not an accused.
===================================================
RELATED ARTICLE: Role of Politicians and Media in Padmapriya Tragedy, Posted on June 16th, 2008, by naavi in All News, India News
READ LINK: http://www.bloggernews.net/116264
"Police need a thorough training in handling media relations.. how to keep the paparazies (News vultures) at bay without derailing their investigations and embarrassing their bosses…It is time for action for media training of the Police."
========================================
Also read a Tulu Writeup...
http://mangalorean.com/kannada/ksangama.php?kid=592&ltype=KSangama

19.06.2008: Opposition Provoked Events...

PEOPLE WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF POLITICS, SHOULD NOT WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...EDITOR WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF POLITICS SHOULD NOT EDIT THE NEWSPAPER! here is a classic case, some disgrunted soul, writes something and the editor of a "reputed" daily publishes it without checking...

HERE ARE SOME FACTS...
1. VSA was elected to Assembly from Udupi in 1983 - not right to say he was never elected directly.
2. Central Home Minister Shivaraj Patil is an upper house member (Rajya Sabha)
3. It is not even two weeks - how did the writer decide so quickly that he can't handle it? Just because some opposition party leader or a TV channel said so?
4. DID THIS READER WRITE SIMILAR LETTERS, WHEN DR RAJ WAS ABDUCTED? OR WHEN NAGAPPA, MLA WAS KILLED?
5. WAS THE EDITOR OF PRAJAVANI SLEEPING WHEN HE PUBLISHED THIS LETTER?
THIS EXPOSES THE LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE OF OUR MEDIA!
=======================================================================



Photo courtesy: Janardan Kodavoor
Read an Interview with the Times Of India
=====================================================
Cops can't be everywhere: Acharya
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Bangalore: It has been a troublesome time for home minister V S
Acharya. Before he could recover from the police firing during the
farmer unrest over fertilizer scarcity, he had to handle the
Padmapriya suicide mystery. A person respected for his integrity and
capability, there's a perception that he did not deal with the two
vexatious issues firmly.

Excerpts from an interview
-----------------------
Are you satisfied in the manner in which the farmers' fury over
fertilizers scarcity was handled?

Within 24 hours, we were able to bring the situation under
control. Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and I went to see the injured
and later we went to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
We have done everything possible to go to the root cause of the
problem. Of course, the provocation came from the opposition parties.
Now, the situation is under control. In two days, the fertilizer quota
for June will arrive. A judicial inquiry has been ordered into the
police firing. The opposition parties can stage dharnas because it is
their democratic right. What more do you want?

Did the police machinery fail to anticipate the full extent of the
farmers' anger?
There are 224 assembly constituencies, 176 taluks and 20,000 odd
villages. Can anybody expect the police to be posted in all these
places? In situations where the police can anticipate trouble, we are
prepared to handle it.

Why were there contradictory statements by the police on the Padmapriya case?
Investigation is on. But the important part is that the entire
incident stretched from June 11 to June 15. Once we got to know
Padmapriya's whereabouts, within 24 hours we traced her in New Delhi.
Unfortunately, she had committed suicide.

There's a perception that your statements on the Padmapriya case are
more as her husband Raghupathi Bhat's friend than a home minister...?
I am not the spokesperson of the home department, but only a home
minister. My speaking as a friend of Bhat does not arise at all. In my
political career of four decades, nobody can point a finger at me. I
am only sorry that we could not bring her back alive.
===================================================
Another interivew with TOI:
===================================================
CBI won't probe suicide'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Udupi: Home minister V S Acharya has reiterated that the Karnataka
police are competent enough to take up the Padmapriya case, and there
is no need for it to be handed over to the CBI.
He told reporters here on Wednesday that the case of BJP MLA
Raghupathi Bhat's wife,who was found dead in a New Delhi flat on Sunday, will be handled by
the police, with ADGP (law and order) A R Infant heading the team.
When the home minister was specifically asked if Infant would continue
to head the team, he said it was up to the DGP to decide such
assignments.
Acharya was here to open the district incharge minister's office at
the DC's office premises. He said the office was open to the public.
"If need be, more officials will be posted to take care of work," he
said.
Acharya said he had represented the chief minister at the recent
meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers in
Delhi, called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There, he had urged
the PM to make sure that the issue price does not vary from state to
state, in the wake of the increasing price of petroleum products.
Acharya said he had brought to the Prime Minister's notice that
Karnataka would lose a lot of revenue because of the increase, and
requested that the Centre bear 50% of the expenses.

18.06.2008; News Scan, Common man disgusted with the Media, Opposition parties behaviour

Padmapriya committed suicide due to character assassination in the Media...read 3 part report from Hosa Digantha

An Interview with Vishveshwar Bhat, Editor, Vijaya KarnatakaLetters to the Editor, Deccan Herald

Pic & News courtesy: Samyukta Karnataka