Media Terrorism from IBN-CNN India

Since I have never much bothered to "tune into" the current Indian news, I have generally lost touch with the state of the media in India. I remember news, newscasters, news delivery etc from when I lived there more or less continuously. That was also a time when I took most news at face value.

For whatever it is worth, I have just become more questioning now, I am able to see some patterns more easily...

With my parents visiting me in the states, I needed to have some Indian TV channels for them to see and at a suggestion of a friend decided to tune into live streaming from a supposedly popular channel called IBN-CNN. The CNN bit should have warned me about what I was in for...but my father seemed happy to be watching his favorite source of news, so I allowed myself to be subject to some of their incessant programming.

One of the news items headlining today is this one: "Terrorist reveals Pak's sinister designs on India." The picture accompanying the article is captioned: "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." Surely some ambitious editor who gorged on many "Confessions of ..." genre of books put such avid reading to good use. I found no evidence of a "dangerous mind" in the interview...I mean what is this about branding someone a "terrorist" and then repeating the word terrorist and dangerous designs ad nauseum? Haven't we seen this happening in another part of the world also recently?

So who is this terrorist? Who is this "dangerous mind"?

Here is some detail from the article:

The confession of Mohammed Hashim alias Tarbish who reportedly infiltrated into India from Balochistan in Pakistan is available on tape to CNN IBN.

The bearded and bedraggled Mohammed Hashim who is a Baloch [I am sure they said he was a Baloch] apparently infiltrated into Kashmir. Oh, how comical: a Baloch being recruited to fight another separatist war, different from that of his own people. But what matters is that he is a Pakistani terrorist, never mind that his own people are involved in a life and death battle with the Pakistani state...

CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND: Mohammed Hashim's confession is available with CNN-IBN.

The questions by the Indian army personnel to this "dangerous mind" were startlingly original. Here is a sampler:

Question: Do you get trained to infiltrate only into Kashmir or other places in India as well? [This question as it appeared on TV in Hindi seemed a lot more amateurish: Kya Kashmir main hi jaate ho ya aur kahin bhi?].

...

But this answer below, among others, provided by the "terrorist" gives us a glimpse into the cosmopolitan mix in terrorist camps:

On trainees in terror camps

Answer: There are Arabs, Bangaladeshis, Pathans and Punjabis. People who speak all languages.

Wow! Bangladeshis and Punjabis working together -- now that is certainly good news...

More from the copy: "In a chilling confession, Hashim reveals Pakistan's terror plan.."

Chilling confession? How chilling is this after years of the Kashmir conflict, after years of "terrorists" coming across the border into Kashmir? Why is this big news? Why is cross-border infiltration big news?

As I saw the strident reporting, the endless mention of "Pakistan's designs" (nefarious?), the word "terrorist" and militant repeated with flourish and relish, I could see the fabrication of a story, I could observe the operation of the insidious media dishing up news to suit what people might want to hear, cannily playing on popular fears and impressions...doing every bit to drum up hysteria and cash in on the prejudices of people...oh, what blatant disinformation...