Media Misworks
It is time for the media to shut the door on conspiracy theorists and irresponsible experts. Let us not do to AI-171 what was done to the Sushant Singh Rajput case.
https://thewire.in/media/reckless-speculative-commentary-after-air-disasters-harms-public-safety
In his first article on June 18 (six days after the crash), Capt Ranganathan wrote about TRP-hungry media channels and YouTubers who were “going overboard with theories about what caused the accident”. He should introspect if his opinion assuaged or compounded the general anxiety. He complained about rumours that are “flooding WhatsApp groups” and why “Boeing needs to address them” given the high stakes and “reliability of the Dreamliner”. It is not known on what basis he has given a clean chit to the Boeing Company so early in the process. His further writings only reveal a confirmation bias against the pilots who are no longer around to defend themselves.
Investigations into AI-171 will have to deal with many knowns and unknowns. It is best that commentators do not reduce it to the simplistic denomination of pilot error (a term replaced by human error for many years now). Also, topics like mental health and its role in the cockpit are far too serious to be casually bandied about without evidence, however seized by cognitive bias one may be. Let us not do to AI-171 what the media did to the Sushant Singh Rajput case.
21/07/2025
Mullah, mian, and bhai jaan are back. So is ‘love jihad’. Across Hindi television news channels, Muslims have been making news – for all the wrong reasons. So what else is new? Hindi TV news channels' favourite villain the Muslim is back
The channels carry news about Kavadiya processions in Uttarakhand, where Muslim dhaba owners are accused of changing their names and serving food to the kavadiyas – with onions in it (News 18 India).
Muslims in Bihar were seen and heard objecting to ‘SIR’ in Bihar. In ‘Musalmaan ka haal kya?’ News 24 spoke to Muslims who visited the offices of the Election Commission during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and found that they had a long list of complaints. Wonder why only Muslims are being asked to speak on SIR. Are other communities untouched by this process?
10/07/2025
Nine Years of Taking Aim at Umar Khalid, Media Style https://thewire.in/media/backstory-nine-years-of-taking-aim-at-umar-khalid-media-style/
Pamela Philipose long before the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019, and the outrage it provoked, particularly among young Muslims, Big Media had already marked him out as someone who stood for everything to which the Hindutva right-wing and the media they controlled was viscerally opposed... Umar tried to argue that hanging Afzal Guru violated the norms of a democratic state and that the ‘India ka barabdi’ slogan was not put out by JNU students. But Goswami was having none of that: the programme ended with Umar being labeled as “anti-national” and “India-hating”.
Before long, doctored video footage showing him actually shouting slogans like ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’ appeared on Zee News ....
Arnab Goswami – now proprietor of Republic Television – brought out in October 22, the ‘Full Tukde Gang Files’. A quick perusal of this material tells you not just how horrifyingly insidious was the campaign against Umar Khalid – he was now named “mastermind of the Delhi violence” – but how closely television channels had come to work with the Delhi Police and buttress its narrative.
Pamela Philipose
A court has ordered the Jammu and Kashmir police to file an FIR against Zee News, News18 and other unnamed editors and anchors of TV news networks who falsely labelled a teacher of an Islamic seminary in Poonch as a ‘Pakistani terrorist’ after his tragic demise during the India-Pakistan military conflict last month. https://www.thewire.in/security/jk-court-orders-fir-against-zee-news-news18-and-others-for-defaming-an-islamic-seminary-as-a-terrorist
The court of sub-judge Shafeeq Ahmed on Saturday (June 28) observed that the apology by the accused “does not cure the mischief” caused by their “irresponsible reporting” during a period of heightened tensions in Jammu and Kashmir after India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ against the terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied J&K.
by Jehangir Ali
30/06/2025
The media, as readers can see, plays a key role in this process of creating public opinion through sensational and communally charged stories.
Of late, ‘Maulana’ Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, who claims to be the president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, has emerged as a favourite of several mainstream media channels by dint of his consistency in making controversial statements.
Alt News ran a deep-dive investigation tracking Razvi’s comments and uncovered a pattern in how news channels used his statements to manufacture news, drive news cycles and spur communal debates. The chronology is as follows:
- Initial contact: News agencies cover Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s controversial remarks. This makes it a topic of discussion.
- Sensationalization through tweets: News agencies then tweet Bareilvi’s statement to ensure it gets circulated quickly. This leads to social media users resharing and reacting to it.
- Reaction by politicians: News agencies approach religious leaders and members of various political parties to cover their reactions to Bareilvi’s statement and further sensationalize the issue.
- Syndicated feed gets used by media outlets: The statement is then distributed to syndicated media partners, further increasing its reach across various platforms. This makes it a trending topic of discussion and guarantees wide circulation.
- Prime-time programmes/debates: The remarks become a hot topic in prime-time TV debates/programmes, where news channels invite so-called religious experts and politicians to discuss Bareilvi’s comments. This often fuels further polarization
Once, the debates and ‘news’ cycles born out of contentious remarks by the self-proclaimed ‘Maulana’ acquire a life of their own, they shape newer narratives around the Muslim community, often presenting them in a poor light. The media, as readers can see, plays a key role in this process of creating public opinion through sensational and communally charged stories.
10/06/2025
- Backstory: The Disappearance of Media Stories on the Disappeared Points to a Cruel Future
- Backstory | India’s Media Betrayed the Country In a Time of War, Here’s How
- How Indian Media Sabotaged its Own War Efforts
- A Tragedy Twisted: How Media Fuels Communal Hate After Pahalgam
- Eight Minutes of an Interview and the Confession of a Right-Wing Mind