NAZI-GATE: HOW THE MEDIA TURNS A LEGENDARY GERMAN COMPOSER INTO A JEW-SLAYING NAZI VARMINT

THE TRUTH BEHIND 'PERUS NARKP'
TOMORROW, http://www.penpricks.blogspot.com WILL UNVEIL ONE OF THE MOST TELLING STORIES ON THE GOAN AS WELL AS THE INDIAN MEDIA...
HANG ON TILL THEN FELLAS...

PEN PRICKS

COST-CUTTING IN THE HERALD-- MICHAEL LEARNS TO RIDE A CYCLE

Hi fellas, been away for sometime... ya... But we are going to break a big, Big, BIg, BIG story within on the media within the week... Hope that makes up for our prolonged absence... You guys do try and look it up, ok...But in the meantime guys, if you see this man anywhere please try and drive some sense in him. This chap is Michael, Herald managing director Raul Fernandes's PA, who calls the shots at the Herald now. Why this guy has featured on PP is, cause in his cost cutting drive in the Herald, one of his first crackdowns was on a milk-packets. The Herald buys one litre of milk for its afternoon tea for a staff of nearly 70 and more. Michael has cut down the supply of milk virtually by half. So instead of the usual one litre milk, Herald staffers have to now make do with half a litre, which makes the chai look like mining slush.
And in case anyone decides to invite Michael home for a cup of tea, don't add any sugar, tell him you are cutting costs. He'll understand.

RAJAN NARAYAN IS DEAD... LONG LIVE SUJOY GUPTA -- MAY THE AGE OF JOURNALISTIC PIMPING NEVER CEDE

In many ways, it resembled the passing of a baton.
Rajan Narayan's journalism had yellowed so much, that it could not rot any further. Even putrification has its limits, you see.
Once you are over and done with vanity journalism, blackmail, extortion, you cannot go much further. You then end up refining your techniques. For example, where earlier you would have bulldozed some dumb fart of a politician into getting you a flat surreptitiously, now you coax the builder lobby and the government to gift you one publicly.
So Rajan had reached a somewhat of a stagnation point.
But a metamorphosis was around the corner.
Sujoy Gupta walked into the Gomantak Times.
Sujoy turned around the GT, much in the same way Rajan handled Herald in his early days. An energetic layout and smart writing really made the edition look smarter than the rest of the pack.
But unlike Rajan, Sujoy's spots started showing much sooner. We'll come to that later. We'll first talk about what this particular post is about.
As you guys will have known Sujoy has joined Prudent media as a consulting editor. What you guys may not know that Sujoy, the man who claims to 'bleed for Goa' has been handling a very strange brief the last few days.
Our assessment is that Sujoy is the mining lobby's henchman in Goa. He has usurped and combined the roles played in the past by the editors of Navhind Times, Sunaparant, Rashtramat, Gomantak all rolled into one.
For some days now Sujoy has been peddling mischievous stories to newspapers across the board. Instance one... Remember the Advalpal anti-mining agitation story? We know Sujoy has been passing the word around that the mining lobby had bought off some of the agitators heading the agitation and made them file affidavits which show that the agitators have mellowed their stance, effectively choking off the agitation.
The line he has been asking journos whom he has known is to pitch the story, is to show agitation's back has been broken.
For someone who knows how to make people read 10 bucks on a five rupee note, how could Sujoy miss out on the slant, that it is the mining firms who have actually bought over the activists. Isn't that the real story?
The last straw (we are sure there are pretty more to come though) is this Naxal story Sujoy has been trying to peddle.
Let us show you the drawnigboard first guys.
We'll try and explain to you, why we think this 'Naxalism' story which is out in the newspapers today needs to be looked at very carefully.
The opposition leader advises the government about a law and order issue. Parrikar tells the police at the ad hoc committee hearing, that naxals are active in anti-mining agitations. He asks them to act. The government admits there is a problem and promises to look into it.
There is no scope for dissent or questions here, here is there. This is the way, a system colludes to squelch dissent. Suddenly anti-mining agitations have been given a naxal colour by the same system (police politicians and a section of the media) which feeds off mine-owners.
The only bunch who can spot this con and put it out in the public domain are journos... This is where Sujoy comes in. Sujoy Gupta's brief here as consulting editor Prudent Media (another miner owned entity, the Timblo's in this case. There are several indicators, which show that the outfit is very very very very very pro Digambar at the moment) appears to be modulating media opinion in the present scenario, to suit the mining lobby.
Sujoy has been going about convincing journos that the Goan in question, Sebastian Roderigues is a Naxal. Most importantly he is doing it from the sidelines. And Sujoy does not want to be quoted on this. He is passing around the info, but refuses to lend his name to it.
Probably to ensure that the activist friends which he has cultivated in Goa, thanks to his overt anti-government posturing in the earlier avataar, do not figure him out yet. The monsoon's still here and there's a lot of 'planting' to be done.
There a lot more about this guy and his coverage of the River Princess controvery and some other 'stellar' stories which came out under his regime. But Sujoy is going to be around and so are we...
We'll clear the bull-shit he's scattering around... one lump at a time.

THE NAVHIND CRIMES -- THE DEVASHRI TRAGEDY -- LETTER TO PALLAVI DEMPO

Dear Pallavi Dempo,
As one of the directors of M/s Navhind Publications Pvt Ltd we thought we should tell you that the five labourers died after a compound wall of Devashri constructions (you ought to know by now that the firm is run by your husband Shri Srinivas Dempo who also runs the Navhind Group) Porvorim, fell on them as they slept.
And they died ma’am. Its not as if five of your eye lashes got weighed down under an unusually heavy streak of mascara and fell off. Five wage earners died.
Now the logic may be wasted on you. The death in a daily wage labourers’ home varies from a death of a patriarch in a conglomerate. There is no celebration of death. There is no will. The only heirlooms passed in most likelihood will be a mud-streaked vest, a pair of street-side underwear, a pouch of gutka, a few children and a few thousand rupees, if they are lucky. With the husband gone, the wife and kids are rarely staked out in whatever small landing holding they may have back home by her in-laws.
You did wrong by editing the name of Devashri out of the reports published in The Navhind Times. You did wrong by slipping these four deaths under a silly Page 1 lead story about computerization of ration cards (with that weird crocodile logo). A story which other newspapers had reported months ago.
People have died ma’am on your hands (your conglomerate) ma’am. While Devashri constructions gave them a hasty grave and The Navhind Times carved them a very poor tombstone.
Did you notice ma’am, that your newspaper did not even mention that it was the Devashri wall that did the labourers in. Your paper did not name the company? It surely wasn’t because they did not know which firm it was that did the poor sods in? It wasn’t carried precisely because they knew.
Jog your memory to a few weeks ago ma’am.
Remember that lead story your newspaper had carried about nudity in a newspaper (like Devashri you did not name the newspaper, but unlike Devashri, you did leave several clues to let your readers know that its Times of India, you were talking about) and you mentioned about how carrying such pictures was not moral? How moral is your hiding facts in this case? Your newspaper has suppressed critical information about the company because of whose carelessness five people have died.
As a media critiquing blog, the occasions when we get ourselves to thanks The Times of India are rare. This is one time when we will. Its good to have someone who can match up to the clout your newspaper and others Goan newspapers have been using as a condom to cap the news that isn’t of your interest.
We are glad now that there exists an organization as powerful as the one you own that names you when you do wrong. We also hope that you will return the compliment later. It felt nice to see that in this case, Herald and the Gomantak Times had enough pluck to state what happened. We need to navel-gaze ma’am. The media in Goa really needs to navel-gaze. There is too much dirty linen in the Goan media (not surprising since a lot of newspapers are money laundering units) that needs to be washed in public.
Readers ma’am, really do not want to know if your daughter received a consolation prize in some competition, but if someone has died, they’d surely want to know how.
PENPRICKS

GALTI HO GAYI BHAI!!!

Hi guys,
here's something we learnt to day, thanks to Caje...
The 6 o'clock tear is a reference to the location of the rupture and not the time... This was pointed out to us by Caje, a regular visitor to our blog. We checked the net ourselves to reconfirm this... Turns out Caje is right...
The reason we have put this post up this fast is to ensure that we beat Prakash to it...
Phew... Prakash hasn't responded yet, but our apologies to him, in case he logs on to goajourno or goanet or our blog
regards
PP

SCARLETT'S POST MORTEM REPORT AND THE 6 O'CLOCK FACTOR

Quick on Preetu's heels, here's Prakash Kamat's story in the Hindu which has this bizzare quote from cop Bosco George. This must rank as one of the five most bizarre stories ever to have been filed in this issue. Bosco is one of the more competent cops in the Goa Police, but then this quote from him is so bizzare... How can you ascertain the exact time when the hymen tore? In this case 6 o'clock? The ever vigilant Kamat swallowed this story? We are talking about a post mortem of a dead body here here and not discussing the benefits of Brahma mahurat!!!

Scarlette case remains unchanged: Goa police
Special Correspondent
PANAJI: The Goa police on Wednesday said their case that the 15-year-old British teenager Scarlette Keeling was “poisoned, raped and murdered” would remain unchanged despite the fact that the swab tests of the samples taken from her body were found to be negative.
Scarlette’s semi-nude body was found on the Anjuna beach on February 18.
Test reports
Confirming that the reports of tests of the swab samples taken from her mouth and vagina recently received from the Hyderabad-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory were negative, North Goa Superintendent of Police Bosco George, who is heading the investigation, told The Hindu: “That means nothing, because the body, which was found on beach, had been washed off.”
He said their case would remain unchanged as there was so much evidence against the two accused, including the evidence provided by the police surgeon (who conducted autopsy).
Mr. Bosco said: “There was sexual intercourse and tear in the hymen at 6 o’clock” as confirmed by the postmortem report.
The police had filed a charge sheet before the Goa Children’s Court against Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho on Saturday.

A STUDY IN SCARLET't' -- FROM SKIN ON PAGE 3, TO FORENSIC PORN

We've shrugged our shoulders... We can't take a call here... Do tell us if this report makes for a slightly awkward read. The way the report's written it looks like classically scripted forensic porn... Thankfully the author corrected the mistake she made in her earlier copy where semen was mistakenly called sperm... Anyway no point going further, we'll leave the porn to these word-artists... Read on... look out for the highlighted parts... And do write back with your call

No male DNA found in Scarlett swab
5 Jun 2008, 0314 hrs IST,Preetu Nair,TNN
PANAJI: The Goa police request to subject Samson D'Souza, the main accused in the Scarlett Keeling rape and murder case, to narco analysis, brain signature profiling and psychological evaluation tests, including polygraph, has been rejected by the children's court.
The court questioned the constitutional validity of such scientific tests to which an accused has not consented and turned down the police request as they had failed to disclose reasons for the tests.
The police had requested the tests almost a month after Samson's arrest on March 9, 2008.
"Even to allow the police to take an accused for such tests, there should at least be a whisper in the application that the accused, who had been in police custody for 15 days, had not co-operated with the investigations and without the said scientific tests the prosecution is left without any clue," the Children's Court president Desmond D'Costa said.
Meanwhile, more evidence has come to light about the report submitted by Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad. TOI had reported on Wednesday that swab samples taken from Scarlett's mouth and vagina had tested negative for the presence of semen.
It is now learnt that the police had not only sent samples of Scarlett's vaginal, buccal and anal swabs and smear slides, pubic hair and her clothes, but also the urethral swabs and smear slides and pubic hair of both the accused, Samson and Placido Carvalho aka Shana Boy. Besides, samples of sand, sea water and pieces of Scarlett's liver and lungs were sent for examination to Hyderabad on March 19, 2008.
"The report has revealed that neither semen nor blood could be detected in Scarlett's vaginal, buccal or anal swabs or smear slides. Semen was not detected in the samples of her pubic hair," said a top police official, on conditions of anonymity.
The official also said that according to the report, there was no trace of male DNA in Scarlett's vaginal, buccal or anal swabs.

THE NAHVIND CRIMES -- WHEN SHIT USED TO SELL

We picked this post from another media blog... The post passes on Juan Antonio Giner's 'surefire recipe to kill a newspaper' which he revealed at the World Association of Newspapers summit. Read it carefully guys and give it a thought... doesn't it remind you about The Navhind Times... Every ingredient points out to the same kind of shit that the TNT was dishing out to its readers until the TOI came in...
Here are the elements, the recipe is made up of...

1. be dull and boring
2. change slowly
3. print yesterday’s news
4. don’t take risks
5. expect different results by doing things the same way
6. insult your readers
7. lie to advertisers
8. please politicians
9. cover buildings not people
10. don’t interact with audience
11. print badly
12. print poor colour
13. write long
14. don’t care about design
15. don’t care about talent
16. don’t sack bad managers
17. pay badly
18. don’t innovate
19. milk the cash cow
20. expect miracles

SEVERAL VERNACULAR JOURNOS ORPHANED, AS PALE MLA GURUDAS GAWAS DIES

The vernacular journalistic troika of Sanjiv Verenkar,
Sadguru Patil, Mahadev Khandekar and some other
sidekicks have lost a benefactor with the demise of Pale
MLA Gurudas Gawas. As journalists who knew him from head to toe and were
familiar with his billet and even the colour of his wallet,
they will really miss him. Gawas died at Breach Candy hospital from a long suffering heart ailement. His rise as a young MLA in
Goa's politics, coincided with the rise of the fortunes of a few in the vernacular media, essentially the Marathi section. Known for his amiability and a forever-there smile, Gawas was always there for his vercaular journo friends whenever their palms itched. Following his election win, Gawas treated a few journos to a trip to Delhi and shopping sprees on the house. Pale is a constituency where vernacular newspapers rule the roost and his pet vernacular journos had been carrying out an image building exercise on behalf of the deceased MLA for the several years now. His death will come as a rude shock to some of these vernaular journos, for the immense loss it has caused them and the sudden realisation of unpaid motor-vehicle installments.

HOW GOAN NEWSPAPERS SUCK UP TO THE CASINO LOBBY

Sunder Advani and gang are at it...
The casino man who has singlehandedly made way for the setting up of the Casino industry in Goa in face of whimsical political posturing and public ire...
And in planting pro-casino's stories in newspapers like the TNT and now Herald, Sunder seems to be spending his money well...
After the Navhind Times carried a plant filed by Dinesh Patel as a Page 1 flier, Herald hasn't been too far behind...
Yesterday's Herald carried a press release which had Sunder Advani expounding on how well Caravela treats their staffers (if one considered the salaries we used to get in Goa, a deck hand at the Caravela would have got a bigger pay packet than us journos. A deckhand's salary starts at Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000) well and how the floating casino people 'harbour' noble intentions of building community halls in exchange for a berth in the waters at Verem.
The Herald note claims that Sunder said this in an interview? AN INTERVIEW? If this piece of shit was an interview, than we are ready to bet that the guy who conducted this interview was either out of his senses or was on his knees blowing Advani's trumpet (i.e. metaphoric for singing Advani's paeans... don't go looking for other meanings please... someone's already called us evil-incarnate ;)
This press note itself may not have roused us to this extent... But there is a background to this, which is disturbing...
One day before this report appeared in the Herald, Juino, -- the guy who conducts this
debate on Herald Cable News channel, had a long meeting with the Herald managing director Raul Fernandes. In this context, it should not be forgotten that Raul also has an interest in the casino industry. The guy has applied for a licence with the state government and is keen to start his own casino...Remember the story, we'd done about this?
Now the sum of the debate on casino's on HCN was published as a press release in the Herald with the unabashed endorsement of casinos by South Goa MP and GPCC president Francisco Sardinha who goes on to say things like 'Casinos are for rich people. Poor people need not go there', 'We should educate people... that those who don't have money should not go there',
'Shindri podovonn pai sod', among other inane statements.
This oaf of an MP, who's known for his wide grin and a stiff groin, famously gets away with whatever bullshit he says, remember his comments on er... bull-fights?
Sardinha's comments account for the bulk of the story. The story then quotes Mario Cabral, a veteran journalist, who was amongst the first to master and then propound the art of vanity journalism in Goa. He's a pioneer in the Goan media for adapting the classic manoeuvre 'first oppose, then propose' to journalism... (remember the Konkan railway agitation...)
In a 26-line story (on the web edition) the comments of the only two panelists who opposed casinos have been allotted four lines...
Ample indication to betray which way the editorial drift is taking you...