*DEAR READERS OF GOA,* *All these days we used to focus on politicians who are making MERRY and using Goa for business activities at the cost of Goa and the Goans. Activists, scientists, engineers, doctors and others are trying to save Goa before it is been sold to outsiders by the politicians and dubious businessmen. Now the game started with the Press accusing one and other projecting one upmanship against the other. The Navhind Times correctly exposed the dubious counter part newspaper read today’s ( dt 1.9.2014) NT Editorial, which clearly indicated us that the particular section of Press is misusing pages by projecting his own views as news. As a result this paper which was once upon a time a Voice of Goans, now is the “Voice of migrant”. *
*God save Goans because just one mad elephant fight with another calm elephant, the insects on the ground suffer and get crushed. Poor Goans are been taken for a ride especially the people of Salcete.* *Navhind Times correctly exposed his counterpart Editor for all his wrong doings and yellow journalism.* *Hope Goans wake up to this reality and make this particular paper owner to realize his mistakes of appointing a wrong Editor and giving charge with the wrong hand.* *Stephen Dias* *D.Paula* *Activists and Scientist* *=================================* *Read Editorials ;* *HERALDO EDITORIAL DATED 30TH AUGUST,2014 TITLED “ OF CONG PRESIDENT PARTYMEN AND THE PRESS”* The relationship between the Congress and the media has been of fights and friendships but never one of distance. Which is why the churning within the party is matter of routine knowledge up close and personal to most journalists who have covered Congress at the state or center. Therefore the dividing line between reporting, over reporting and mis- reporting gets completely blurred when it comes to fast developments within the party as last week's saga of the apparent removal of PCC president John Fernandes played out. First the bottomline. As of Friday August 29, the PCC president of Goa is John Fernandes. Unlike two announcements made by a daily English newspaper in Goa, one saying that John Fernandes has been sacked and the other stating that Luizinho Faleiro has been made the PCC president, none of the two have happened, forcing the newspaper to run stories which somehow have to reiterate that their reports had basis. But this is what happens when you push yourself into a corner by making definite announcements. You have no way of getting out when the reports are incorrect. At the outset, neither decision is a matter of great historical importance, affecting the lives of ordinary Goans. The Congress is after all a nonfunctional party of 9 disparate MLA’s with no goal, vision, plan or selfbelief. Does it matter who leads it now? While the surface answer to that question is obvious, the almost certain change of guard at a time convenient to the party, will be a matter of great significance to the party. And inspite of its current strength, there’s no denying that this party which has ruled Goa for the greatest part of the period after liberation. And while it’s has been banished to a very remote corner of the room, it will remain as the only force ( if one can call it that) that can potentially balance power, in the wake of the certain fall in the Government's brand equity compared to March 2012. And that is why the story of changing and churn within the party is important to be tracked. Unfortunately, what happened was a bit of media playing which the Congress is seasoned at. It takes a seasoned media not to get influenced by little games and report on the inside processes and refrain from making almost official announcements, unless they are made officially. In this case there is a clear divide between the senior leadership which resents the bull in a china shop attitude of John Fernandes, whose intent may- we repeat - maybe good, who is bent on a cleansing madness which may leave the party bereft of any leadership. He is literally bombing the party out of shape by suspending and recommending dismissals of all senior leaders by a blatant misuse of power and by- passing the disciplinary committee. At the same time, there is a different murmur which cannot be ignored. There is a group of young leaders, yet not stars but foot soldiers with ambition, who want the traffic jam of the old leadership to be cleared. In Cuncolim, Navelim, Varca, Nuvem and even in Valpoi and Poriem, there is a space which is sought for the new buds which were closed under the big banyan tree to break free and flower. And this feeling is beyond John Fernandes. It’s not as if John is the right gardener for this new crop to flower, but he has certainly taken upon himself the role of a cutter of weeds and the sweeper of dead leaves. It’s another matter whether he is doing that properly and choosing the right weeds and dead leaves. However there are certain things that no president does. He does not invite a mine owner who has been convicted of irregularities and pardoned because of age, to address a press conference in the party office alleging that the party’s senior most leader has taken bribes. He does not create a situation which allows the Chief Minister to pounce upon this division and start an investigation, forcing the leader of the opposition to rush to court to get anticipatory bail. And he definitely does not imitate the accent of the all India Congress president while making a point at the press conference. Change therefore is imminent, as Herald has maintained, because a weed remover need not be a good farmer. At the same time, the media needs to be careful of senior Congressmen seasoned in the art of inserting media plants to hasten the speed of developments to suit them. EDITORIAL BY NAVHIND TIMES DATE 1ST SEPTEMBER, 2014 “ TITLED POMPOUS PACKAGING OF EMPTY BOXES” Pompous Packaging of Empty Boxes As is its basic nature, the gutter press of Goa is crankily engaged in shovelling out muck from the sewers and hurling it at anybody passing by. Because they are known to be cranky, no one issues a denial and no one drags them to court. Everyone chuckles at their outpourings and forgets them. They are like that, they say. At the end of the day you need some amusement. And they take it as a compliment and chuck the muck even more crazily at everybody. However, the one force they are extremely terrified of is the serious press. Because of the towering presence of serious press, people can know the difference between doctors and quacks. The people know that when the gutter press gives itself the airs of being on a priestly mission of ‘redefining journalism’ it actually turns out to be a devious plan of ‘undefining’ journalism. For journalism means getting to the truth and nothing but the truth. It is not always possible to get to the truth quickly. But that should not mean writing and publishing stuff based on hearsay, rumours, suspicions and speculations every morning, just because it sells. Many things sell: masala movies sell; liquor, tobacco and drugs sell; sex and pornography sell; junk foods sell. Sales have no relationship with worth and goodness; rather the truth is the other way round. Ultimately only good things last. Running from unhealthy consumption for mind and body people fall back upon good, healthy stuff. The serious press is in the business of producing and delivering good, healthy stuff for enrichment of mind. All its energies go into collecting news and views and sifting and sorting facts from fiction in them. It has a multi-tier sieving system whose undertaking it is to give to the readers only such news that is factual and only such views whose analysis is based on facts. The yellow press thrive on claim that they are first with the news. This claim, like their journalism, is not based on facts but fiction. What they are first with is muck on someone’s face. (‘Whose face we have smeared today?’ is the pleasure derived every morning.) Journalism is being redefined as pompous packaging of empty boxes. What’s all this about, you will ask when you hear their beat of drums and the flourish of trumpets. Oh, nothing. At the end of it, their news turns out to be a chicken with a body of repetitive, old, already-published materials with a thin crowing neck of hearsay and a head that does not fit on the body at all. In short, it has all the news that is unfit to print. As we said, the serious press like us are their slayers, so they tend to vent their anger and frustration at their low intellectual ratings in Goan society against us too. If they are a ‘people’s paper’ why have they got such poor ratings in people’s eyes? Why the serious press has been and is on top? In recent days they have picked the news of all but formal takeover of Luizinho Faleiro as Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president from John Fernandes to express their frustration against our invincibility and superiority. This newspaper has been breaking stories that the gutter press has been missing for a long time. This newspaper was the first to bring the news stories of the Congress high command’s decision to remove Fernandes and appoint Faleiro. The gutter press had no clue. Frustrated and confounded, they began pouring muck at us, but the paradoxical side of their endeavour was that while they denied the truthfulness of our report, they confirmed the high command’s decision! Their pathetic stance became even more ridiculous when they could not – despite their fondest wish and most fervent prayer that the news was not correct, so they could go to town beating the drum and flourishing their trumpets against us – get a single AICC or GPCC leader to say that the news of the party high command’s decision to remove John and replace him with Luizinho was baseless and concocted. These were the words John used for our report; we were threatened even with defamation suits; but no matter how much they wished and how much they tried the gutter press could not find anyone and anything to prove us wrong. Is there any name other than Luizhino Faleiro the gutter press has thrown up in any of its reports? Is there any certificate or testimonial from the Congress high command that they have laid their hands upon which says that John Fernandes has been doing excellent work as GPCC president and is indispensable? Yellow journalism is more than a hundred years’ old; it has existed and will continue to exist just as serious journalism has existed and will continue to exist; just as good and bad things, decent and indecent things, lasting and transient things, healthy foods and addictions have existed. The lifeblood of yellow journalism is melodrama and hyperbole at the cost of truth. This melodrama and hyperbole, which used to appear only in text until recently, now comes in a tantalising package. So we have a melodrama-hyperbole double, both in text and visuals. Beware of yellow fever-2 if you wish to keep your mind well-nourished and agile.