Media watch and Fake news

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Indrad
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Re: Media watch and Fake news

Post by Indrad » Mon Nov 20, 2017 12:28 pm

his account went off air after this in toi https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/hom ... 705453.cms

One such anonymous handle is TrueIndology, which, according to Pratik Sinha of AltNews, is a "serial faker". AltNews had busted the propaganda of this handle in a series of articles earlier this year. TrueIndology has over 58,000 followers, and most of its tweets stick to the now standard right-wing template — show Muslims in poor light, glorify Hindus, abuse lefties and liberals — and if you can't find facts, just fake it.
In one instance, this handle tweeted out a photo of 1984 anti-Sikh riots at Chandni Chowk and said it was a photo of Congress workers burning down houses of Brahmins after Gandhi's assassination in 1948. In another, it tweeted a photo of a nomadic settlement in Afghanistan and declared it the original architecture of the Mughals before they came to India — a regurgitation of the old Hindu nationalist fantasy that all Mughal buildings were originally Hindu temples and palaces.
On Facebook, we found one community named 'Indian History — Real Truth' with over 66,000 members. TrueIndology's exploits pale in front of the vitriol to be found there.

jamwal
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Re: Media watch and Fake news

Post by jamwal » Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:19 pm

https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/true-indology-responds
‘True Indology’ Responds

The owner of the Twitter handle, @TrueIndology, responds to the allegations made against him/her in a leading national daily and on the web.
I am writing it simply to show how a sections of the mainstream media suppresses those individuals who present facts that do not match this section’s opinions. Let this serve as a mirror to those ‘intellectuals’ who keep pontificating on freedom of expression on one hand and show utter contempt for the same freedom of a private citizen. They have no tolerance for the views of others, even if those views are based on hard facts.

This gang has, time and again, sought to defame and discredit me, a private citizen, through means fair and foul. Most of you would be aware of the daily diatribe from the left-inclined people on my Twitter timeline, which I largely choose to ignore.

However, I logged onto Twitter on Sunday, to find my handle featured in an TOI article titled - Faking history starts online

It began by ranting how anonymous handles on Twitter circulate falsehoods and cites the example of when an image was circulated all over the internet on Tipu Jayanti, as an image of Tipu Sultan. It names me among the list of handles who circulated the picture.

Last week, as Karnataka observed Tipu Sultan Jayanti, the social media universe exploded with right-wing rage. A photograph with the tag ‘the real Tipu Sultan’ was circulated on Twitter and Facebook, accompanied by vitriolic comments. In fact, the photo was of a Zanzibari slave trader named Tippu Tip ... This refusal to think is what the thriving factory of fake history exploits, and is the reason it has been so successful at polarising opinion. This fake history factory found many gullible victims. …Many anonymous Twitter handles regularly peddle falsehoods
The very first paragraph shows what a shameless liar this author Manimugdha Sharma is. I have never circulated any picture of “real Tipu Sultan”. In fact, I have clarified more than a year ago, on my Twitter timeline, that we do NOT have any pictures of Tipu Sultan.
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Rather than crediting me for clearing a misconception, this man behaves as though he made some brilliant discovery and rants on how I am ‘distorting history’. Unlike this author who only speaks about the right-wing and keeps quiet when his friends peddle falsehood, I am neutral at busting propaganda. Not only have I called out the fake picture of Tipu, I have also called out ignorance and falsehood peddled in the name of history by his friend and self-proclaimed historian Rana Safvi .
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Here this self-proclaimed historian claims that Hindus do not worship buffaloes because “Aryans were a pastoral society and buffaloes were not present in India then”. This is a laughable statement and shows how ignorant these “historians” are. There are several mentions of thebBuffalo in the Rig Veda. The great Indologist AA Macdonnel writes the following in his book “Vedic Index”

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:rotfl:
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The ToI editor further writes,

In one instance, this handle tweeted out a photo of 1984 anti-Sikh riots at Chandni Chowk and said it was a photo of Congress workers burning down houses of Brahmins after Gandhi’s assassination in 1948.

Yes, I did that. It is absolutely true that Congress workers killed Brahmins (I have given sources in my article to show this indisputable fact). I had actually misplaced the picture under a different folder I had stored in my computer and hence I posted a wrong picture. I have accepted this mistake of mine at the end of my article. This was one of thousands of pictures I have posted and there are bound to be a few mistakes. Despite my admission in a very public post, they used it to smear me.

The TOI article continues:

In another, it tweeted a photo of a nomadic settlement in Afghanistan and declared it the original architecture of the Mughals before they came to India
I did no such thing. I gave picture of a tent to show the kind of tents Mughals had before coming to India. I have clarified everything in my long response. Of course, this TOI editor did not bother to see it. Pratik Sinha did not bother to counter it. They are not interested in any dialogue. They will only misinterpret, take things out of context and smear people who do not share their views.

But I know what bothers Sharma. I stated in my article that Mughals by themselves could not construct anything more than tents (like the ones I have shown in the picture) when they were just about to come to India. If he disagrees, he should write a rebuttal to my post. He could not do that. Instead, he misused his position to rant and complain before a national audience, without any basis.

Finally, the article concludes,

In another, it tweeted a photo of a nomadic settlement in Afghanistan and declared it the original architecture of the Mughals before they came to India — a regurgitation of the old Hindu nationalist fantasy that all Mughal buildings were originally Hindu temples and palaces.
Another blatant falsehood written to smear me. I challenge him to show me where I said “all Mughal buildings were Hindu temples and palaces”. I challenge him to show me where I have claimed Taj Mahal was a Hindu building. All my claims are backed by scholarly sources on the basis of epigraphy and/or archaeology.

jamwal
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Re: Media watch and Fake news

Post by jamwal » Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:23 pm

https://trueindology.wordpress.com/2017 ... efamation/

Alt News or Fraud News? Shameless campaign of lies and defamation
I have written quite a few articles on History, published in Firspost, Swarajya and India facts, which clearly mention the references, for, I document History as it was, based on sources, without any agenda or garnishing. Am always eager to expand my knowledge of History and anyone genuinely interested in learning and sharing, shall surely get that.

Of late, a large section of Secular Mafia of eminent intellectuals has been indulging in concerted, defamatory attacks upon me, citing my Tweets!

Yes, you heard it right! Not my posts, not the books that I quote from, but my Tweets! This establishes that the information I share is trampling their ecosystem and annihilating their false sense of moral superiority and intellect. Hence, this course of lying and mudslinging. I have blocked quite a few, after making them aware of their lack of research and, sometimes, if time permitted, also busted their lies. There have been instances where attempts have been made to violate my privacy and my friends threatened.

When the same got called out, a new route had to be found and perhaps that’s why this peddler of post truth, is continuing the campaign of these ‘eminent intellectuals’, with the one point agenda of thwarting the publication of my Book on the Medieval History of India.

I thought of the Book, last year, because it is near impossible to communicate something as important as History in 140 characters. Use of representative images, abbreviations, images taken from a book or magazine, among others, can sometimes communicate partial information or be taken out of context, by anyone not interested in looking up primary sources for revalidation and enrichment. But my Book (am writing it currently) will have no such constraints as my Tweets, and the detractors know it.

I have been extremely occupied in its research, which is extremely time consuming and exhausting, for, I am not a History scholar (have never claimed to be one). Between the research and everything else, am hardly left with any time for myself and hence have no bandwidth to spare and rebut every tom, dick and harry. My Twitter Timeline, in any case, does not claim Six Sigma or ISO certification!

The joke of a post, in the post truth rag, rants that “fictitious historical claims are shared to keep people feel wronged all the time”. It is quite amusing to see this statement from those who continuously peddle propaganda about “skies falling under the fascist rule of Modi”. A section of pseudo-secularatti has spun many such tales and it is no wonder that a section of a community feels victimized enough to take up terrorism.

An introspection on their part will reveal that it is not my Tweets, but their perspective and worldview that is full of hate and divisiveness. So much so, that simply stating the truth, that is documented by scholars, archaeologists and historians of repute, in publications across the world, makes them see red. Their disinclination to explore, learn and stay updated, is their prerogative. But responding to their vindictive ignorance, inherent inability to research (beyond wikipedia, whatsapp, random blogposts) and sheer lethargy, is not my priority.

Through this one post, I intend call out their bumbling bluster, so that people can see the utter lack of honesty and integrity in those who write in, and share the propaganda of this fraud Alt News. Perhaps, Alt News stands for their fabricated, alternate version of truth.

Before proceeding further, let me reiterate that these ignoramuses are not interested in any information AT all. No article of mine has been challenged. The CONTENT of my tweets has NOT been touched. What has actually been tom-tomed as an “expose” and shared by many “eminences”, is in fact, a simple google image search of the images accompanying my tweets to concoct and “expose” and allege some ulterior agenda!

Do the dunces who claim to have “researched” through the “goldmine” of my Timeline, understand that at the end of the day, it does not matter, at all! I could use the image of a Mule and yet the content of my tweets would be irrefutable, for, whatever I share on my timeline is based on multiple sources (books, testimonies, research papers, exploration results, theses, museum catalogs, governmental archives, newspapers, among others).

The propaganda rag is not interested in History. It is not interested in learning or knowledge sharing, either. All it has does is pretend that it is “challenging” my “claims” by trying to add motives to representational images used with my tweets. That is not a debate worth my time.

If they needed some traffic and make money from the “goldmine” of my Timeline, they could have simply asked me for clarity on any topic that I have tweeted on. I might have actually expanded on my Tweets and helped them write well researched posts. Why fabricate and concoct an “expose” and prove that its alleged Journalism favours sensationalism as against sense? The pea brained Don Quixotes of FraudNews do not even realise that I don’t “make claims”. I share FACTS.
Ivory sculpture depicting a Hindu Shahi King of Gandhara riding on an elephant. (c.800 CE). Found at Gansu province, Northwest China

AltNews says

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I laughed hard at this one, for, it was proof of the fact that the post truth peddler and its NoIQDhongi patrons, simply source information from Whatsapp, Wikipedia and Blogs Posts,apart from their own photoshopped fraudulent pictures. I understand that it might take them longer to read, but would they, at least just this once, I insist, read Objects of Translation:Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu Muslim” Encounter by Finbarr B Blood, published by Princeton University Press, and stop their post truth diatribe!

The image is NOT that of Buddha. It is that of a Shahi riding on an elephant . Shahis were Hindu/Buddhist kings of Gandhara. It was indeed found in Gansu province in Northwest China. My tweet is a FACT.
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Hello FakeNews, I challenge you to find us even a single reference to Gautama Buddha riding an elephant in either BuddhaCharita or Pali canonical texts.

You cannot find a single reference to Buddha riding an elephant either in Pali Canon or Buddhacharita. Why? For Buddha and his ascetic disciples, riding/taming any animal like elephant was an act of sacrilege. In the Dhammapada, it is stated
What does this all show?That Alt News is essentially post truth Alternate views based on Journalism of outrage. The rag engages writers who seem to know nothing and are not interested in learning by reading what matters. What’s hilarious is that they are not interested even in reading the blogs that they have themselves linked. The blog also mentions its Gandharan origin, by the way.

This illustrates the modus operandi of the rag. All it does is run a google image search of every image that I have posted. If anything does not match any blog online, the rag will keep mining the gold of ad revenue from my timeline by writing another post accusing me of fraud! Desperate attention seeking frauds!

This peddler of post truth stands fully exposed. They have no interest in history, all they and their gushing, gloating patrons want to do, is to prevent truth from coming out. All of them stand thoroughly exposed in their intellectual nakedness. It is not just the Emperor, but the entire empire of pseudo intellectualism that seems to have no clothes

Temples destroyed by Tipu Sultan
AltNews says

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This is the funniest of all claims. The Alternate History peddling rag claims that these ruins are not that of a temple but of a “neolithic settlement of BC era” (whatever that means) and that I have used the picture of “Neolithic settlement” as “ruins of temples destroyed by Tipu Sultan”

However, the link that has been shared, by the pretentious, propaganda pile does not support its false claim, for, the caption of the picture in the link clearly mentions it as “ruins of old temple”.

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Looks like the phenomenal researchers of Alt News skipped elementary school, for, the meaning of Neolithic eludes them. Let me offer some help on that front. They could thank me later.

Here is a Neolithic structure from Kerala

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la.khan
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Re: Media watch and Fake news

Post by la.khan » Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:12 pm

The wheels of justice & karma turn slowly to grind to dust the High & the Mighty :D
NDTV is considering firing up to 25% of its employees

Primus
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Re: Media watch and Fake news

Post by Primus » Mon Jun 11, 2018 3:13 pm

I've been a long time reader and subscriber of National Geographic. So it is with great disappointment that I read this today:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/maga ... an-police/

Basically a completely one-sided story told by Amnesty International based on interviews with the terrorist outfits. No mention of the atrocities against Indian soldiers, Pakistani involvement and most importantly, the plight of the poor Hindus who were hounded out of the region.

Needless to say I will not be renewing my subscription and am writing to them about my thoughts on this nonsense. They should stick to Nature and avoid politics.

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Re: Media watch and Fake news

Post by chaitanya » Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:38 pm

This is the most absurd piece of fake news I have seen against Hindus and Hinduism, spread by the New York Times:
This narrative about yoga’s ancient roots has become a sacrament for Hindu nationalists, and it is echoed in the West. But it is mostly myth, an idealized origin story of the kind so many would-be nation-builders, from ancient Rome to the Zionists, have fostered about themselves. The oldest Hindu scriptures contain almost no mention of physical postures. Even the Yoga Sutras, the so-called bible of yoga, include only a few short verses suggesting comfortable postures for sitting. Many of the postures practiced in yoga today appear to have emerged in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Dozens of modern ashtanga yoga postures are similar or identical to those found in a gymnastic routine introduced to India by the British in the first decades of the 20th century and originally developed by a Danish fitness instructor named Niels Bukh, who later became notorious for his pro-Nazi sympathies. Bukh, needless to say, has been conveniently forgotten by both Indians and the yoga-loving celebrities of Hollywood.
This needs to spread far and wide, so Indians know that even yoga is not safe. Do not click unless you want your BP to rise: The Billionaire Yogi Behind Modi’s Rise

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