Hafta 305: farmer protests, the media’s coverage of it, and amit malviya’s ‘manipulated media’ tweet

This week on NL Hafta, it's an all-_Newslaundry_ panel of Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, Mehraj D Lone, Raman Kirpal, and our reporter Nidhi Suresh, who has been covering the farmer

protests at Delhi’s borders. The conversation starts with how the TV news media covered the protests, and the pushback against “Godi media” by protesters. Describing the nature of the

coverage, Manisha says: “It’s the same thing that they’ve been doing for a while now, and we’ve seen this from the CAA protests onwards. Essentially, what these channels do is: they go to

these protest sites, they’ll find one or two controversial bites or speak to people who are probably not aware of the bill or would, in their excitement, say something. Then they’ll just

play that on loop to tar the entire protest.” Mehraj agrees. “This is from the textbook of propaganda,” he says. “This is exactly what they did during the CAA protests also...If there are

lakhs of people on the street, just like in society, you will find people who have different ideas. Some of them will be extremists, some of them will also be unsavoury characters. But you

will pick up this one person and then the whole argument will become about that person.” Appreciating the regional media’s coverage of the protests, Abhinandan says, “I have consumed a lot

of Punjabi media in the last two or three weeks and I must say there is some very good and informed reportage happening. And I am surprised that the English and the Hindi media is so

clueless about stuff.” Drawing from her experience on the ground, Nidhi says, “One thing they [the farmers] are very, very angry about is the framing of the narrative by the Centre, the

media, and the politicians around the necessity for these laws. The Centre has constantly been saying that this is a pro-farmer bill.” She adds that the farmers on the ground say they never

asked for these laws. On Twitter flagging BJP’s Amit Malviya’s tweet as “manipulated media”, Raman says Twitter reacted “too late”. “We have been seeing fake news being spread by these

politicians so often and by so many of them,” he says. “I don’t know why they have reacted now.” The panel also discusses fake news and misinformation on social media, the UN chief’s recent

address on climate change, and much more. Tune in! SONG: _Gobind De Lal - SIKH - Diljit Dosanjh_ HAFTA LETTERS: _Özil and Arsenal, the right to protest, RW voices on Hafta_ TIMECODES 04:35 -

Headlines 09:15 - Farmer protests 13:01 - Media coverage of farmer protests 1:04:03 - Rajinikanth to launch political party in January 1:05:43 - UN secretary general Antonio Gutteres’

speech on the environment 1:09:26 - Amit Malviya's tweet flagged on Twitter 1:22:20 - Subscriber mails 1:43:13 - Recommendations REFERENCES _Barkha Dutt interview with Deep Sidhu_

_Caravan story about Yogendra Yadav_ RECOMMENDATIONS NIDHI _Explained: What are the Farm Bills and how will they affect farmers?_ _Days and Nights of Love and War_ RAMAN _Mosul - Netflix_

__Newslaundry's___ coverage of farmer protests_ _Why landless and marginal farmers are the backbone of farmer protests_ MEHRAJ __Newslaundry's___ coverage of farmer protests_

_Revolt Of The Rich_ _“Bol, Jai Shri Ram”: Srinagar locality alleges mass beatings by Army after militant attack_ MANISHA _एक कविता रोज: सबसे खतरनाक क्या होता है?_ _Songs from old

revolution_ _Farmers’ protest Explained: Barring MSP, Centre open to rolling back 3 key provisions of farm law_ _The government may ride out the farmers’ protests. But simmering discontent

will remain_ _Nidhi's interview with farmers on media coverage_ ABHINANDAN _Shining example: What Golden Temple can teach Hindutva warriors using Ayodhya to whip up hatred_ _Amritsar:

Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle_ _Episode 843: Swamp Gravy_ _Hillbilly Elegy_ _PRODUCED AND RECORDED BY ADITYA VARIER AND LIPI VATS, EDITED BY SATISH KUMAR AND HARSHULA KUMAR._ _Transcription

by Diksha Munjal._ Get updates about our podcasts via Twitter and Facebook.