CPM write-up angers media

CALCUTTA, OCT 13: The rift between the media and the Communist Party of India Marxist surfaced once again when some of the local newspa...

CALCUTTA, OCT 13: The rift between the media and the Communist Party of India Marxist surfaced once again when some of the local newspapers who reported the 16th Party Congress seem to have rubbed the CPIM the wrong way.

To answer back in the same language, the CPIM, a day after the party congress concluded, ran a front-page bottom spread in its Begalee mouthpiece Ganashakti launching a vitriolic attack on 8220;some of the papers not named and their reporters8221;.

The write-up ridiculed the reporters for taking free lunch packets and several cold drinks while they questioned the Congress extravaganza. Nor free cold drinks and good lunch packets could make them stick to correct reporting, the write-up regretted.

When the CPIM general secretary met the press to clarify certain points and to tell the reporters about the party congress8217; decisions, the angry reporters insisted 8220;It8217;s an insult to the press and the issue must be taken up by one of the two most powerful state leaders andCentral committee members, Anil Biswas and Biman Bose who then sat with the general secretary.8221;

Apparently, the issue wasn8217;t taken up and Harkishan Singh Surjeet started his briefing the press. When finally the brief ended, the reporters walked away accepting the fact that the CPIM8217;s State leadership would not apologise for what it said in the bottom spread.

A Central committee member and a senior State party leader, on condition of anonymity, told ENS, 8220;I didn8217;t quite like the way they put it in today8217;s bottom spread, but then like it or not, the damage is done.8221;

Interestingly, during the party congress, the party8217;s politburo member Sitaram Yuchuri wrote a bottom spread in which he compared the reporting of the party congress in the local English dailies much like the 8220;the American press putting words into your mouth to create news8221;.

Story continues below this ad

Yuchuri gave an example of a Bishop from the Vatican who arrived in America on a goodwill visit with strict advice not to open his mouth before theAmerican reporters. And when they asked him if he had plans to visit any nightclubs in America, he replied back, 8220;Are there nightclubs in America?8221;

He retired to a hotel thinking that he had wriggled out of a tricky situation only to wake up the next morning to see a front page headline saying the Bishop had inquired about the nightclubs in New York.

Yuchuri, who apparently shared the annoyance of his senior party colleagues about the local papers8217; relentless focus on the dissension on issue of leadership8217;s offer of issue-based support to the Congress, had left the media circle a little amused.

He packed it off saying he rated these local English papers8217; ability to create and distort facts as even superior to their American counterparts,8217; apparently his comments did not hurt.