Deep State at Work Again in US Journalism? – Anti-Modi & Anti-Indian Air Force

 

Update April 13, 2019: The US Defense Department said it was “not aware” of any investigation that was conducted to ascertain if Pakistan had lost an F-16 in a dogfight with Indian fighter jets on February 27, contrary to a report by a news publication that had gone on to say, citing unidentified defense officials, the count revealed none was missing. And on Monday, April 8, the Indian Air Force gave a detailed briefing about the “irrefutable proof” they had about shooting down a Npak F-16. That clip is below:

The above goes to support our thesis of last week that the article in Foreign Policy was not real news but a placed article.

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Journalism is often described as a noble profession. That reputation has been earned by a few instances in which journalists diligently pursued abuses by the connected & powerful. Watergate was perhaps the finest example.

1.Today’s Journalism & the Deep State – a servile or mutually rewarding relationship?

But the day-to-day reality can be quite different. By its construct, journalism can easily degrade into a parasitic activity especially when reporters cover the same institution for years. We see that daily in financial TV coverage of the US Federal Reserve. Dedicated Fed reporters become dependent on the Fed for access to the Fed Governors & their TV networks increase viewership by getting prominent Fed governors to appear on their TV networks. And soon enough, this mutually beneficial arrangement converts financial reporters into virtual spokespeople for the Fed, often at the cost of inflicting damage on the network’s viewers.

This we know & keep seeing every day. But what about secretive organizations inside Government? At least the US bond market provides enough clues & information for viewers to become wary of the so-called reporters who cover the Fed. But viewers & readers have no way of knowing which reporters & which media organizations are virtually spokespeople for major US government agencies. We can’t tell whether the anonymous sources quoted by these reporters are true & credible sources or they are merely deep state operators using reporters to spread misinformation.

This deep state system of using reporters to spread information & the reporters benefiting from it reached a crescendo during the recently completed Mueller probe of President Trump. We all saw newer & juicier “reports” from previously credible news entities that implicated & sometimes accused President Trump of  un-presidential & occasionally impeachable activities. Now, after two years of journalistic mayhem, we all know that the enormously expensive effort was for naught. Special Counsel Mueller found no wrongdoing by President Trump.

If this is not enough, the news media itself has morphed into political activism. Instead of honestly reporting facts, newspapers & TV networks have morphed themselves into virtually making them up. So we now have a deep network of reporters, news organizations & a collection of deep state “sources” all working towards political objectives instead of even keeping up the pretense of honest reporting.

Then we have a strange coincidence. Media entities that are anti-Trump are also anti-Modi and by extension anti-India. This may be more than a coincidence but that is a topic for a later discussion. Today we discuss a “news” report of this week that, in our opinion, combines all of the above.

2. Foreign Policy Magazine, US Defense Deep State & PM Modi

Based on reading articles published by Foreign Policy Magazine, we came to a conclusion some time ago that it is a dedicated anti-India magazine. The nadir was reached when this magazine named Arvind Kejriwal as one of the top intellectuals in the world after he won the Delhi elections.  Any one who knows anything about Delhi politics would now recognize the brazen stupidity of that selection. But it was not stupid. Because the magazine, in our opinion, is intensely anti-Hindu and thus disliked PM Modi. So Kejriwal’s victory in local Delhi elections seemed to them an opportunity to build up a rising anti-Modi politician.

The elections in India begin next week and everyone realizes that PM Modi has an uphill battle ahead. The recent military strikes against NPak have enhanced his image and popularity considerably. Apart from the air strike against Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists inside NonPakistan, a MIG-21 fighter of the Indian Air Force shot down an F-16 fighter flown by the NPak Air Force in a large dogfight. The Indian MIG-21 was also shot down, The pilot of the MIG-21 landed in NPak occupied territory & was held by NPakistan. PM Modi demanded the release of the pilot and, with significant pressure applied by the Trump Administration, the pilot was released. This further enhanced PM Modi’s popularity & his electoral prospects.

Now this week, just a week before the election, Foreign Policy Magazine published an article by a reporter named Lara Seligman, disputing the shooting down of the F-16. The article merely quotes two anonymous US defense officials saying they have counted all F-16s given to NonPakistan & found none missing. The two US defense officials are neither named nor are any numerical figures provided. The reporter seems to have done no work to validate either the sources or the figures. She has merely taken whatever she was told and reported it as gospel. Actually, there is no evidence to prove that she was actually told anything or that these two defense officials actually exist. 

This is the most brazen assertion of “white privilege” that we have seen. We are supposed to take the word of a “white”  reporter about third world “brown” India from a demonstrably anti-India magazine about statements she claims were made by two anonymous defense department officials.

The US reconnaissance abilities are second to none and, because of the US presence in Afghanistan, the US military maintains intense surveillance of the airspace in which the dogfight took place. But neither the reporter nor the Foreign Policy Magazine seem to have checked with the US military to see what evidence they have of the dogfight. Did the reporter or the magazine speak to the Indian Air Force & ask for an explanation? Not according to the article.

In fact, the entire article seems to have been a plant to simply make up a story with anonymous sources to discredit the Indian Air Force and Prime Minister Modi a week before the elections in India. But why? Only because the Foreign Policy Magazine is virulently anti-Modi? Or is there a deep military-industrial complex at work here? One answer is contained in the tweet below:

• Major Gaurav Arya (Retd)‏Verified account @majorgauravarya  –  For America, war is a multi-trillion dollar business & the F16 is a global brand. There is no way the US can ever admit that a MIG 21 shot down an F16. It will bury the brand for ever & will raise questions on other US weapon systems. Embarrassing for US.