While mainstream media was abuzz with the news of the bundles of notes found after Income Tax raids on Dhiraj Sahu’s premises, the so-called “independent media” failed to cover this important news. Let’s see who did and what they did. 

The Quint published an article in Hindi on 9 December 2023. 

Newslaundry shared an 8-9 minute podcast episode on 11 December 2023. The episode only covered headlines for that day. This is what the 1-minute coverage said, “In one of the largest ever cash haul in India, bank notes worth over Rs 350 crores have been unearthed so far at Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dheeraj Sahu’s properties at Odisha and Jharkhand. While the searches were completed on Sunday, the IT department continued to count the cash. It has been able to put a number on the cash recovered with 140 or 176 bags of money having been counted. The counting alone has been a massive campaign spanning 5 days involving 50 bank officials and 40 cash counting machines. The searches into Dheeraj Sahu’s properties began on the 6th of December. The Congress MP’s extended family is allegedly in the alcohol manufacturing business. Most of the cash recovered from Sahu’s properties have been linked to Boudh Distillery Private Limited in Odisha. Meanwhile, the Congress has distanced itself from the matter and has sought an explanation from the MP.”

On 13 December 2023, a YouTube video was published on their channel. In what seemed like a troll video, in passing, the speaker spoke about the money found at Dheeraj Sahu’s house. he said, “Returning to the old issue, what is the matter of money, Sanjay said, as far as I know, Maharaj, The name of the person from whose house the money was found is Dheeraj Sahu, it is a very old business family of Jharkhand and have been doing the business for a long time. People who are MPs of Congress Party, a huge amount of money was found in their house, only now the money has been recovered, its investigation has not started properly yet, no one knows whether this money is real or not.” 

Watch!

So Newslaundry has jumped to defend Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu

They are asking so what if 350 crore cash is found?

This is what liberals consider highest form of journalism… pic.twitter.com/hZBefwO34a

— Abhishek (@AbhishBanerj) December 13, 2023

In a video lasting nearly 26 minutes, Atul Chaurasia from Newslaundry, in the ‘Tippani’ section, criticized the central government and mainstream media for singling out Sahu. Chaurasia pointed out that, as of now, only the money has been found, and the investigation into its nature is yet to commence. He emphasized the uncertainty regarding whether the money was legitimate or illicit and argued that despite this ambiguity, mainstream media and BJP supporters have already begun targeting Sahu. Chaurasia questioned the basis of considering the mere recovery of money as evidence of a crime and also criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using emojis in his post on the matter.

From this short bit, it seems as if they are justifying the money and connecting it to their liquor business as said in the podcast. 

A netizen questioned the hypocrisy of this so-called independent media which did not give the issue as much coverage as other news media. 

Dropping the H as my Odiya brethren have pointed out. pic.twitter.com/B3A86o515N

— Nirmalya Dutta (@NonsensicalNemo) December 12, 2023

It is noteworthy that this tweet was posted between 11 AM and 12 noon on 12 December 2023 calling out The News Minute, The Wire, Scroll, etc. At around 3.30 PM that day, The News Minute published an article – nearly a week after the news about the IT raid broke out. 

The Commune also tried searching for news articles on the said issue, however, it did not turn up any results from The Wire and Scroll. 

Portals that call themselves independent media continue to implore their audience for funds day in and day out. Despite this, they do not do a great job of reporting news that needs to be covered. 

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The post “Independent Media” Sparsely Reports Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu IT Raid Cash Haul, Newslaundry Blatantly Comes Out In Support appeared first on The Commune.

YouTube channel String’s latest video that exposed the design laid out in the Greta Thunberg Toolkit which contained names of several media houses, journalists and ‘activists’, has been removed by the video streaming and sharing platform citing ‘harassment and bullying’.

Vinodh, the host of the show String Reveals, had explained the nexus between institutions funded by George Soros, certain India media entities and a few ‘activists’, and how a coordinated social media propaganda on the ‘farmers’ protest was being carried out with help from both inside and outside the country.

String had shed light on DIGIPUB, an association of media entities like The Wire, Scroll, The Quint, The News Minute, Newslaundry, Alt News, etc and how these media entities and its associated journalists found mention in Greta’s ‘tool kit’ that had details to carry out a nefarious propaganda against India.

The video also exposed how a foreign individual named Annalisa Merelli had endorsed these media outlets to channel funds to them days before Greta Thunberg shared the tool.

https://twitter.com/missanabeem/status/1356202957793087488

This expose of String had crossed several lakh views garnering the attention of several high profile personalities.

However, this video has now been removed by YouTube on the ground of ‘violating YouTube’s policy on harassment and bullying’.

The video seems to have been mass reported.

String has now appealed to YouTube headquarters demanding clarification for removing their video. The channel is also exploring other legal options.

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The post Shocking! YouTube removes String’s latest video that exposed Greta Thunberg toolkit, DIGIPUB and other social media influencers appeared first on The Commune.