Indian Media -- the bullet as well as the gun

Turn of Phrase – Semantics of Faith?

The media has its own grammar. And it own spin which leaves far behind Roget of the Thesaurus, Wren and Martin, and the Chicago Stylebook.

Or so it seems

According to the Hindustan Times today:

-- 6 million or 60 Lakh cows were `culled’ in the UK alone during the 2001 outbreak of an epidemic
-- In Manipur, 300,000 chicken too were `culled’
-- So were 16 wild bore in a Kerala zoo after a foot and mouth disease outbreak, which of course had no connection with various Left politicians and religious leaders putting their foot in their mouth!
-- Some days ago, hundreds of dogs were `killed’ in Bangalore after one of them killed child.
-- But Shiva, the black Herefordshire polled [hornless] bull in a UK Temple who was founded ill with bovine Tuberculosis, was `slaughtered’, if one is to go by the anchors of Indian television, including IBN CNN, not to speak of the screamers of Hindi language Television. That is the word they had to use in this case.

In the event, the poor black bull died of a lethal injection. The other 60 lakh cows were shot. Chinese and Vietnamese pigs were machine-gunned in a deep pit like a scene out of a WWII film. The chicken had their necks wrung and broken, and if they were small, they were asphyxiated alive in plastic bags. I do not know how the zoo authorities in Thiruvanthapuram were cullied – injection or bullet.

And this is what the dictionary says:

Slaughter (livestock): the method of killing animals to eat them
Cull: to select and kill (surplus animals)
Put to sleep: to put (an animal) to death in a humane way: to put a sick old dog to sleep.
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Item Two

Kerala, Media and Ministers

From the Hindu, Cochin, 6 August 2007
“Each Media organisation has its own politics, agenda, whipping boys and blue eyed boys. The financial dealings of many were not transparent, though they pretend to be fighting against corruption. Some journalists are becoming part of a Media Mafia.” – Kerala Cooperation Minister Mr. G Sudhakaran explaining away Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan’s acidic comment against the Editor of Deepika newspaper, Mr. M A Pharis who he called “A hate man.”