A Mockery Of Journalism

JAM Magazine was my first job and how I loved it! It was not about the money, not about the 'job', but more about the religion of free journalism where we could express our views, design the pages, work on the website. So when the Editor of the magazine, Rashmi Bansal is being maligned on her blog by (seemingly) IIPM 'students' and 'alumni', naturally I should talk about it. So here goes.

JAM is known for its brash, irreverent attitude and brutal honesty. So JAM decided to do what it does best - talk to people associated with the institute (students, ex-students, prospects who considered joining it, management, etc.) and then analyze and publish the findings. So far, so good.

This is the article that was published in JAM

Now comes the interesting part! Some supertechie folks (no prizes for guessing who they could be) decided to flame Rashmi's blog with fake comments and atrocious profanities, which even Harry Potter could tell that they have been 'seeded'. (Yeah, OK even Ron).

Take a look at her blog and the comments.
If you're a blogger, please add in your thoughts on the issue as well.

UPDATE

Here's what essentially happened. JAM published the article a couple of months back. On August 5, Gaurav Sabnis, blogged:
"A few weeks back, I linked to a story carried by JAM magazine which examined the tall claims made by IIPM in its newspaper ads. Some days later I linked to the blog of someone claiming to be an ex-IIPM-ite. The main purpose behind these posts on my blog was to make a few people aware of how these massively embellished ads may be painting an exaggerated picture of their institute's worth."

That's where it all began. The Blog Wars!

Gaurav Sabnis has now quit his job at IBM so that his employer is not maligned by IIPM's legal threats to the tune of Rs. 125 Crores and pressure tactics. Kudos to you, Gaurav. For having the balls to stand for yourself and not allowing your company to be disturbed by threats. I agree with Gaurav that he's not trying to malign IIPM or it's genuine students, but simply asking people to educate themselves about the institution they are about to join or getting their kids to join. Is your prospective university/institution really worth what it claims? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the question.

The entire issue with on the dot updates is being covered brilliantly by Desipundit