Is media in Kerala on CIA payroll?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cold War is over and the American spies are now after their accomplices-turned-adversaries in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, if the CPI (M) top brass in Kerala is to be believed, the Americans are still worried over the communist influence in the southern part of India. Further still, they have even discovered that the pen is mightier than the gun in disintegrating the commies and so has the CIA bribe a group of journalists to work for them.

Until Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan told the state Assembly that his government has taken note of a media syndicate at work in the state, the allegation was plain rhetoric. On Monday, Achuthanandan was at pains to justify his statement that a few journalists were on the payroll of the CIA. “I have neither confirmed nor ruled out the possibility of a media syndicate,” he said.

The term ‘media syndicate’ was coined by Achuthanandan’s bete noire and party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan during last year’s Assembly elections. When the party had to succumb to public opinion and anoint Achuthanandan as the chief ministerial candidate, Vijayan said the show of strength was a creation of the media.

The tirade got a new lease after Vijayan was held at Chennai airport with live bullets. He mounted a pointed attack on a group of journalists then, “who formed themselves into a syndicate and planted anti-CPI(M) stories.”

A couple of ministers, who owe their allegiance to Vijayan, echoed the charge. Now even the CM refuses to strike a different note. Kerala Union of Working Journalists have demanded a probe in the matter.