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Rich pol parties taking control of media houses: Mamata

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee today questioned the role of a section of media and accused "cash loaded" political parties of have taking control of media houses to serve their narrow political interests. Alleging that the run up to the Lok Sabha elections has manifested an alarming role of a major section of the media, Banerjee, in a Facebook post today, said she was "shocked" with their "partial and biased" conduct. "There is hardly any room for doubt that a few major cash loaded political parties have taken up control of media houses and engaged them to serve their narrow political interests, trampling down the ethics of democracy and voice of people," she said. "The partial and biased conduct of a section of the media, both electronic and print, has shocked me," Banerjee said in her post. "The brazen personal attacks, distortion of facts, character assassination and vilification in never before manner has stunned the nation." The West Bengal Chief Minister said that this state of affairs could be overcome only if elections were held with state funding, which has been TMC's longpending demand. "These steps are essential for the sake of democracy. If the current trend continues, then the future of our democracy will, no doubt, be at stake," she added.

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Rich pol parties taking control of media houses: Mamata

To tweet or not to tweet?

As companies flock to Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites to tout their brands, many businesses are still struggling to strike the balance between immediacy and the need to exercise enough control to prevent ill-advised posts, tweets and other social media embarrassments.

A pornographic picture recently sent from US Airways official Twitter account is a fresh example of a social media misstep. In that instance, the company says an employee didnt mean any harm, but mistakenly posted a picture of a naked woman playing inappropriately with a toy plane.

Examples of embarrassing posts on official company social media accounts are legion: a reference to hitting the hay during a horse-meat scandal, a glib mention of not being able to tell the truth and posts making light of airplane crashes, to name just a few.

Separately, the actions of individual employees using their own social media accounts sometimes have brought unwelcome attention to their employers. Perhaps the most infamous example of 2013: the public relations professional who turned to Twitter to write, Going to Africa. Hope I dont get AIDS. Just kidding. Im white!

Where being quick on the trigger can be risky, there is an upside to a timely post.

Gordon Fowler, president and CEO of 3fold Communications in Sacramento, Calif., said a quick response to a pop-culture phenomenon can bring much more exposure to social media messages that would otherwise go unnoticed.

People are trying too hard to be relevant, said Fowler, who recently invited people to get over the sourness of Tax Day by visiting the companys Tax Day Bitter Bar for a lunchtime lemonade. Guests were then invited to take pictures and share them via social media.

The three most popular U.S. social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were conceived and continue to serve primarily as platforms for millions of individuals to connect, but more and more businesses are using them to reach customers. About 93 percent of marketers use social media to reach a vast and growing audience, according to statistics compiled by social media expert Erik Qualman. More than 1 billion people use Facebook, while Twitter boasts of 115 million active users monthly.

Local communications professionals agreed that staying out of the social media pool is not an option.

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Businesses navigating social media

Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee today questioned the role of a section of media and accused cash loaded political parties of have taking control of media houses to serve their narrow political interests.

Alleging that the run up to the Lok Sabha elections has manifested an alarming role of a major section of the media, Banerjee, in a Facebook post today, said she was shocked with their partial and biased conduct. There is hardly any room for doubt that a few major cash loaded political parties have taken up control of media houses and engaged them to serve their narrow political interests, trampling down the ethics of democracy and voice of people, she said. The partial and biased conduct of a section of the media, both electronic and print, has shocked me, Banerjee said in her post. The brazen personal attacks, distortion of facts, character assassination and vilification in never before manner has stunned the nation.

The West Bengal Chief Minister said that this state of affairs could be overcome only if elections were held with state funding, which has been TMC's long-pending demand. These steps are essential for the sake of democracy. If the current trend continues, then the future of our democracy will, no doubt, be at stake, she added.

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Rich political parties taking control of media houses: Mamata

By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch

Donald Sterling, the disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner, is seeking his 15 minutes of repentance.

Now, in the aftermath of the great American pastime of Celebrities Behaving Badly, Sterling has reached out to the American media to plead his case.

Im asking for forgiveness, he told CNNs Anderson Cooper.

Im not a racist, he added in an interview that will air on Coopers prime-time program Monday night.

Dont fall for his sad act. To put it bluntly, shed no tears for Donald Sterling. He is getting what he deserves. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has officially banned Sterling for life from the NBA and fined him $2.5 million, in the hope of forcing Sterling to sell the team. By the way, Sterling can probably get bids of about $1 billion in a sale of the team, so the NBAs death sentence is not exactly without its rewards.

But even if Silver can shove this storys villain out of the NBA picture, the media will keep Sterlings rotten image alive. In this age of 24/7 news, reputations are made and broken overnight and then sealed forever. Because of the advent of Google /quotes/zigman/30194416/delayed/quotes/nls/goog GOOG +2.16% Wikipedia and YouTube, people are, for better or worse, famous forever.

This is more than the fall of a very rich man of privilege and glamour. He got caught making damning racist comments during a private telephone conversation with a woman who was close to him.

It wasnt as if Sterling could claim he was misquoted or even misinterpreted by reporters. He was, after all, the source of those awful comments, which went viral almost immediately. Its essential to examine why the Sterling case resonated so deeply and decisively.

The saga tells, too, the real story of the American media in 2014. If Sterling really was a victim at all, it is because of his lamentable timing. This scandal came fast on the heels of the Missing Plane, a symbol of international intrigue.

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Media Blitz: Donald Sterling, as we know him, will live forever

MINERAL POINT The engine exhaust experts at Cummins Emission Solutions in Mineral Point didnt have to invite the media and local political leaders to the opening of its new high horsepower facility last month.

But after 17 years of making emission-control products for global commercial markets in this small Iowa County city some 50 miles southwest of Madison, it was a good time for a public reminder of the companys enduring stake in the area, plant manager Giri Thiyagarajan said. About a third of CES 470 employees live between Mineral Point and Dodgeville, with the rest from a 90-mile radius.

This shows our commitment to this place, he said, about the expansion and unveiling of the new plant on April 16. Cummins could have pretty much put this facility anywhere. But based on the needs of our customers, as well as the expertise of our folks here, we thought this was the right place to invest.

Company officials wouldnt say how much the expansion cost. But it adds a second factory floor of some 20,000 square feet in a one-story building less than a quarter mile east of the existing facility, which includes 165,000 square feet of production space and the companys business offices at 856 Fair St.

Because workers on the new floor will weld together some of the largest equipment made by CES, the building includes overhead cranes to move products and machines to turn pieces as they are built to provide the best and safest angles for welding. It also boasts a prototype area to build and test new designs and a collaboration space featuring interactive technology that allows production workers in Mineral Point to see, talk and draw together with company engineers in Stoughton and other locations.

Our new plant is a direct reflection of our innovative mindset, said Srikanth Padmanabhan, CES vice president and general manager. While the plant is equipped for large-size (emission control) solutions and quality production, our business has placed an equally strong focus on employee and building safety.

The need for emission controls on engines for vehicles and equipment is driven by federal environmental regulations that since the 1970s have required increasingly more stringent air-quality standards.

CES is a subsidiary of Cummins Inc., a global enterprise based in Columbus, Indiana, with 48,000 employees worldwide thats best known as the worlds leading diesel engine maker.

Engine sales produced close to half of the conglomerates $17.3 billion in revenues last year, with the rest from related equipment, made by subsidiaries including CES, such as fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration and emission control.

Created to provide cleaner solutions for treating the byproducts of engine combustion, Cummins CES subsidiary is a multinational corporation, with operations in China, India, Germany, Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom, in addition to Indiana and Wisconsin.

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Cummins adds second factory floor in Mineral Point to make emission control systems for big engines