Reader Fatima Mohamed recently sent in this commentary on the media's treatment of the Bachchan's recently. Here is what she had to say:

A job well done! At the end of the day, when one gets bogged down with work pressures and gets tired with unending schedules that stretch on for hours, days, months, perhaps even years, that one sentence when said by a customer has the power to heal and make one forget all the pains. What does it take to achieve that? Honesty towards the job? I would think that is definitely one of the criteria. Intent being taken care of, efforts can be put in. Intent, now that is difficult to judge.

On a separate note, I often describe The Times of India newspaper as a semi soft porn magazine with luscious, perhaps lewd too, pictures of females plastered liberally, pictures that have nothing to do with serious news, news that concern common man. But then that is their right. And I can not fault them for that. They have chosen to be so, they have chosen to mix glamor with sex, bit of serious news with lots of gossiping and what not. They routinely come out with articles rather studies on sex, grooming and what not, perhaps copied from foreign publications, which have no or little relevance in Indian social context. But again that is their right. Let's face it, there is a market for such things and that is why it is perhaps the largest selling newspaper in India, or at least one of the largest selling newspaper. So they can gossip all they want. And gossip by definition means rumour apart from sensation facts. Now The Times Of India of course does that. Well not in the spirit of newspapers, definitely tabloids, but what the heck let's show some flexibility and allow it to gossip. Well move on to a sister publication. The Economic Times. Now I am not an avid reader of The Economic Times but I would have assumed that such a publication will have nothing to do with gossiping, well minus the Dalal Street gossips! So in come couple of articles on Abhishek and Amitabh

Now what is wrong with that? But for the tiny, inconsequential fact that the reports are fabricated, nothing else. How do I know they are fabricated? Let's take those issues one on one.

1.) Abhishek and LG.

So The Economic Times (referred to here as TET henceforth) has some anonymous sources. And per that since Abhishek has not been very successful in the past year or so, he was dropped.

Well here is the copy of the letter from LG to Mr Abhishek Bachchan, stating very clearly that not only is the report false, it is also purely a speculative work of the journalist.

So who do we blame? The journalist who fabricated this article to sell more copies? The Editor who allowed this piece of junk to be written to sell more copies? Or actually the newspaper which actually indulges in such malicious activities every now and then (and I will prove it in my next few points)?

2.) Amitabh and his losing out on endorsements due to his age.

Yes Amitabh is an old man now. And guess what he still sells. Forget competition and comparisons. There ought to be none for someone his age. Let others be just half as popular at the age of 50 and we shall see then. But anyway, so this article says Amitabh is losing out on endorsements. Well what figures do they quote in support of that statement? A few crores along side that commanded by Akshay Kumar, Saif and a few opinions from the professionals in advertising world!!!! Not to insult anyone, does TET even have an idea what deal Amitabh has actually signed? Well apparently not. The truth is that 9 out of 10 brands he endorses have asked for the contract to be renewed and all are for multiple years. About the figures? Well let me just say, others do not even come marginally close and just to mention one which perhaps TET is conveniently not aware of, is Mr Bachchan's deal with UNITECH signed for 2 years amounting to 50crores which makes it 25crores a year! Again who do we blame here? The journalist, the editor or the newspaper?

And now there is this latest on twisting Amitabh's words on MNS chief Raj Thackeray published in a report by The Times Of India.

The scoop interview of Mr Bachchan carried by Midday clearly points to that the TOI clearly distorted sentence:-

TOI - The Bollywood star, however, added that "every Indian should be affected by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief's remarks."

Mr. Bachchan's actual words - "This is a free country and every individual enjoys the liberty of free speech. The law of the land and its Constitution is supreme. Every Indian should be affected by that. Random charges are random, they do not deserve the kind of attention you wish me to give."

Now twisting the words to convey a different meaning is criminal. Actually TOI can be successfully sued over this by Mr. Bachchan.

So again, why do (I won't add "reputed") publications like TOI and TET resort to such gimmicks? Just to sell a few copies more? And what about integrity and honesty to one's job? Issues they try to put on their front page crying out loud about accountability from government or what not, do they mean anything to them beyond money?

Well as I said, Times of India and Economic Times, in my opinion, are the epitome of cheap journalism. Not just because they printed a few negative things about Amitabh or the Bachchan family, even though untrue but because they indulge in such gimmicks very often. I happen to have the proof only in the case of Mr. Amitabh and Mr. Abhishek.

But really, beyond all that, beyond the economics of a dirty world which I do not understand, I do want to know if they go home and sleep well saying "A job well done?".