Chronicles from the Fog of a Manufactured Victory

 https://www.businesstoday.in/india/story/clear-cut-victory-military-historian-says-west-misread-the-conflict-says-india-decimated-pakistani-bases-475974-2025-05-12


The recent article titled "Clear-cut victory: Military historian says West misread the conflict..." is deeply troubling—both for its perspective, and for its framing. The headline itself lacks journalistic neutrality, using triumphalist language that enhances government talking points rather than offering a balanced or investigative lens.

More concerning is the reliance on a military historian to frame an unfolding geopolitical conflict. Historians are invaluable in interpreting past wars, not in validating present-day statecraft or battlefield outcomes still mired in ambiguity. Their role of a historian is to analyse in hindsight, not to endorse real-time narratives. Using a historian to proclaim military victory undermines objectivity and risks reducing journalism to propaganda.

Such editorial choices not only erase the line between "fact and spin" but also actively benefit the ruling dispensation at a politically sensitive moment. News outlets have a duty to inform, not inflame; to question power, not echo it. In this case, the platform appears to have relinquished its critical function in favour of headline bait and populist appeal.

Let’s preserve journalism as a check on power—not a mouthpiece for it.


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