How gullible is our media? How much do we trust them when they say, "reliable-sources" "not wanting to be named or identified" etc. How much of the news on our mainstream media is true and what percentage is not "sexed-up"? Tough one?

My conjecture is that except for the weather and the scores in the various sports news, everything is sexed-up for editorial compliance. This is the age where rumors are considered as authentic news and then there would be detailed analysis of these rumors as to how it is going to affect everyone (in reality, no one).

An hilarious prank, pulled out by a Goan blogger-group by the name of Pen Pricks, shamed many of India's media biggies and exposed them.

Many of the media houses in Goa and Karnataka received an e-mail from the Hamman Smit, the press officer for Perus Narpk, on Shede Road in Berlin, the Intelligence Wing of the German Chancellor's Core (Whatever that was supposed to mean) claiming to have captured a Nazi war criminal for allegedly having killed thousands in a concentration camp called Marsha Tikash Whanaab. The e-mail, it is claimed, contained a detailed press release where it described how the octogenarian, revealed his identity to an Israeli couple at rave party in Goa following which he was nabbed near the border of Goa and Karnataka.

However, the adrenalin leaking faux-media of our country failed to read between the lines of this hoax and exposed their immaturity in the business they are in and at the same time revealed the tenacity and zeal with which they publish vague news articles as authenticated by "unidentified sources" who "do not wish to be named" (most likely the illusions of the writer who might be on a high).

You name it, Times of India, Indian Express, The Telegraph, Deccan Herald, Rediff.com et al, jumped in to damn the 18th century German musician as a Nazi criminal, in hilariously detailed news reports some of which reported in detail as to how Bach traveled around the globe before he "reached India", "got apprehended", and got "airlifted to Berlin". Some of these media, even damned the Indian police and authorities for not having any clue of the covert German operation, that in reality never took place.

Apparently, Perus Narpk is a anagram for Super Prank and the concentration camp of Marsha Tikash Whanaab did not exist (not even on the internet) uptill yesterday when the hoax was revealed by Pen Pricks. There were many clues that these so called journalists and editors did not catch when the author of the e-mail told he was "hamming" and that his office was on a "shady road" in Berlin and that his office had a name which was an anagram for Super Prank. 

The hilarious "story" is still available on the website of The Telegraph, which even has a map showing the travel path adopted by Bach, Indian Express and Deccan Herald. According to the map on telegraph, Bach having traveled to Yemen is "unconfirmed", which means, they were able to confirm the rest? The story on DNA is even more funny, where they added a new twist to it. They claimed that Bach an "alleged accomplice of Adolph Hitler" was "nabbed" by Indian authorities along with the GCC (German Chancellor's Core) and that Bach gave them a slip "while being transported in a taxi and entered the Khanapur forest in Belgaum district on the Goa-Karnataka border" where he was caught again.

Poor old Bach, must be turning in his grave. O' God! Where art thou? (wiping tears after a good laugh)

Pen Pricks' is a group of journalists from Goa who manage a blog by the same name, the purpose of which, according to the blog, is to "Discover the rotund flanks and the shaggy underbelly of the Goan media. And of course, the rare honest rib."