Not Watchdogs Anymore, Just Poodles...

This is an update to the post "CEC: Media As Friend & Ally In Elections" of March appended below:

It would be dishonest and unfair to tar the entire community of journalists as corrupt. It is just safe to say that a huge majority of news outlets are corrupt and cannot be called a watchdog anymore. I have personally been witness to newspapers blackmailing business houses with planting fake stories or exposes if they didn’t get their share of ad business as a rival newspaper. In wanting to avoid confrontation or wastage of time most businesses oblige, some do stand up. It is in this light that latest developments of the ‘paid news’ syndrome has to be viewed.

It would also be naïve to imagine that the money trail for ‘paid news’ can be traced. Obviously these transactions aren’t made through cheques. That’s what explains a total election expense of 7/- lakhs within the then limit of 10/- lakhs. This is what P. Sainath writes in The Hindu:

“Mr. Chavan's accounts are a delight. A kind of Gandhian manual on poll austerity. Read them and you know that Bhokar, Nanded is where you want to settle post-retirement. Things are so cheap. Mr. Chavan wrapped up his newspaper advertising within a frugal Rs.5,379. His entire poll campaign cost less than Rs.7 lakh. (The limit for an assembly constituency in Maharashtra that year was Rs.10 lakh). This included two public meetings where he brought down Bollywood megastar Salman Khan as the main attraction, drawing thousands of people. The first meeting cost a piffling Rs.4,440 and the second even less, only Rs.4,300. In both cases the main cost, more than a third of the total, was on the public address system. (But even Steve Jobs could not have got the audio done in Rs.1,500). The pandal top cost just Rs.200, hired sofas cost the same and Mr. Chavan spent no more than Rs.1,000 on setting up the stage”.

The PCI’s paid news report was watered down to around 12 pages, from the original 71, on protests by the worst offenders involved in the syndrome. Each time the issue of accountability is raised with the MSM the endless fountain of screams about “freedom of press” or “self-regulation” flow as a torrent. It is, therefore, amazing that the CEC or any sensible body rely on the media to report violations or instances of paid news. Oh yeah, they will depending on which side of the political spectrum they are on.

Apart from the paid news syndrome, Radiagate has exposed beyond any doubt that MSM is into far greater misdeeds than just paid news. It is actively involved in political power broking, planting stories on the whims of such brokers. It’s not news and analysis anymore. The last Sunday (Oct 9) edition of ‘We the poodles’ on NDTV ran a debate on the Telengana issue. Among others, one of the key elements of the discussion was what “muslims want”! More than politicians it is the media crooks who are constantly immersed in discussions deciding what is secular, what is communal, what is hate-speech and what is justice or miscarriage of it. The media divides society a lot more than politicians do. The media is far more corrupt than the politicians we keep rapping for it. It is hard to imagine how a company like NDTV still operates despite consistent losses over the years. Since the issue, its share price has constantly gone down. I imagine the financial intrigues of many other media outlets would make sorry reading if thoroughly investigated. And that is good reason to bring the media too under the RTI and the Lokpal.

The slant and biased reporting is now becoming more obvious to people at large thanks to social networks. Can’t call them watchdogs anymore, just Poodles would do!

CEC: Media As Friend & Ally In Elections - March 11,2011

What is wrong with other people? Don’t they matter? The people are your biggest eyes and ears if ever you needed a watchdog. Across the world people are now realising that the mainstream media is a self-serving lapdog and is not a watchdog for anyone. Just as an honest politician is hard to find these days, it is just as hard to find honest media outfits or honest journalists. The honest are the rare exceptions. Here’s what Chief Election Commissioner, S.M. Quraishi, is reported to have said:

....and they can watch over elections?

From the WSJ: India’s Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi on Tuesday asked the media to play the role of watchdog by reporting any violation of the code of the conduct by political parties or candidates in upcoming state assembly elections. Five states – Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal... “We see the media as our ally and friend in the elections. We will see through your eyes.” Mr. Quraishi said that media reports about malpractice and violations would be treated as formal complaints and would be taken up by the Election Commission. But while giving the media the responsibility of ensuring fair conduct during the polls, the Election Commission has also tried to ensure that the phenomenon of “paid news” – one that escalates during election time – is curbed. It has called for the setting up of “district-level media watch committees” comprising “a senior journalist nominated by the Press Council of India” to monitor any instances where the media charge candidates or parties for favorable coverage or for avoiding unfavorable coverage. So while the media will be watching the elections, it will also be watching itself. The debate around “paid news” caused a furore during the national elections in 2009. The Press Council of India later issued a report on regulating and curbing paid news. The council oversees media practices and strives to improve media standards. The report, made public in August 2010, had also recommended amending the electoral laws to make “paid news a punishable electoral malpractice.” The Election Commission has now also said that candidates or parties found paying for news will be punished and will have to bear the cost of the paid news in their election expenditure. But the phenomenon is one that has been difficult to weed out.

Just as it is unfair to tarnish all politicians with the same brush it is equally unfair to tarnish the entire media as well. There are still many honest journalists and mediapersons. Just who will get to pick the ‘district-level media watch committees’? In case the CEC is unaware or has forgotten,  in states like Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala the politicians themselves own the TV channels and much of the print media. The DMK’s TV channel is currently embroiled in links to various scams. So who will be the ‘district-level’ watchdogs? Say, someone like Kashmir interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar? Or a Barkha Dutt? A Prannoy Roy maybe, or even a Vinod Sharma? As for the Press Council’s report on ‘paid news’ one of the authors, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, himself is on record stating that the report was ‘watered-down’. The media today is not ‘independent’ as we knew it. The corporate media should not be treated as the ‘Press’ anymore but just as any other business entity. Therefore, Mr.CEC, this is what you need to do:

1.   Appoint a body of people from various walks of life with impeccable credibility and integrity to act as the watchdogs. Avoid including any media person.

2.   You can even hire reputed firms who regularly conduct surveys of all kinds (like Nielsen, Gallup for example) to take an ‘audit-like’ approach to keeping a watch on malpractices.

3.   Put up a page on your website where people themselves can lodge complaints about mal-practices. Sure, you are likely to have plenty of complaints but your auditors can do the job of scrutinising these.

Recent events have only helped to consolidate the suspicion of the media being a lapdog. Till such time there are serious rules that deliver punishment to erring media entities and persons they cannot be anybody’s watchdog. The Press Councils and the Advertising Councils and Editors’ Guilds are all coffee-shop organisations with neither power nor the willingness to reform themselves. People don’t trust the media Mr.CEC, why should you? With all the resources at your disposal I am sure you can find better watchdogs.

SC Exposes Media's Clean Shit

In 1999, after losing a no-confidence motion by one vote, the BJP+NDAcame back to power after mid-term polls. It was a result that no doubt shocked the Congress and its ‘secular’ allies. The BJP victory was probably also helped by the Kargil war. That war produced a new media hero of sorts – Barkha Dutt. The StarNews team of Prannoy Roy, Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai had gained prominence during that time. People still believed what the media said. Then came Kandahar. The extra-ordinary hysteria and emotions that the trio whipped up during the hijack drama on TV was unbelievable. Relatives of the hostages were flung on to the screens. The distress, chest-beating, wailing and abusing of the minsters was a precursor of sorts. Some of us suspected that the media was not doing this on their own. There are still suspicions that many of the relatives of the hijack victims were instigated by both the Congress and the Left and the media to humiliate the NDA with abundant aid from this media trio. So even today after every terror attack Kandahar creeps into discussions. That episode was the one where paid media started to go downhill.

On the morning of March 1, 2002 if you had walked the streets of the relatively posh western parts of Ahmedabad you wouldn’t believe what had happened while you were sleeping. You could see shops and restaurants that were burned overnight. All these shops had such names – Bhagyoday, Kabir, National and so on – all belonged to muslims, and this was a predominantly Hindu area. While there was property damage there was no report of people being killed in the area. Even residents of Ahmedabad had no idea of the scale of the riots that were going on. And then suddenly on the scene bursts Barkha Dutt and then Rajdeep Sardesai (both with Starnews then) and some more.

Hour after hour after hour we hear the most horrific stories of mass killings all over the state. In cities, towns, villages and even on highways. Words like mass murder, genocide, pogrom start to gain currency in some quarters. Were there terrible killings? You bet, some of it very horrible. But the kind of dramatic and hysterical reporting on TV was no more news reporting. It was almost fanning the flames. So much so that in some areas some TV channels had to be shut down to contain the provocation. As in the case of war, even in an unfortunate communal riot such as this, ‘truth’ is the first casualty. The numbers-killed story was generously sprinkled with imagination of people being raped, foetuses ripped and more by the media. I can safely say that the response to the Godhra train burning was spontaneous. The Gulbarg case which has become prominent because of the widow of Ehsan Jafri, killed by mobs, were attacks by mobs that would have been difficult to handle by any police force given that many other parts of Ahmedabad were equally badly affected. For all this to make one man singularly responsible could not have been anything but an agenda driven media. This agenda had to be surely backed by political forces and extraordinary influx of funds. This is where the witch hunt of Narendra Modi started. Lies, lies and more lies have been peddled by the media since then. The best example is of Suzanne Arundhati Roy who oozed brilliant lies.

Writing about the Gujarat riots, Suzy Roy had this to say (Outlook, May 6,2002).

A mob surrounded the house of ex-Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri. His phone calls to the director-general of police, the police commissioner, the chief secretary, the additional chief secretary (home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burnt them alive. Then they beheaded Jaffri and dismembered him.

The description is graphic; the veracity of the incident taken almost for granted coming from a writer of Arundhati Roy's reputation. But, alas, that's where we make the mistake. Fame and honesty are not interlinked as the following paragraph clearly indicates.

Jaffri was killed in the riots but his daughters were neither 'stripped' nor 'burnt alive.' T.A. Jafri, his son, in a front-page interview titled Nobody knew my father's house was the target (Asian Age, May 2, Delhi edition), says, "among my brothers and sisters, I am the only one living in India. And I am the eldest in the family. My sister and brother live in the US. I am 40 years old and I have been born and brought up in Ahmedabad. So if Ehsan Jaffri had only one daughter (singular) who was safe and sound in the US, where did Roy get her facts about not one, but daughters (plural) being stripped and burnt? Was it the fantasy of a writer's mind? Or was it willful deceit aimed at maligning her ideological adversaries?

Arundhati Roy did apologise for her mistake in a letter published in Outlook May 27, 2002. Could this have been a genuine mistake, one is tempted to ask? But when such 'mistakes' occur periodically, the chances of them being accidental appear remote. They appear to be in fact calculated machinations aimed at achieving a specific goal as the following incident further proves. In the same article, Roy claims.

"Last night a friend from Baroda called. Weeping. It took her fifteen minutes to tell me what the matter was. It wasn't very complicated. Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had been caught by a mob. Only that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed with burning rags. Only that after she died, someone carved 'OM' on her forehead."

Disturbed by the thought of such a ghastly act, Balbir Punj (a BJP MP) had this matter investigated. In Outlook (Jul 08, 2002) he wrote. Shocked by this despicable 'incident,' I got in touch with the Gujarat Government. The police investigations revealed that no such case, involving someone called Sayeeda, had been reported either in urban or rural Baroda. Subsequently, the police sought Roy's help to identify the victim and seek access to witnesses who could lead them to those guilty of this crime. But the police got no cooperation. Instead, Roy, through her lawyer, replied that the police had no power to issue summons. Why is she hedging behind technical excuses? So when asked to prove her allegations, Arundhati Roy developed cold feet; definitely not the attitude of a crusader for truth.

Despite the lies being exposed, Suzy Roy continues to be hosted as a crusader by our media. For such absolutely blatant and deliberate lies no journalist would have survived in any mature and honest media. Such liars can expect to grow in the Indian media. On TV Rajdeep and Barkha continued their blitzkrieg against Modi, while the likes of Vir Sanghvi called him a ‘mass murderer’ in print. I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that the degeneration of TV news owes a great debt to both Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai. You could call them the leaders of the moral decay.

Now, after the riots calmed, out of nowhere came up another crusader. Someone called Teesta Setalvad, I had never heard of her before, she arrives on the scene with her NGO called Citizens for Justice and Peace. This NGO was created in April 2002, according to their website, to fight for justice for the riot victims. Hmmm! Suddenly, there was a flurry of affidavits being filed in the courts supported by Teesta’s group, flurry of FIRs being filed, complaints of lack of facilities at refugee camps. All this seemed noble till Teesta started appearing more often on TV channels. By now the newly born NDTV, CNN-IBN were already neck deep in targeting Narendra Modi at every opportunity. The discussions shifted from justice for the victims to singularly implicate Modi and somehow hang him. The Zahira case, the Best Bakery case, shifting of cases outside Gujarat, were all systematic effort at tarnishing Modi’s image and implying there can be no justice in Gujarat. Mind you, not one of these channels or journalists ever talked about justice for those who were burned to death on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra. Never mind!

Modi had then won the elections in December 2002. This was another blow to the media and the Congress. So later, Teesta and her cronies approach the Supreme Court and the SC also sets up an SIT to investigate. This year around 30 people are convicted for the Godhra killing of Hindu Kar sevaks. Contrary to expectations of the media and the Congress the SIT nails the lies of Teesta Setalvad and exposes her fake affidavits. Many witnesses back out from their original affidavit or testimony. In 2007, suddenly, Mrs.Zakia Jafri, widow of Ehsan Jafri finds evidence that some 60 officers of the state, including Narendra Modi, had conspired to engineer the riots and have her husband killed. This had to be the strangest concoction of a theory that came years after the investigation into the riots had started. The Gujarat High Court did not accept her petition finding no merit in it. That is how the Gulbarg case landed in the Supreme Court. Needless to say, her petition was obviously backed by Teesta Setalvad.

Despite the literary classic of ‘Maut ka Saudagar’ used by Sonia Gandhi, BJP wins the election again in 2007. As in the case of Suzy Roy, the media continued to host the tainted Teesta on their shows to support the malicious campaign against Narendra Modi. In the course of time Gujarat started gaining prominence because of development, investments and universal recognition of Narendra Modi’s performance on governance. So what happens? The Congress throws up a new hero, Sanjiv Bhatt, and more affidavits are filed in the SC.

Two of the prominent campaigners against Narendra Modi, Teesta Setalvadand Harsh Mander, go on to to a stage where they get to influence national policies and laws. They become part of a team, the NAC, that would draft the viciousCommunal Violence Bill. Every step of the way these voices, along with nation-dividers like Digvijay Singh were given the biggest space in the media. If anyone remotely appreciated or associated with the work of Narendra Modi they were ripped apart. Ghulam Vastanvi and Amitabh Bachchan were fair targets for the Congress and the media.

The vicious anti-Modi industry is a mixed bag of media crooks, NGOs and politicians. A heady cocktail if you like and the only thing we don’t know about these liars is who funds them and to what extent they were funded. The misdeeds of the ‘cash-for-votes’ scam exposed Rajdeep Sardesai for what he is. But the final evidence of Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi being well entrenched in Congress persuasions was exposed by Radiagate. There was no place left to hide.

What the media did not anticipate in 2002 was another form of media. In 2002 the internet was just about growing in India, mobile phones usage was going up. There was no Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. The law takes time to catch up, but the social media doesn’t. In the absence of social network there was really no challenge to the corrupt media. The Congress was in power and they had a field day. Rajdeep, Barkha, Sagarika, Vir Sangvi, Prannoy Roy had established themselves as the most powerful force after the govt. One should recall a prominent editor once boasting that he “was the second most powerful man in India after the PM”. Naturally, the media believed the case against Narendra Modi was already rested. They had signed, sealed and delivered the judgement. He was guilty, he was a mass murderer and should be put away. The advent of the social network was a challenge the mainstream media did not calculate. Writers, bloggers, websites, tweeters, youtubers all started exposing the lies of the media.

The make-up and mask of Chachi 420 wasn’t meant to last forever. Like bad make-up, the media’s lies came crashing on September 12, 2011. The Supreme Court simply directed Zakia Jaffri to approach the lower court with her petition. Effectively, there was no significant evidence in her petition to pronounce any indictment of Modi or to warrant a probe against him by the SC. The SC also informed that it would not monitor the case further. The media crooks didn’t know which way to look. All the years of carefully crafted hate, lie-mongering had come undone in a single stroke. So, as in the case of many other verdicts, the media now even questions the wisdom of learned judges of the SC.

The media’s campaign against Modi shouldn’t be seen as a stand-alone case. The cottage industry of hatred has coloured every national issue. Be it terrorism, riots, communal harmony, civil rights. In all cases the media has mostly been on the wrong side of justice. Suddenly, new terms were being searched for  “clean-chit”, “relief”, “breather” to describe the SC verdict on Modi. And just as they called the Ayodhya verdict a “panchayat” judgement this time the crooks called the SC verdict overlooking the “moral” aspect of the Modi issue. So when a media campaign fails the legal measure, they invoke the moral measure.

Politicians in India are not reputed to have great moral standards. It’s the media that has become the gutter and the drain. That tainted journalists like Barkha Dutt continue in their jobs is a feature you may not find in the media of any other democracy. The ones who should be accused and found guilty of moral failure and more are Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, Vir Sanghvi, Suzy Roy and many more. The list is too long. The bigger danger is that there could be darker forces funding and handling a media that never fails to honk its independence. Next time any of these media celebs talk about morals, imagine them naked and see how full of shit they are.

From Kandahar to 26/11, from 1984 to 2002, from Ayodhya to Ahmedabad, I maintain that the current media is the greatest danger to Indian democracy. I don’t think Modi is debating whether it’s a clean chit or not. But the Supreme Court of India has clearly exposed the media’s clean shit.

The Rating Game

Another weekend and we have another Friday blogbuster from RajdeepSardesai. This time it’s about the plight of Irom Sharmila and her 11-year old fast against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). This time, his lament is why Anna Hazare got all the attention and Sharmila didn’t. I usually help Rajdeep rehash his articles, because he's a favourite of mine, but this time I will let it pass. Though there are many holes in his latest article I am for anything that can help Sharmila end her fast and fight for her cause in a different manner. Right now, it’s the battle of TRPs that the media is engaged in with advertisers that is not on front pages or on our screens.

Okay, this was a headline on a news channel today morning (either Headlines Today or CNN-IBN) ‘Kareena Kapoor with all three Khans in a row’. Would any bright intellectual ever explain to me what exactly that is supposed to mean? Why in heavens are news channels more and more like ZoomTV or ImagineTV? It appears the only thing that drives news channels is a terror strike, an Anna type movement or fierce political battles. Their main programming is made up of cricket, Bollywood, cheap thrills, cars and gadgets, Hindu-bashing and if after all that, they find some time, there is news. And they'd even like to think they are the ones mostly making it. On most channels there are no serious documentaries or any serious investigations. The now extinct ‘News of the world’ and that dead dodo ‘Illustrated Weekly’ would be proud of our news channels any day. Kushwant Singh would applaud what our news channels have become. Mindless banter by the fair and lovely manly crowd of Kanwal, Rajdeep, Arnab and the extinct Prannoy! Oh, that includes the ladies too! This is where Rajdeep Sardesai came in lately. TRPs!

Television Audience Measurement (TAM) releases TRPs every week. Now, Rajdeep leads the chorus that wants them to release the ratings monthly and not weekly while advertisers want it weekly, as it currently is. Wait, advertisers even ask: why not every day? The ratings for TV channels are given in time bands from morning till prime time. In case you haven’t looked at the ratings, I recommend you just take a casual look. Mind you, the TAM ratings aren’t released publicly but only to members, who in turn use it to claim superiority in one segment or the other. You might get to see those TRPs as they get slightly dated and not before. As ordinary viewers you and I are not normally concerned about these ratings but for TV channels and advertisers these are their Bibles and Korans. They swear, live and die by it, after they have paid for it.

The recent Anna Hazare movement had TimesNow taking up the cause against govt so strongly that it had other channels playing catch-up. TimesNow took pole position like Demi Moore in Striptease, sort of! Now, Rajdeep and others contend that the weekly ratings negatively affect content on TV. Oh yeah? So if your news content is bad you throw up a Kareena Kapoor and a Khan because the ratings are bad? Yes, indeed! That is pretty much the strategy of all news channels. Saas Bahu, Bhoot Pret, Cuckoo on the couch, Flashback Bollywood, Total Recall – all these are supposed to be worthy of news channels?

“Have you noticed how news channels are getting more and more breathless in their coverage of the news? How anchors tend to shout rather than speak? How every bit of news, no matter how mundane, is deemed worthy of a Breaking News headline? And how sensation is increasingly replacing the sort of thing that used to be regarded as news?” That’s not me. That is one time Radiagate hero Vir Sanghvi writing on his website Counterpoint. I am tempted to ask Vir Sanghvi what he did when he used to be on TV. At best I could call his shows gentle massaging while you snoozed. And I am being kind really. But let it be!

Let’s hear some more from Vir Sanghvi: Currently, the news channels and the advertising industry are locked in a fierce battle over ratings. The news channels say that the current system in which ratings are declared every week is bad. It should be replaced by a system where such ratings are announced only once a month. Nonsense, say advertisers. We are in the business of spending the money our clients give us wisely. We need information that is accurate and up-to-date. In an ideal world, we would like ratings that are instantaneous. At the very least we would prefer the current system of weekly ratings that allows us to judge how well a show is doing. Why should we have to wait a month to find this out?

Let me not bore you with Vir Sanghvi. The larger principle is pretty clear. In the recent discussions about a CAG report damning Air India, every channel had conducted an inquisition on Praful Patel with severe questioning. Not one, I repeat not one channel dared mention the other report on the Reliancescam relating to the KG Basin scam. Why would they? Just as ordinary citizens that they accuse of politician-bashing,  the news channels derive the same TRPs by politician-bashing. After all why would they bite the hand that feeds them? Right? And then, would an interview or screwing some lame executive from Reliance get them the same TRP? In both cases, Praful Patel and Reliance, the end result would have been denial, denial, denial! Given that end result in mind who would the channels pimp with? That’s simply a business decision and not a ‘news’ decision’! That’s the rating game.

Reliance, of course, is a stake holder in some of the news channels. Reliance is also a major advertiser on all the channels in India. So the crimes of Reliance can pass, but Praful Patel, like other politicians, is fair game for our news channels. Anna Hazare knew that pretty well. So, when Rajdeep Sardesai wonders why Irom Sharmila doesn’t get the same media attention he makes the same mistake most journalistic cub idiots make. Corruption is more identifiable with politicians than with the army. That is why the rating game prevents news channels from the issues of Irom Sharmila. The news channels are as corrupt as the political class. Try and figure this – IndiaTV for all the ridicule that is heaped on it for its ‘Bhooth preth, Karma, Punar Jamn’ stories could still be business-wise the most profitable one. If your game is getting eyeballs, real news and truth is not about catching the criminals by their balls. I doubt anyone would pay to see Rajdeep Sardesai in the nude on TV, but hey, make no mistake, if Poonam Pandey makes that announcement - that would break a lot of eyeballs wouldn't it?

So it’s neither about truth nor about news, it is just about the rating game. Our news channels just want to ensure that they remain sexy and attractive for their paymasters. Where do we, the viewers, come in? Go figure!

Dirty Govt, Dirty Media

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to set up a group to deal with issues concerning the accountability and regulation of media has raised the Opposition's hackles, says a report from TOI. The govt wants to control the media, the internet, tap phones. All dangerous signs. Govt wants media to be also brought under Lokpal. The govt seems obviously rattled by the excessive media coverage of the Anna Hazare drama which more or less painted the govt as villain. But that’s the nature of the beast. The news media has long been indulging in excessive and tasteless broadcasting and for a change had to be forced to be on the side of a popular movement. In all the other times most news media outlets have been spokespersons for the Congress and the govt. Do the media need regulation and accountability? Definitely yes, but govt may not be the right body for it.

The media will find it extremely difficult to pull itself out of the paid news syndrome. If normal competition, normal business practices were to be adhered to then some media outlets would have to quickly wind up. In fact, some of them like NDTV should have wound up long back. What does it say when there is a blog titled ‘Don’t trust the Indian media’? Some statistics reported from that blog by FirstPost support the loss of credibility of mainstream media:

“…… newspapers are ranked higher than other media in terms of credible news with people trusting newspapers more than any other medium: 38 percent of the Indians polled trusted radio and television, while 40 percent trusted news in newspapers. Over the past two years, trust in television news dropped sharply from 61 percent to 36 percent, that of business magazines has gone down from 72 percent to 47 percent, and that of newspapers has gone down from 61 percent to 40 percent. Trust in the media in India as a whole declined by 7 percent (from 65 percent in 2009 to 58 percent in 2010)…The trend continues; trust in media has further declined from 58 percent in 2010 to 50 percent in the 2011 Edelman study.” That seems absolutely believable.

Channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN and their Hindi versions have become extremely bad examples of going over the top to set agendas that are biased in favour of a political party. The bias is not even subtle anymore. A report in Moneylife about NDTV would make one wonder at the miraculous manner in which the company manages to stay afloat:

“NDTV got listed in 2004 and is trading below its listed price after seven years. It has given a negative return of 19% compounded in the past five years and a total shareholder return (TSR) of negative 66% for the same period. Its viewership claims, like those of all TV channels, are impossible to verify. Its credibility is at a nadir (after the recent phone-tapping controversy) and its finances are in a mess. NDTV has rarely made money from operations. For the past few years, its consolidated operations have been making cash losses and it has been running on money made by selling loss-making subsidiaries to strategic investors…… Indeed, every few months, the financially-beleaguered NDTV manages to get ‘strategic’ investors with deep pockets and top-flight private equity investors to step in and pick up big chunks of its equity at fancy valuations.”

There’s a recent revelation about Bill Gates’ Foundation having donated over $800,000 to NDTV to promote awareness on maternal health. Reporting on maternal health or creating documentaries on various issues would be regular business for a news channel. Even if money was to support such efforts, normal sponsorship methods are available. Having received such a huge donation from Bill Gates can one expect NDTV to ever report any adverse report about the foundation or Microsoft? This is also true for business channels and business journals. They are unlikely to ever report misdeeds or wrong-doings of the very business houses that they depend on financially. News channels are nothing more than PR outlets for select Bollywood companies or fashion and mostly for the govt. I wonder where in the world you would find shows like ‘saas, bahu, beti’ on news channels except Starnews, AajTak and the like. And all the national debates are with usual suspects – the few 30 odd people you will find any day or night on every other channel. The media never thought it could be manipulated so thoroughly by Team Anna.

The Press Council of India is a statutory body created for the very reason why govt seeks accountability but has left the regulation to the press itself. There is a newer National Broadcaster’s Association dealing with TV channels. The problem with both these bodies is that they are largely toothless. The PCI actually softened their report on paid news a year back. If you check out the names on the board of directors of the NBA they belong to the very gang that is accused of the offences. Hardly any newspaper or TV channel has an Ombudsman to talk about. However, the Govt’s fear and desire to control media is another unwanted evil. Except for giant media organisations like the TOI almost all other media outlets depend heavily on govt spending on advertising and campaigns and therefore are already under some govt influence.

There is certainly one thing that PM Manmohan Singh can do. He can stop accepting sham awards like ‘Indian of the year’ from channels like NDTV. He can also call for an all-party meet to have a moral policy that politicians do not accept awards from media houses during their active political life. The govt should also not dish out awards to media personalities during their active career unless there is really a very exceptional case. The govt has lost as much credibility as the media has. The Lokpal movement is not just one of grievance redress but one that seeks bodies like CBI, CVC etc. to be autonomous and out of govt control. Why, then, should anyone desire govt intervention in any form in the media? The Lokpal is also a redress system and not one of oversight. The media needs an oversight body.

The problem lies in media houses being regular business units just as any other business unit now and still enjoying extraordinary privileges. It definitely needs a watchdog but certainly not one that involves govt or people from the media themselves. The watchdog has to be an independent and autonomous body with adequate powers. Both PCI and NBA or toothless bodies by the very people who are offenders. In the current scenario both, the govt and the media, are dirty. They are incapable of being a watchdog for the other. However, an independent agency as watchdog for the media is inevitable.

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Fai Accompli For Mediacrooks

Throughout the evening on July 19 most Indian news channels were live with the British Parliament hearings of the NOTW-Murdoch phone hacking scandal. Some even had expert panellists to comment on the proceedings. The NOTW scandal isn’t about just phone hacking but also about bribing police officials, nepotism in recruitment and the connection of journalists with top politicians of the UK. Our media celebrities then went on a discourse on media ethics. If anything, the corrupt media in India is far worse than the one in Britain. Out there someone did expose the corrupt practices but here in India the media follows the Rajdeep Sardesai ethic of “Hammam Mein Sab Nange Hain”!

So enamoured with the hearings was one media celebrity that she sent out this tweet:

BDUTT barkha dutt

Could India ever hope for such a transparent and civilised inquisition as the one unfolding in UK right now. That would be the day.

July 19

Yes indeed! That would be the day! But prior to that NDTV needs to hold a mirror to itself. This is the channel whose most prominent media celebrity, Barkha Dutt, was in the midst of the Nira Radia scam and is accused of power-brokering. NDTV’s muddled financial dealings were also exposed by The Sunday Guardian. NDTV is also the channel whose head, Prannoy Roy, is accused of being let of by CBI. NDTV is also the channel whose journalist, Sunetra Choudhury, is on leave from 13^th July. Sunetra Choudhury had to write an article in the DNA newspaper about a top UPA politician insulting her modesty with sexual innuendos. Yeah, this is the NDTV that wouldn’t stand up for its own journalist and put that politician in the dock. Barkha Dutt should have been fired long back and NDTV should have shut down by now. A prominent financial news journalist wonders how the loss making NDTV continues to receive funding. “Transparency and civilised inquisition”, Indeed!

As a wag puts it:  “Act like Rebekah Brooks and talk like Mother Theresa”!

It doesn’t stop there. As if in a divine turn of events the Cash-for-votes scam has surfaced again due to court intervention. Some key players have been arrested and all roads seem to be leading to Amar Singh. He is, of course, the media’s once favourite politician who sang songs on NDTV. The sting operation tapes which CNN-IBN had were not aired in July 2008 before the parliament voted on the no-confidence motion. There was tall talk of ethics by Rajdeep Sardesai then. Dirty politics and politicians would have been exposed and the course of the nation could have been altered. Now, Rajdeep of the ‘Hammam...’ fame claims credit for the sting and expose. There was no expose because the tapes were not aired but were suppressed for reasons best known to Rajdeep Sardesai. He is the guy on July 19 during the UK parliament hearings who stated “Indian media doesn’t have such tabloid culture”! No, Indian media has worse. Many of our media celebrities are pawns of politicians and practically political players themselves. The media exists to curb abuse of power but in India the major players have themselves joined the party.

Corruption and Corrupt politicians exist and thrive because of corrupt media. The media silence on Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Robert Vadhera, Sahara group, Paid news, Reliance group and many such issues get successfully covered up due to a compliant media. For these celebrities to talk about ethics following the UK hearings is a terrible joke. If anything people like Rajdeep Sardesai and Rahul Kanwal have actually cut off people who even want to talk about the corruption by Sonia Gandhi and the Gandhi family. Besides these channels are too busy doing the Bollywood nonsense with every week’s new releases and their actors and directors. Let’s also not forget they are also into kitchens, couches, nights out, saas-bahu and so on. Real news and real reporting is like a part-time lover.

As if all that wasn’t enough out comes the news of the arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai of Kashmir American Council. He’s the guy who had many sympathisers of Kashmir Azaadi from India at various conferences and meetings. Journalists, politicians, humanitarians have been involved with him. Among names associated with him at some time and in some way or the other that are coming out are Kuldip Nayar, Rajinder Sachar, Arundhati Roy, Dileep Padgaonkar and the list may be longer. Turns out for over two decades Fai’s organisation was being funded by the ISI of Pakistan.

Indian media is not all corrupt. But the ones that are corrupt are not just hand-in-glove with corrupt politicians but may even turn out to be unwittingly assisting anti-national elements like Ghulam Nabi Fai.

Shall we say – Fai Accompli, mediacrooks?