A week has gone by, but MSM is yet to cover the story in a major concerted manner, though opinion pieces have begun emerging both in India and outside. I have begun compiling a list of all pieces in the MSM, here. Do add to the list.

On the Radia Tapes,  I have been listening to a tape MP3  a day. They are the most entertaining listening in the media right now. No reality television can come close. This is pure unscripted reality – hear your jaw drop as a senior journo calls a business magnate a harami, or hear the take on ‘teaching a lesson’ to a leading society columnist, or hear about a sort of ‘mutual fund’ for spouses of journalists, or appreciate water cooler conversations on the wheeling and dealing in Delhi , or have the alleged sex life of MP’s being tossed around as garnishing. There is this complete feeling of voyeurism. The tapes are an interesting study on how Delhi works. It may, at the end of the day be just name dropping, but it is that entire heady feeling of power intoxication – albeit through  osmosis – that comes through in the tapes ….

The magazine that broke the story last week,  The Open Magazine, has followed up this week with a set of finely written opinion pieces, one by their editor Manu Joseph and the other by their political editor Hartosh Singh Bal, on the Radia Tapes, the role of journalists, why they chose to expose the story and what is their stand on the issue. Both are worth reading.  Open has also published an excerpt of Arnab Goswami’s (alleged)  letter to his staff that reassures me that there are people with a sense of integrity that is binary and not fuzzy …

‘Colleagues,There has been news about two senior journalists from other media groups being involved in collaborating with corporate lobbyists and corporate groups on the 2G scam issue. This is a low point in the news business. It’s downright shameful. I am writing to reiterate some of the core values of the group and the channel. We believe in fierce editorial independence and complete personal honesty. Our standards have to remain impeccably high. In your interactions at any level, remember that you are ambassadors of India’s number one news channel. In an earlier edit meeting, I have said that even a pass into a stadium that’s accepted free amounts to being compromised, and today I am writing to reassert that. No gifts, no favours, no lobbying, no free dining and wining, no cash, no kind, no pass, no trip, no holiday, no promise, no passes, no special treatment, no tall or short claims, no disrespect to the organization that you represent and the group that we are all a part of, no loose talk, no flexibility on values, will be accepted. If I hear of any, we will come down hard, and no exceptions will be made…—Arnab’

If the writer is Arnab, then the  channel in question is Times Now, and the larger organisation is Bennet and Coleman which also runs Times of India, ET, Zoom

To, those at Open Magazine (if you, by chance, stumble upon this blog, my mother has decreed a subscription to you magazine. I thought the action was quaint and old world — but she is 70 🙂