Indian Express & Shashi Tharoor - is it Personal ?

India 22 Responses »
Sep 182009

I really don’t believe in too many conspiracy theories. This entire idea that various systems might be conspiring to get an individual out seems kind of far fetched.

But, in the recent past I have been questioning why the Indian Express has taken it upon it self to target Shashi Tharoor – the minister for external affairs ? Has Mr.Tharoor offended someone in the IE or is the IE working on someone else’s behalf to discredit Mr. Tharoor – because front page attention on, what can be most charitably described as trivialities, seems like an orchestrated witch hunt .

It started with the IE “exposing” the fact that Tharoor and his boss, SM Krishna, were staying in 5 star luxury.

Austere Ministers: Krishna at Maurya, Tharoor at Taj - screamed the headline, and when you read the article closely it tuns out that it was two rich ministers paying for their own comforts.

For over three months now, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is at ITC’s Maurya on Sardar Patel Marg and his junior Shashi Tharoor at Hotel Taj Mahal on Man Singh Road. Both pay their own bills but neither of them — nor the hotels — say how much they have paid so far.

According to their poll affidavits, Krishna has assets worth Rs 18 crore and Tharoor Rs 15 crore.

Why is someone spending their own money is news is beyond me – if it was Tax payer’s money I would understand – but their own money seemed kind of inexplicable.

It followed up the story the next day, with Tharoor needs Taj for gym, privacy — and a govt-funded Iftaar today

The “gym and some privacy” keep Shashi Tharoor at a suite in the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi. On Wednesday, the Minister of State for External Affairs is hosting an Iftaar party from 6.15 pm at the Diwan-i-Aam of the hotel.

Invites have been sent out by the Ministry — the cards carry the national emblem, mention the MEA’s Protocol division and list its telephone numbers under RSVP.

tucked in at the end, is the line

“It has been a tradition to host an Iftaar party for envoys of the Gulf countries by the MoS in-charge during Ramzan, said sources. “

So the iftaar party is not for friends and family, but for envoys of countries that India has trade and commercial relations ! Official work, not personal.

Then, the following day was an item, that could be seen as further embarrassing External Affairs Ministers - Krishna, Shashi take note: How nine of your colleagues live

While External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor turned 5-star hotel suites into temporary homes, their nine colleagues, still waiting for official accommodation, settled for single rooms in state Bhawans and PSU guest houses in New Delhi

And then, was yesterday’s bit of pontificating

At these moments, affluence becomes unaesthetic. A display of an affluent lifestyle seems crass and indifferent, possessing a nouveau riche loudness that is difficult to take. It is a behaviour that demands immediate downsizing in a literal and symbolic sense. But Krishna and his deputy behaved like rich Rip Van Winkles, unaware that drought and recession had struck the land. It was a sense of arrogance and individualism that made them indifferent to the dialects of protest and pain in the bazaar of politics.

People should realize, that in times of recession, consumption helps. Instead of vilifying the ministers for spending their own money – maybe you should commend them for doing their patriotic duty to get the nation out of recession :)
And then, it pretty much continues in the same vein. What took the cake was this morning’s front page silliness in the Indian Express

Of course, Mr. Tharoor has not helped his cause by being smart on Twitter with Kanchan Gupta – Shooting your mouth off to journalists, on a public forum, – especially those with BJP affiliation -reeks of poor decision making. That ‘holy cow’ statement is possibly going to come back to haunt him.

But, that doesn’t take away from the fact that the IE seems to have their knives out for him. Today’s story, the one that prompted this post – is “Holy Cow! Tharoor’s OSD gives it back to his Boss’s party” – one more ‘Get Tharoor” story .

Jacob Joseph, Officer on Special Duty to the Minister of State for External Affairs, posted a picture of Tharoor asleep in an aircraft seat, with the caption “Shashi Tharoor in cattle class a month ago”.

Tharoor, currently on tour abroad, did not post any new tweets on Thursday. He last tweeted early September 16.

Jacob made public, or ‘re-tweeted’ (referred to as ‘RT’ on Twitter), comments made by other Twitter users that referred to Union ministers as “humorless twits”, and Congress spokesperson Natarajan as an example of the “outdated Indian political spokesman”.

incidentally, the minister did tweet yesterday:

Untitled-1

So, let me ask the obvious – is the Indian Express reverting to the shoot first, figure later mode of journalism that almost brought it to its knees. Or is this a one off hatchet job on a particular minister – if so why ?

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Posted by gargi at 10:02 am Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Manufacturing News, if not Consent !

Desi Pundit, India, Media, News, TV 11 Responses »
Aug 192009

The person i feel sorriest for in 24 hour news channels is the Sound Recordist. Having to hear our esteemed ‘news anchors’ screech their way through various issues – must deafen the strongest of ear drums.

Of all the news channels, there is none more screechy than CNN – IBN – i can hear it 2 rooms away – when my mother has it on in the hall. i keep wondering why they don’t use an audio limiter .

Over the weekend, they – like every other news channel – milked the SRK controversy for all it was worth, and the decibels were higher pitched than normal. Wall to wall discussions on a non-issue – with the view of boosting up their TRPS’. Nothing wrong in that – so long as we, the audience understand that they are in the business of making money -and take everything that they say with a bag of salt. They want higher TRPs because that means more money.

But, that is not the problem. The problem is hypocrisy. Look at todays’ blog by Sagarika Ghosh, No checks please, I’m a Bollywood star –

Perhaps the wonderfully talented Shah Rukh Khan, beloved of millions, should limit his superb skills to doing what he does best: making great movies and enhancing the silver screen. His lectures on geo-politics, America’s role in the world, security procedures and international diplomacy are a little bit hilarious. So you endured a bit of questioning at Newark because your baggage hadn’t arrived on time, Shah Rukh? So what? As Meghnad Desai said on Face The Nation, what’s the big deal? Be like APJ Abdul Kalam and just get on with it.

I take it that “Face the Nation” is a programme on their channel. and they get Meghnad Desai on – he btw is an Academic, Historian, Economist & widely read – to comment on this ????

Now, given that she and her fraternity & sorority – across news channels – had blanked coverage on this- made SRK into some sort of a martyr, and vilified some poor immigration clerk – i find it kind of absurd that she is trying to take the moral high ground by attacking Shah Rukh Khan. So, they are using him for two days to rail at the American system. And, then they are using him to rail against the Indian system. Manufacturing News if not Consent !

Maybe, Mr.Shah Rukh Khan – or any other celeb- ought to take the Paris Hilton route with news channels. You have used my image, and my name to make money – pay me ! Seriously.

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Posted by gargi at 11:00 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

24 Hour Infomercials ?

Desi Pundit, India, Media, News 27 Responses »
Aug 172009

At first, when my nani called me up to tell me that SRK was arrested in the USA – I thought that they had sent him to Gitmo ! Then i realised it was a 2 hour stop at the airport. I wonder how much airtime was spent on this – and to the exclusion of what ? and how much money did the “NEWS” channels make.

Take one bloated super star ego, mix a nation in the grip of paranoia ; stir in customs and immigration officers who think that they are god ; simmer with silly season ; add a dash of news channels with no ethics, and journalists who would sensationlise their mothers’ sex life if they thought it would get them better TRP’s – and bingo you get ‘……because My name is Khan’ kind of overkill.

The unkind say that this was publicity for the film. I don’t buy that – this sort of stupid serendipity cannot be paid for. It has to happen only when every body f***s up and the News media compound it by forgetting that they are the watchdogs on behalf of the public – and get co-opted by the ruling elite.

On the day Shahrukh Khan got detained for two hours — oh my god, how can someone stop SRK for two hours, hang them, quarter them; no quarter them, hang them — 21 farmers committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh because they couldn’t pay off their debt.

But, farmers committing suicide cannot be sponsored, it does not drive up TRP’s and it definitely is not conducive for off the cuff ranting by our esteemed ‘journalists’. (note: i use the term journalist very, very loosely, and I apologise to any real journalist who is offended at my comparing the lot on TV to them)

24 Hour Blogs – one can say – but that too,would be unkind. There a whole bunch of bloggers whom i follow and whose integrity and intent I respect – even if i differ with them on their views. There isn’t a single TV journalist I can put in the same category.

Since 26/11 I have stopped watching TV news – except for DD. I read papers – sometimes – but mostly I subscribe to various RSS feeds – including bloggers, columnists and news agencies – and I figure what is happening in the world. I get my updates from my mother or my grandmother – who are avid news watchers on the death and disaster and slap to ego that is happening in the world. I listen to them, much the same way that I do, when they tell me what is happening in their favorite soap :)

So if we can’t call really call them journalists, or news channels or even bloggers – then what are they? If you read this excellent piece in The HOOT you will realise that a whole bunch of them are putting out ‘NEWS’ that is not in Public Interest – as they claim – but in the interest of Interested Parties – that they have close commercial ties with. So 24 hour Infomercial Channels – is possibly what we ought to call them. They have the same repetition, the same music that drives you to action, the same kind of ‘we asked 30 people and they said’ mode of driving home their point. So, if they are in the pay of commercial interests and if they are putting out content in the interest of these commercial interests, shouldn’t they be regulated by some body ?

____________________________________________________________

Other Blogs with a different take on the same issue :
Churumuri on – Is an immigration clerk threat to our sovereignty?
Melissa George’s – Who is this Shahrukh Khan character anyway?
Prerna on My Name is Khan And Hence I was Detained
Shishir Joshi’s My Name is Khan…ummm…..er…so?
Reality Check India’s – We Are Not Outraged

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Posted by gargi at 12:53 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Losing the Plot - NDTV v/s individual blogger

Desi Pundit, India, Media, News, propaganda 23 Responses »
Jan 302009

I was telling someone the other day is that the saddest conclusion that i have reached is that the most honorable institution of them all is the Government.

Ultimately, no matter how venal, power mad, inept, or corrupt the are – sooner or later they are accountable and answerable to the people. They lose their jobs, retract their statements, are forced to back off from trampling our Constitutional rights. All we have to do is scream a bit … and they usually end up listening, especially if it is close to elections.

Amongst the insitutions that has rapidly lost my trust, espeically in the last two years, is the broadcast news media. Between the Prince episode, the Arushi Murder Case, running recorded footage with live bugs, with the 26/11 coverage – i have stopped watching TV news. I read magazines, i read newspapers and I read blogs.  I do these because i have far more faith in the credibility of those who write – than the credibility of those who produce and package news on TV.

When you begin to sell TRP’s instead of credible, reliable, non sensationalized content (remember words like journalism, ethics, reportage), then you are selling a product, and rules that apply to the rest of the world apply to you.  This includes getting product attributes criticized.

As a consumer if i tell you that i don’t like your product because  a part of it is screechy, emotional, inaccurate,  irresponsible and all over the place then maybe your job is to improve your offering instead of threatening to sue the customer for defamation.

The Ambanis didn’t sue the customer for laughing at Reliance Mobile 6 years ago, they fixed the service. Tata’s didn’t sue the customer for pillorying the Indica when it first launched. They made a better car (btw  i own an Indica Marina). Maybe, NDTV needs to introspect and figure why so many of its natural target audience found its reportage appalling. And, maybe they need to fix it.

And to those who took the call to threaten the individual with legal action:

Imagine  – if the Government behaved with you the way you are behaving over Chyetanya Kunte .Imagine your outrage, your self righteousness and your defence of the “Freedom of Expression. And then remember that media organizations enjoy the same ‘freedom of expression’ as individuals. There are no other separate provisions. And understand, that  in attacking our Rights you are destroying yours.

I feel sad that the journalistic  insitution built up by Prannoy Roy has come to this. Really, really sad.

Also read

Desi Pundit – the are running the story & reactions here

Blogbharati are running the story and reactions here

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Posted by gargi at 10:21 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Post 26/11 - Media Self Regulation

India 2 Responses »
Dec 182008

This announced today

Under the six-point guidelines framed by the umbrella body NBA (News Broadcasters Association), the channels shouldn’t be telecasting details of identity, number and status of hostages. Nor should they provide information of pending rescue operations or details on the number of security personnel involved or the methods employed by them.

The News Broadcasting Standards Disputes Redressal Authority, constituted by the NBA, today said television TV channels should avoid any “live contact with the victims or security personnel or other technical personnel involved or the perpetrators during the course of any incident.”

Addressing a press meet, Authority Chairman Justice JS Verma also said media should avoid “unnecessary repeated or continuous broadcast of archival footage that may tend to re-agitate the mind of the viewers. Archival footage, if shown, should clearly indicate ‘file’ and the date and time should be given where feasible.”

The Authority said “no live reporting should be made that facilitates publicity of any terrorist or militant outfit or its ideology or tends to evoke sympathy for the perpetrators or glamourises them or their cause or advances the illegal agenda or objectives of the perpetrators.”

The dead should also be treated with dignity and their visuals should not be shown. Special care should be taken in the broadcast of any distressing visuals and graphics showing grief and emotional scenes of victims and relatives which could cause distress to children and families.

At the outset, the Authority said all telecast of news relating to armed conflict, internal disturbance, communal violence, public disorder, crime and other similar situations should be tested on the touchstone of ‘public interest’.

Furthermore, the media had the responsibility to disseminate information which was factually accurate and objective.

more on indiantelevision.com

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Posted by gargi at 10:20 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Plagiarism 101

Media, Print 9 Responses »
May 312008

One of the most difficult parts of teaching is making sure that students get it into their heads that plagiarism is wrong.I am known to have thrown bitch fits when i have discovered chunks of projects from the net. ‘you will lose your job’ i tell them, ‘no one will hire you’, ‘it is stealing’ …….

But, at the back of my mind I know that – the message may not get through. After all this is a country where people attain success through blatant lifting of ideas, music, formats and other rights. There seems to be no penalty, only successes. Although recent cases give hope to the notion of ownership of copyright, the bulk of the times copyright is taken as the right to copy :(

So, it is hardly surprising that the Hindustan Times got the wrong definition of copyright when they used Nita’s picture without attribution, or permission or payment.

I wonder what i should tell my students the next time someone decides to pass on someone else’s work as their own ! It’s ok, the HT will hire you, it seems to be company policy !!

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Posted by gargi at 9:13 am Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Front Page Retractions ....

And Finally ..., India, Media, Print No Responses »
Apr 182008

…. are always fun (except for the newspaper concerned), but they take a life of their own when the newspaper masks the fact that it has been made an idiot, by taking the moral high ground….. 

What am I talking about…. well, it is about the famous Maliaka Arora and Arbaaz Khan break up reported in all its glory in the Mumbai Mirror yesterday.

One of the sultriest women in India is said to be single again. Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora's 10-year-old marriage has gone kaput. Buzz is Arbaaz has found a new love. The disintegration of one of the strongest marriages in Bollywood has sent shock waves through the industry.  ……Our well-placed source in the entertainment industry also tells us that Arbaaz will not remain single for long. He has already decided to remarry and even has a girl in mind, who is, incidentally, not from the entertainment industry. When contacted, Malaika refused to comment.

Arbaaz, however, said, "I don't want to comment on my personal life or on Malaika." When we asked him whether he's planning to remarry, he said, "Why is the press so impatient? They will know whether I'm remarrying or not in due time. I will probably talk about it soon. At this moment I don't want to say anything further

 However, this morning was the retraction masked in outrage… 'we have been made a fool…but how could they, we trusted them"

 Yesterday, on the front page of this newspaper we carried a story about Malaika Arora splitting up with her husband Arbaaz Khan. We were told by none other than Malaika herself that her husband was "remarrying".

There were many reasons why we thought the story deserved front-page treatment: Malaika Arora is a huge pin-up star and Arbaaz is a celebrity in his own right, and comes from one of film industry's most-respected families. In an environment where celebrity unions crumble faster than cookies the two, who have been married for 10 years and are parents of a five-year-old boy, offered a great example of a happy family unit in the face of relentless public scrutiny.

John Updike defined celebrity as a mask that eats into your face. Apparently it also chews up your integrity. It turns out that our story was false. Not for want of journalistic rigour on our part–the reporter did what any journalist sould do on receiving a tip-off– he called up both Malaika and Arbaaz for their versions. Both, through commission and omission, lied brazenly to the reporter

Why would anyone do something like that ? The answer is simple …

Both husband and wife had been contracted by a cosmetics company to launch a skin-care product, and the campaign, unveiled on Thursday night, revolved around Arbaaz playing Adonis to his wife's Aphrodite. They used the myth to renew their vows on stage, thus the sham of remarriage.

I am not sure whether the outrage is because the journalist got played for a fool (as did the paper) or whether it is because Medianet got left out of the deal……

If you are going to publish publicity as news, then expect those who want publicity to use your paper to their own end…. 

If you are going to lie down with the dogs, expect to catch a few fleas…. 

 I haven't had such a good laugh in years….:)

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Posted by gargi at 4:07 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

Indian News Media - where Los Angles is closer than Latur…..

India, Media 2 Responses »
Oct 302007

There are some stories that simply don’t make the news, while others more than make up for it in terms of volume……even though both may be in the same zone…..Let’s look at a few random examples:

  • Amitabh Bachchan’s house getting flooded is news, 1.3 million people in Bihar and Orissa losing their homes due to floods is not news
  • Prince Stuck at the bottom of a well is news, while a Dalit boy burnt alive for daring to pull water out of a well is not news
  • Gay people protesting in Australia is news, Landles marching to Delhi – in the largest march since Independence is not news.
  • The Sensex at 20,000 is news, companies laying off people due to the strengthening ruppee is not news.
  • Discrimination against Shipa Shetty is news, Discrimination against Muslims & Dalits is not news
  • Bobby Jindal is welcome news, Mayawati is not…..
  • And SRK on a high protien diet to get his six pack is news……… but, millions not having any diet to speak about is not news…

And, as India together puts it:

 

"43.7 Million People break Guinness World Record." This is surely the stuff of which headlines are made. Nearly 44 million is a lot of people. And both Indians in general and the media here in particular usually love Guinness records. According to a recent Associated Press feature, The Hindustan Times has run over 50 stories this year about bids for Guinness records, and it is still not far ahead of the competition. The latest to join the ranks of record-seekers – or, at least, to be reported in the press as considering the possibility – is the family of Raj Kapoor. Yet the record broken by 43.7 million people did not quite make it.

Perhaps the nature of the event was the spoiler. The 43,716,440 people who together (reportedly) broke the record were participating in approximately 6540 events in about 127 countries, organised to enable people to "Stand Up and Speak Out" against poverty over 24 hours spanning 16 and 17 October. But then again here was a relatively "happy" story – that so many millions are willing to express their concern about this serious problem is surely good news. Even though the media today have a preference for upbeat stories, this one obviously didn’t have what it takes.

There is a wold that does not exist as far as journalists are concerned…. This level of blindness to a whole section of India is not just editorial mandate, it is also, at a certain very basic level, journalistic ineptitude. For a lot of young journalists who work in the metros – the villages are somewhere else, Independence happened somewhere else, and caste system does not exist. 

 

Maybe newspapers and news magazines ought to spend some of their money on training their personnel on the basics of India.

I would probably start a lesson by telling them that India is in South Asia and its London and New York are not its districts next to . Noida and Vashi

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Posted by gargi at 7:40 am Tagged with: , , , ,

Show Cause - Live India TV

India, Media, TV No Responses »
Sep 132007

This from IndianTelevision.com

Live India, which ran into controversy after telecasting a sting operation that was subsequently declared as fake, has been issued a showcause notice by the information and broadcasting ministry. "A notice has been issued to the channel to show cause why its licence and permission to uplink should not be withdrawn for carrying out a fake sting and violating the Programme Code as well as the regulations under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995," confirms a senior ministry official, speaking to Indiantelevision.com.

This is close on the heels of the ‘editor’ of this ‘news’ channel doing a Pontius Pilot

The CEO and editor of the Live India television news channel that broadcast a fake sting operation that purported to show the alleged involvement of a teacher in a prostitution racket and set off a riot in the process said the reporter who carried out the investigation was a "criminal and breached the trust".

"The reporter kept me in dark and breached the trust. He is a criminal and a hazard for journalism," Live India editor Sudhir Chaudhary told IANS. "As the head of the channel, I owe responsibility but there is no reason why I should trust him (now). He cheated me, Uma Khurana and Rashmi Singh.

This is what happens when people who make Commander and other such thrillers, end up owning and running news channels.

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Posted by gargi at 12:33 am Tagged with: , , , ,

Withdraw Live India TV’s Broadcasting License

India, Media, TV 1 Response »
Sep 102007

this from the ToI

Delhi Police on Friday detained for questioning a TV channel reporter who conducted a sting operation on a government school teacher in an attempt to show that she was running a prostitution racket. "Prakash Singh, the television reporter of Live India, was asked to join investigation by the police but he refused. He was ultimately picked up for investigation on Friday," a senior police officer said. His detention comes a day after police arrested a girl who appeared in the TV sting operation posing as a student. She was arrested on charges of "criminal conspiracy, cheating and fabricating false evidence".

All very fine, but what about the owners and promoters of "Live India TV " – what is their punishment for having systems and processes that

a) allows for a story like this to go on, without verification. What were the editors and others doing , or is Live India TV – the bastion for unedited user generated content. b) allows an innocent person to be defamed, defaced, derided, and wrongly outed. b) through their irresponsibility and avarice, puts all our freedoms in peril.

Can we please see their broadcasting license withdrawn and heavy punitive damages for this action ? There is no point in just penalizing the guy on the ground ….. a system that allows and encourages this sort of damage ought to face the consequences. Sting Operations are needed to ensure that the system behaves itself.This kind of misuse ensures that instead of penalizing organizations misusing ‘sting’ – we end up debating ‘sting’ itself. And, it is time that we – instead of banning techniques, look at penalizing organisations who condone poor and faulty journalism . Misuse of journalistic powers and broadcasting licenses ought to be dealt with by the industry, the government without exceptions. And as far as the victim of this sting is concerned – - the poor teacher. stuff like this never goes away. Her name, her address, her looks are plastered all over the place. The arrest of this ‘journalist’ will not make it go away. It’s on Google — it is preserved for eternity. So how does the victim get justice — a) boil the ‘journalist’ b) withdraw the license of the channel c) deal with the owners and promoters the way the mob dealt with the ‘victim’ of the sting operation. SMS your choice to…..

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Posted by gargi at 9:27 am Tagged with: , , , ,
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