media responsibility

… … the media silence on the Radia Tapes is deafening …

For those of you watching and reading the Main Stream Media this week, life would be pretty much the same. 2 G scam, Karnataka, Some Asian Games Medals, some vague stuff about Bihar… there would have been some level of smugness about Raja’s resignation, and the gloating that everyone was number one in breaking the story, some outrage on Adarsh, but pretty much that is it … as far as big stories are concerned.

The New Media, on the other hand has been bubbling over with another story – the story that has all the ingredients of a Sidney Sheldon novel, meets a Robert Ludlum conspiracy along with a Balaji Soap Opera … garnished in with a bunch of unnamed honest men & women — who work from within the system to break the scam and expose the scamsters …. all the ingrediants of a pucca pot boiler. A story that shows how a Lobbyist managed to carry out corporate agenda by trading information and influence with journalists, industry bodies, politicians to fix political appointments, raise political outrage and fix the market vis-a-vis infrastructure.

But before that a synopis of the story so far:

Nira Radia is a lobbyist / PR person who has some fairly important clients. She also seems to be skirting the boundaries of legal behavior – vis-a-vis the third oldest crime in the world – Income Tax. The IT Department seeks Home Office permission to tap her phones. the Tapped Tapes/MP3′s – got submitted in the Supreme Court on the 15th of November – putting it in the public domain. The voices in the tapes are allegedly hers and an A list of clients, contacts and confidants …..

The tapes are a fascinating hear. It shows how names are dropped, reputations made & ruined, deals fixed, gossip passed on and deals are made. Its’ star cast is the whose who of Indian politics, media and business.

yet there is a more or less media black out on the story – except for a few media companies.

Open Magazine , in its on-line version, carried this story on the 18th of November – an action that promptly crashed the server. The Outlook carried a far more detailed version of the same story, with more audio clips attached. Zee News & DNA had some coverage, as has India Today … but the India Today coverage left out the of one of its head honchos – you can hear it here. . But otherwise, it is pretty much silence …..

Hearing the tapes is an education in itself … everyone seems to be helping sell someone else …

There are six components to the tapes :

The Soap Opera component of the DMK story- wives, children, drama, wheels within wheels … “i feel he is watching me” kind of paranoia
The promise to fix the ministry of Telecommunications in a manner that was conducive to a certain set of business interests. Conversations here with journalists who seemed to promise to fix the ministry…
The fight between the two brothers - and what each side was doing. the off the record views expressed by journalists were amusing …. however, such views are in opposition to a) long tenure b) continued sponsorship
The fixing of mining rights
fixing of the aviation industry
The apparent dictation of a particular story that brings out a certain agenda to a senior print journalist

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The issue is not restricted to 2 journalists or 2 institutions. everyone is on those tapes. Bad mouthing powerful people, or dropping names, swapping information on affairs or asking for a 5 acre hand-out. ….

Despite this there is complete silence in the media – i wonder if it is,

as they claim, the tapes are not authentic and the papers are fake, and they don’t want to speculate …. but that hasn’t stopped the media before. Remember the Arushi Murder on-air Trial, remember the body by body coverage of 26/11 .
It could not be that this is not news – recordings submitted in the Supreme Court. You can report it because it is in the public domain. you can play them without fear of being sued – because they are evidence in a court case. you will have to qualify the content as such …
each media house is trying to figure how compromised it is and taking corrective action …
they are terrified of pissing of advertisers who can leverage their advertising spend if offended by coverage.

There must be panic- in the media houses. Their doyens seem to be either casting aspersions on the capability of business leaders or trying to fix the Government. Not very conducive to wielding power and influence is it … especially when you get caught ….

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Worth Reading :

Indian Papers

When Radia killed the media star, G Sampath in the DNA

Merging Estates, in the Hoot

Anchored in mire, 1st Edit, Deccan Herald

The spectrum of corruption – Editorial, Indian Express

Indian Media Discredited, Binu Thomas, Countercurrents.org

Oh what a lovely blackout – Sevati Ninnan – the Hoot

The spotlight is on the media now - Priscilla Jebaraj – lead in the Hindu

Anant’s blog: Open dares to be different - Campaign India

Over the Thin Red Line - Salil Tripathi – The Mint