Last week i had posted on the media black out of the  RadiaTapes  – filed in the SC as evidence – and that has the who’s who of media, industry and politics – an incestuous  oligarchy – in conversation,   in an environment more reminiscent of the Borgias , than a modern Democratic Republic (atleast i hope India is).

Atul Chitnis – suggested that i put a response to a conversation with Sohini about the silence as a separate entry – so here goes …

Sohini says:
November 21, 2010 at 8:53 pm

What amazes me is that top news channels keep running prime-time stories on the telecom scam so unabashedly, without a blink even, when their own ‘stars’ are involved in the scam. It is so rightly called the ‘spectrum’ scam. People from all across the spectrum are aboard here!

[Reply]

gargi Reply:
November 22nd, 2010 at 12:41 pm

Yes & No.
There are three parts to these recordings :
a) business interest
b) business interest fixing ministerial berth with the help of powerbrokers, advocated by journalists
c) minor or major indiscretions

you cannot do the journalist story without doing the business story. the business story will end up pissing off people whose annual advertising spend is possibly greater than the turnover of most media companies …. what do you do then ?

minor or major indiscretions while speaking -for example a is having an affair with b; or person x is f***ed no matter what he does; or person y has no imagination – those are things that are going to end up mattering more – because you are talking about fragile egos and lots of money – a dangerous combination …..

in the outrage over Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi – and their alleged roles – the bigger picture is being forgotten, and that bigger picture is that these two are incidental to the bigger picture ….hear the tapes

Worth Reading MSM Sources

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

2G scam sideshow: Netizens lambast high-profile journalists – ToI

The Thunderous Silence – Amit Varma , Yahoo News India

The silence of the hacks – Santosh Desai, Times of India

Those living in Glass Houses – Rasheeda Bhagat – Hindu Business Line

Beware the single brush – Pratap Bhanu Mehta, in the Indian Express

Just Say Sorry – T N Ninan , Business Standard

The Radia Tapes debate–swallowing the bait – Vidya Subrahmanyam  in the Hoot

Radia Tapes: Media ethics at the crossroads – comment in the Hoot

Welcome to the Matrix of the Indian State – Siddarth Varadarajan, in the Hindu

Of Twitter outrage & media silence – Santosh Desai in the Times of India

Journalism in a Radiaactive media –  G Sampath

Foreign Papers

Media run for cover : BRP Bhaskar, in Gulf Today

Phone Taps Draw Media Into 2G Spotlight –  Tripti Lahiri in WSJ

Indian Media Where Art Thou on Media Scandal – Betwa Sharma in the Huffington Post

Indian journalists accused of secretly helping politicians, businesses – Washington Post

Corrupt Corporate Fascism in India – the Dawn

Oh Vir, What Can the Matter Be? – Paul Beckett in the WSJ

Indian media’s mighty stand exposed on wrong side of 2G spectrum scam – International Business & Law

The Media as Middle Man – Farzana Versey – in Counterpunch

Dragging Indian Media out of the Muck – Sadanand Dhume in the WSJ

The Fall of India’s Katie Couric? by Tunku Varadarajan in the Daily Beast

On TV

Zee News

Sagarika Ghosh on CNN-IBN – FTN – November 23rd 2010

Radia tapes: Probing the journalists – The Last Word with Karan Thapar

Shourie on Radia with Karan Thapar – on CNN-IBN

Ratan Tata with Shekhar Gupta on Walk the Talk, NDTV

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Responses to the Radia Tapes

Barkha Dutt

Vir Sanghvi

Prabhu Chawla

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On the Radia Tapes:

Medianama has a consolidated set of links – both audio, and text – here

Reading Radia – the tapes transcription project

1 thought on “Radia Tapes – Silence of the Lambs ….

  1. looks like u have worked really hard on covering this , in short ur shocked…..

    in any case hats of to radia for being a very successful lobbyist and the sad truth that our politicians are so fallable.
    The question now is – will this govt act against the corrupt crony s that the congress structure of governance manufactures from time to time and the beneficiaries of 2g scam…

    other things i think are just diversionary

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