For most of us who have worked in the media, and then chosen to leave MSM, the sting by CobraPost was not a major surprise. What was surprising was the extent of the rot. What was considered to be professional/legal lapses by those at the bottom of the chain, in chase of heavy sales targets, seems now to be a top down strategy to subvert the publication, and audiences.

Source : here

Named Operation 136 (after India’s ranking in the world press freedom index) – you can find part 1 and part 2 of the playlists on youtube – the sting involved an undercover journalist – Pushp Sharma – who claimed to be a member of a right wing organisation that wanted to start by spreading soft Hindutva, and then move on to polarising elections to secure wins for the ruling party. He claimed to be close to Nagpur, and the remaining right wing ecosystem, and was willing to spread loads of money on media to secure their agenda. And, the media houses, without verifying the antecedents of the person, or the organisation, fell for the sting like a ton of bricks.

The videos by CobraPost are very instructive. i am not linking to them directly here, because i cannot afford lawyers if the gigantic media houses bring a defamation suit against me. In the videos what you will find is various levels talking about using money to subvert news and audiences watching news. They are ready to run content that will polarise audiences, within the context of undifferentiated news. This content will not be labelled as advertiser funded, but would be run as part and parcel of their news feeds. And, involved in this are people who are really senior. Owners, Promoters, CEO’s, – people who cannot say they didn’t know this was wrong.

There seems to be a well oiled system in place, in each organisation,  whose role it is to sell space for advertorials, that would sharp focus a set of agendas. That system seems to be cross functional, sales, content, and a senior member of the organisation – sometimes, including the promoter. Their job is not just to place content in exchange for money, it is also to cheat the Government of India of taxes.  In the videos I saw, posted by Cobrapost on their youtube channel,  (i am still to finish watching all) the undercover journalist very clearly talks about a large chunk of the payment being made in cash. In one of the videos the senior manager acknowledges that there will be no GST on cash. where as, the GST on the cheque amount would need to be paid by the sanstha. In another video, the promoter of the company (a very large media house) is suggesting the best ways to convert cash to cheque, via friendly associated companies.

There are multiple issues here. There is the ethics and morality of journalism -but that has been compromised for a long time. I had written extensively about the Radia Tapes when the scandal broke, and there is not much to be gained by wringing hands and breaking bangles. That dirge is done and dusted.

So what can we do ? one of the things that is very apparent from watching the videos, is that there is a very clear protocol in place to handle requests of this nature – ie  paid news that is embedded into the regular flow of news. And, people within the company handling this, are very clear that there will be some of the news that is used to polarise audiences. The videos make it clear when the undercover journalist talks about how they will be insisting on that kind of news closer to the elections. He says, inquiries will tell you the truth 10 years from now – but, for now, it is ok to polarise. and the media hierarchy agrees with him. They are willing to do this for money. Large sums of money, much of which is in black. And, there seems to be a protocol in these companies to deal with cash payments.

Which begs the question – how many other times have media companies taken money to run “paid news” stories, as news? And, how many times has that money been taken in cash. And, if so, has the cash been declared. The Government of India may find it murky to put it’s hands in the cesspool of paid news, because it doesnt’ know what all will come out. But, it can very clearly look at the violations that have been made by companies in declaring income, and paying tax. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how the offenders are punished, but punished they need to be. Tax evasion is as good a charge as any. And, given that penalties by the NBA, and the press council are minuscule, this may hurt more. And, i think, right now i want the media houses to hurt.