Cobra Post Media for Sale sting brought up some interesting, and entertaining videos. I am sure anyone who began watching it, saw it through with fascination. And, while many may outrage about the lack of ethics in the media, and others may gloat with “i told you so” – there is a bigger question to be asked. Have they done this before? If so were they in breach of regulatory guidelines, and dictats. And, where is the cash? The only way the paid news phenomenon can be curtailed is not be tightening the ethics noose – it doesn’t exist; but by implementing rules that hurt – broadcast and financial compliance rules. I write for the Newslaundry.
New
It is a story of greed, lies, and supposed propaganda. But, primarily it is a story of greed. The Cobra Post sting against leading media organisations has left the media garb looking even more threadbare. It is also a story that is probably going to die an unsung death, because who in the main streams media wants to cover the story of many of them being collectively caught with their pants down?
The story for those who missed it, in brief. Cobra Post journalist Pushp Sharma goes undercover as Acharya Atal of the Bhagvad Gita Prachar Samiti, that does not exist. He claims close connection with “Nagpur” and says that he is responsible for getting deals with media houses to run content that promotes Hindutva. He offers to spend large amounts of money ‘advertising’ in a variety of channels, and newspapers. The amounts dangled as revenue, ranged from just above a crore to a whopping Rs.500 crores. And, there was the promise of long term associations, and even more money. In return the media houses would have to run content in a phased manner. At the first level would be content around Shri Krishna and the Bhagwad Gita (what is said in the tapes is that Shri Ram had become ‘too contreversial’) – this would create a sort of goodwill for the Hindutva position. At the second level there would be skits around pappu, bua, and babbua (Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, and Akhilesh Yadav) – satire that would poke fun at their policies. And, lastly just before the elections there would be polarising content. This was the ask from “Acharya Atal”, and while there were faint murmurs about editorial independence, no one countered the ask (in the videos I have seen).
The modus operandi is similar. “Acharya Atal” seeks a sales manager and dangles the carrot of long term advertising revenue, that has many zeroes at the end of it. In an ad crunch market, the sales manager bites. He brings in his superior. And, before you know it, “Acharya Atal” is making his way up the corporate hierarchy. At some point the person who takes a call on ‘editorial integration’ is called in. That person is senior – CEO, vice chairman level senior. Editorial integration is the euphemism for integrating advertorial content in actual news. And, the editorial person and the sales team begin discussing with “Acharya Atal” on how the integration will be managed. And, soon enough the conversation veers to how the monies will be paid. “Acharya Atal” is clear that a substantial chunk of it will be paid in cash. And, that this cash will be routed from a foreign account into another foreign account. What strikes you is one fact, no one in the system thinks of verfitying Acharya Atal or the Bhagwad Gita Prachar Samiti. This, in a world of simple google searches.
There are many reactions to the Cobra Post Media for Sale sting. Most of it, in the main stream media, verge on denial. One standpoint is “hidden camera sting is not a valid form of journalism”. Another refrain is the video and audio are selectively edited to ‘manufacture a story’. There is a third view that says that we were trying to trap him, to report it to police authorities. There is a fourth view that has less to do with views on the sting, and more to do with the nature of the sting – the view that the media houses aren’t necessarily right biased, if the undercover journalist had suggested left agenda setting instead of the purported Hindutva agenda setting, the reaction of the media houses would have been the same. They would have jumped in, head first, trying to acquire the dangled bait – crores of rupees as advertising revenue. None of these stands is intrinsically wrong.
However, there is another part to the Cobra Post Media for Sale sting. And, that has less to do with the content of the sting, as much as management decision making in news media organisations. What is evident from all the clips that I have seen is this, each news media organisation featured in the sting seems to have pre-existing protocol to deal with cash for stories. They seem to have a well-established process to get sales to work with editorial, and the client, to push stories not labelled as “sponsored stories” into the main news feed as native news. The audience, very clearly, is not to know, that the sponsored content, is not news content. Nor is the regulator.
TRAI has very clear-cut guidelines for carrying advertisements.
(1) No broadcaster shall carry in its broadcast of a programme, advertisements exceeding twelve minutes in a clock hour and any shortfall of advertisement duration in any clock hour shall not be carried over.
(2) The advertisements in the clock hour shall include all types of advertisements including advertisements promoting the channel(s) of the broadcaster.
And, then there is the case of cash. Lots of cash. Hard cash, mostly in foreign currency, that would be paid by “Acharya Atal” or his associates, to the news organisation, in a foreign account. And, here too it is clear from the videos, that while cash may not be a preferred mode of transaction, it is not an unknown mode. There are, once again, protocols that seem to be in place to accept cash. Some companies can route it through their own subsidiaries elsewhere in the world, others ask to work with other friendly organisations to convert the cash to white money. While the criminal justice system may not have much to work on because the evidence is illegally obtained, the income tax department has no such compulsions. It can call for an investigation based on suspicion. And, that thread of suspicion comes from this one question “if there is a protocol in place for accepting cash from one entity, how many times before this have the organisations accepted cash, and where is the tax on it”.
There is a reason that I have written this piece without mentioning a single organisation apart from Cobra Post. Because it frankly does not matter. Eight years ago, the press council had produced a report on paid news and how it undermined democracy. But, for reasons best known to the press council, they buried the findings of their own report. There is an overlap in the names – then and now. But, the names in themselves are more for shock value, than actual remedy. It is not about specific organisations, and their systems – rather it is about the process of garnering revenues for news entities. Where do companies draw the line on earning revenues? Should sponsored content run as news? If so, how should it be labelled so that audiences know it is sponsored? Should this sponsored content fall into the advertising time fixed by TRAI? And, what should be the penalty for taking payment in cash, routed through foreign sources? The Cobra Post sting raises many such questions on how media organisations operate. And, rather than outrage on the content of the sting, it might be better to fix the deeply non-transparent process of news creation, collation, and distribution. The system is deeply flawed, and it is the system that needs to be fixed. The ethical part of this will only get fixed, if transparency by news organisations gets fixed. And, that can only happen if there is regulation demanding transparency. Till then, hold this space till the next sting.