HT's Red Underwear

Somehow, that story of B.S. Chandrashekhar on his tour of New Zealand keeps coming back. After being repeatedly frustrated at a biased umpire turning down his genuine appeals when he finally clean-bowls the batsman he couldn’t help telling the umpire “Almost got him, didn’t I”? Another version of that story suggests he told the umpire “He’s bowled, but is he out”? So what do news outlets or media celebs do when they are clean-bowled or caught with their pants down? They shout “they didn’t check with us first and didn’t give us a chance to respond”. Oops! Get caught with pants down and then claim they weren’t naked. Remember Radiagate? Barkha Dutt wailed that the tapes were published without seeking her response first. I wonder if that would have altered anything at all since the “error of dodgement” would have been the same and there wasn’t any chance she was going to say “sorry, I screwed up”. This time around it’s a member of the unholy trinity that’s been caught and called.

Last month the Press Council of India (PCI) an otherwise toothless, colourless, spineless body released a report which recommended the censure of a few newspapers for indulging in “paid news”. After an investigation their Inquiry Committee cleared one newspaper and indicted several others, including Hindustan Times. It’s fair to believe the Inquiry Committee would have given HT a chance to respond and would have heard them too before the final report in December 2012. P. Sainath, of The Hindu, wrote a report on this on January 29 and HT was upset The Hindu didn’t check for their response before publishing his story. I guess if HT were to be asked, they would have responded with the same crap that they published on February 1 claiming “HT brings you real news, not paid news”.

Do you buy that? Does anybody buy that? Do note that the HT is not so much against the PCI report but is upset with The Hindu publishing a story without checking with them first. HT was indicted for “paid news” during the Bihar elections in 2010 in not one but four separate incidents or stories according to the PCI. Here’s what Sainath actually wrote:

Note that he quotes PCI: “in all other cases, the candidates accepted they had purchased news”. So the confirmation comes from even the candidates who may have paid HT for the insertions. There is a fair chance that HT’s big bosses in Delhi and their top management do not indulge in these practices but that doesn’t automatically imply that branches of newspapers and local journalists do not indulge in it. HT surely has bigger fish to fry than small time candidates paying money for news. They have much bigger events like HT Summit through which they can get the “Mota Maal” from sponsors. There’s also DAVP that the govt can use to dole out heavy amounts of unessential ads. There are govt companies that can dole out money as sponsorship for mega events that include characters who have waged war against this country. The PCI though is quite confident and clear in their findings. Here’s a screen grab from the PCI report (Thanks to @sureshnakhua) which doesn’t need any further explanation:

Far from apologising for their conduct or stating they have made an appeal, if any, HT prefers to brazen it out with self-righteous wailing. We are by now used to that kind of behaviour, aren’t we? The tragedy is not what the PCI has discovered but what it hasn’t uncovered so far. HT has a family outlet called LiveMint. Like angels, LiveMint states in an article titled “Election Commission pegs paid news market at Rs.500 crore”. Nice, eh? Can the HT group explain where that kind of money goes? Any idea? LiveMint adds: “Of the total amount paid to media firms (around 40% of the poll expenses of parties), the EC estimates half to be towards paid news”. And the good news for every media outlet is that a major election is just around the corner. Not just the general elections but also simultaneous Assembly elections in a few states. Lots of opportunities, let’s make money.

It’s not just B.S. Chandrashekhar that I’m reminded of. Remember those extraordinary deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes? Sitting on his chair and smoking his pipe, Holmes heard a knock and in came his friend Dr. Watson. “Ah, good morning, Watson” said Holmes adding “don’t you find it a bit warm to be wearing your red flannel underwear”? Astonished at this stroke of genius by Holmes, Watson asked “how on earth did you guess I was wearing my red flannel underwear”? Holmes typically replied “Elementary, my dear Watson, you forgot to put your pants on”. Elementary, dear HT, your red underwear is showing, because you were caught with your pants down.  

How To Buy Friends & Influence Elections

No matter how rich Bill Gates is and how successful Microsoft is, it is widely known and acknowledged that he failed to read the Internet trend when it began. Early 1990s he couldn’t see it clearly and MS had to bundle Internet Explorer with Windows to combat Netscape. There are many other internet-applications companies that MS simply couldn’t catch up with. Even today Internet Explorer isn’t the No.1 browser. Others like Firefox, Chrome and so on have taken up a good bit of space. In business, it’s a huge advantage to be the first to take off. Everyone knows Neil Armstrong was the first but not many may be able to name the second man to set foot on the moon. (Are you wondering who?)

It’s a famous song by The Beatles: “Can’t buy me love” but I’ve got news for you. There’s also a movie of the same name titled “Can’t buy me love” in which the hero rents a girlfriend for $1000 for a month. Hmm! Are you available? If you are, you’re in luck! Someone’s just decided to buy a lot of friends on the Social Media. What do you do? Send in your profile to the guy who gave that “Badminton” speech on January 20. Here’s the good news:

According to reports, Kapil Sibal, the guy who earlier wanted to choke the internet and social media, the Congress party would need to spend 100 Crores to buy fraaands and influence votes through the social media. The other guy, foul-mouthed Digvijaya Singh, who ironically heads the party’s Communication Cell feels the BJP is leading on the social media front and Congress got left behind. The best part? Both these wiseguys have decided a strategy would be formed and presented to Rahul Gandhi, the “Badminton” boy. So essentially what they’re thinking is that the RSS invented social media, Narendra Modi nurtured it and the Hindu terrorists have overwhelming presence on it. Yeah! Move over Social Genius ‘Internet Hindus’ is now passé. After Sushil Shinde’s remark on Hindu Terror, the call-sign is now changed to “Internet Terrorists”. Except for the stray presence of Diggy on Twitter, the other guys don’t have any presence and still probably believe Al Gore invented the internet. Nothing to worry, help is always around.

Remember all those tweets you get promising to get you thousands of followers in just a few hours or days? That would be a good starting point for Congress. Of course, there are Twitter champions like Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Bhupendra Chaubeji, Ashutosh, Nikhil Wagle and even Pankaj Pachauri, the PM’s media advisor. No, I haven’t forgotten! They also have Twitter Goddesses Sagarika Ghose and her protégé Pallavi Ghosh. With a whole team and these two ladies batting for Congress, a solid start is assured. So while these guys have been called PaidMedia for Congress so far, now there’s a new meaning to it; they will now be PaidSocialMedia. I hope the party also needs some bloggers (Hint! Hint!). Someone on Twitter has also suggested maybe the Congress should float a TwitterNREGA. Not a bad idea for a bunch of brain dead people who still don’t understand how SM works.

Diggy and the Congress still remain under the impression that the SM in India has been driven by RSS or Narendra Modi. Well, what can I say! If the doc diagnoses your common cold as cancer he is bound to make you spend 100 Crores. Hey, later on don’t complain if we make some noise about the ‘100Cr tag’ just like someone created serious heartburns with the ‘50Cr tag’. So how do we help the party spend the 100 crores? The first point is always those paid-follower sites which guarantee you millions of followers like this one:

There is a harsh truth behind the Congress’ SM plan. It’s that the MSM has failed to help the party’s fortunes. Despite their best attempts, channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN, Times Now and the gang don’t seem to have worked wonders for the party. All the Tulika ads during the Gujarat campaign haven’t paid off. In the print media, newspapers like Hindustan Times seem to have failed them. Remember, this is despite the fact that the last HT Summit was best funded by Govt PSUs. Social Media has now become a watchdog over the MSM; there can’t be any more doubts about it. All the lies, half-truths and propaganda by MSM have been successfully dismantled by SM. Congress feels the threat because there’s a forecast that by 2014 there will be 200 million internet users in India. Let’s try and examine some features influencing SM.

1) First and foremost most of the SM people who are successful in getting their message out are well-educated people. Historically, that is not the Congress vote-bank. In fact, I’d go a step further in stating that Congress thrives by keeping people uneducated and uninformed.

2) Being connected for serious participation on SM requires stable power supply. There’s hardly any Congress-ruled state that isn’t facing power problems. This is a failure that will affect not just their SM constituency but life in general.

3) Unlike MSM, SM is mostly “user-generated” content that comes out of genuine interest and beliefs. I doubt money can buy that. Sure, there are some people who can be bought but usually they are the ones who don’t really have thinking skills or writing skills that can have a great influence. You know, like the bimbo on Twitter who said villages in Maharashtra had internet connection in 1995.

4) The Congress foolishly thinks NaMo’s success is partly due to his presence on SM. Wrong! NaMo gained followers and admiration for “performance” and not for “presence”. By Congress logic Shashi Tharoor should be far more influential for the Congress as its SM brand ambassador. Doesn’t work like that!

Now, being on SM is all about being “connected” with people. If the Congress were to really learn from Modi they’d have to learn that Modi “connects” everywhere. He connects on the SM and he connects with villagers in rural Gujarat. In contrast people like Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are being booed when they visit Amethi or Rae Bareli. The duo had to beg Mulayam Singh for non-stop power supply in their constituencies as a favour. No villager has to beg NaMo for such a favour. Does that teach them anything? No! The Congress still believes money can buy fraaands.

The other thing is historically the communists and the MSM have perpetrated a fake history on Indians when it comes to the Mughals, the British and many other historic events. They have even turned patriots into villains. This correction of history is undertaken on the SM by many good writers and researchers and nobody pays them to do this. Their only drive is their love for their country and truth. The anti-Hindu MSM, similar to Shinde’s “Hindu Terror” comment, has always been biased against the Hindus. Many SM people make a strong effort in correcting this bias. They aren’t paid for this. The MSM may help sustain the Congress propaganda or campaign of half-truths but propaganda usually gets exposed and rejected on the SM. Lies and half-truths get destroyed on the SM. Every lie, deception, distortion and negligence by the MSM has been exposed by people on the SM. If Congress believes spending money will gain friends and influence votes they haven’t fathomed SM yet. That is why it appears they’re going for Chemotherapy to treat the common cold.

The Congress team for SM is going to be headed by Rahul Gandhi and assisted by the likes of Digvijay and Kapil Sibal. Two of them don’t have any presence worth the mention. The third, Diggy, is the comic relief on Twitter who gets ridiculed every step of the way. Modi was vilified by the MSM, he became a hero on the SM, that’s the reason his supporters have campaigned heavily for him without seeking any payment for it. Unlike the sycophants in the Congress party that fall at the feet of “Madamji” and the prince, SM doesn’t have a sycophant culture that can be bought. Seriously, you can’t pass 66A as law on one hand and hope to succeed on the SM.

Hard truth is that for over 60 years the Congress, the Commies and the MSM wiped out the Hindu voices from public discourse. Let me add that everything connected with Hindus, like the RSS, BJP or any party was painted as “Evil” by these political parties and the top media celebs to appease their favourite minority group. The Hindu practices and rituals were rubbished. Their temples were looted to pay out doles. Technology has this potential to destroy lies, distortions, deceptions and injustices. It is laughable that those who couldn’t do justice in the public domain are now seeking to redeem themselves on the SM. Take the case of displaced Kashmiri Pandits. Their voices were destroyed by the MSM but they’re being heard on the SM. You need to spend money to buy lies and propaganda. You don’t need money to buy truth. Too late the Social Hero!

If You Have The Inclination, We Have The Crime

Lots of Opportunities since the new regime came in. Let’s make lots of money. If you have the inclination, we have the crime.

In just the previous post we looked at how Hindustan Times with its HT Summit splurged on public money. Most of their major sponsors being big time PSUs and govt companies. Even the poor man’s work insurance corporation, ESIC, seems to have found compelling reasons to invest in HT Summit. Part of that unholy trinity of media I wrote about is CNN-IBN, HT’s media side-kick. It’s Managing Editor, Rajdeep Sardesai (RS), often likes to talk about “integrity”. Look at the samples. In the first tweet from February 2010 he yearns for “news with integrity” and in the second one, from July 2012, he complains about his integrity being questioned. “Those who abuse...” he says. Actually, anything that questions or ridicules our media celebs is nothing but ‘abuse’. The second tweet is because he had to apologise for an earlier stupid and tasteless tweet of his. When Deep Throat said “follow the money” he damn well knew what he meant. Pursuit of news and stories never resulted in loss of integrity but pursuit of extraordinary wealth has often led to loss of integrity. For almost a month my Twitter friend Suresh Nakhua has been asking questions of RS and CNN-IBN; tricky, troublesome questions which, of course, would amount to ‘abuse’ in the world of RS.

In this post I will just summarise the questions by Suresh Nakhua who has storified the financial joyride of CNN-IBN and certain group companies in his post “Few questions for@sardesairajdeep & some unknown facts abt CNNIBN”.  In other words Suresh has just tried to follow the money. Before you look at the maze of companies, here is a company that became part of Global Broadcast News Ltd (GBN). And it’s splendidly titled ‘SRH New Holding Private limited’.

Well, well, all the names from the CNN-IBN family are there. Sardesai, Bahl, Anubha, Chaubeji, Vidya Shankar and, of course, Cacofonix. Don’t read too much into that because there is nothing wrong there. This is just to share the ‘dramatis monetis’. All you need to do is follow Suresh’s tweets on that page sequentially and enlarge the images contained in each. You will find integrity in each. So here are the questions that remain unanswered:

1. SRH was a loss making company so how did it end up giving loans worth 19.71 crores? Hmm! One could say “we are a private company and it’s none of your business”. Yeah, so you can’t be in the public domain and keep screaming about integrity either.

2. The remuneration of Jt. MD, Sameer Manchanda, exceeds the limits prescribed under the Companies Act. The explanation is that GOI approval has been sought and if not received the moneys will be returned. Clever? First commit the offence and then claim the money is being held in “trust” and if the approval is not received, it will be returned. Integrity!

3. At March 2006 GBN had a loss of 46.53 crores. It’s a perfect qualification to receive an “unsecured loan” of 40 crores during the year, isn’t it? We shouldn’t complain about the loan itself. It should be of interest to all of us who or what entity gives such loans just in case we anticipate huge losses too. Needless to say, you need integrity.

4. To run your business you do need some pocket money at times. Who’s your daddy? Of course, Syndicate Bank. So you have this bank lending an unsecured loan of 5 crores to tide over festival periods. While the title shows the amount as ‘secured borrowings’ the statement says ‘NIL’ against security created. What was it secured with, integrity? Do read the article on Reliance and ‘Raghav’s Endgame’ squeezed in between.

5. Then Raghav Bahl, the Chairman of TV18 group, has some 7 Income tax cases pending against him. That’s normal if you’re running a large group of media companies, nothing to worry. Then in another page that Suresh produces, an IT penalty of over 1Cr has been reduced to a mere Rs.53461. Nice, isn’t it? Who’s your daddy? Integrity?

6. That’s all. Oh yes, there’s this small thing apart from the IT cases, there is an ROC case against Raghav Bahl that is pending. Oh, one more thing. There is this e-Eighteen.Com and Victor Fernandes who claim Bahl & Co. illegally diverted their businesses and are demanding over 3000 crores in compensation. If I read correctly, it claims there was an undertaking that TV18 would route business distribution through e-Eighteen which Bahl is accused of breaking. Integrity! Not the kind of program that will be debated on CNN-IBN or any of its group channels for sure.

There is hardly any doubt that since the arrival of the UPA govt in 2004 there has been a dramatic growth in the fortunes of certain media companies. People were complaining of the amount of tax-payer money on the recently executed terrorist Ajmal Kasab. He’s just one guy. The amount of tax-payer money certain media outlets may be guzzling without notice is like silent killers; like Cancer or Diabetes. I have stated earlier that our news media is the first line of defence for the corrupt. Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal have been spending a lot of effort on politicians. If they spent half that effort on media houses I have absolutely no doubts that corruption and financial misdeeds will start diminishing in every other sphere. And next time Rajdeep Sardesai talks about integrity I suggest you have a good laugh. At least laughing doesn’t cost anything.

*The title is from a Pet Shop Boys song.

HT Summit: How To Sell Leadership & Make Money

One of the most enduring legacies of George W Bush is the number of words he invented and the number of amusing statements he made. Try these: “Nu-cu-lar” instead of nuclear or “misunderestimate” instead of underestimate. In an interview he once said “I make decisions… I am the decider” in defence of Don Rumsfeld. In his final months of presidency, at the end of a climate meet in Japan in July 2008, he told the G-8 summit members: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter”. Those were silly ones. But GWB, a good friend of India, did leave the stunning and ever-lasting phrase for the world: “Axis of Evil”. Bush was strongly influenced by his Faith and even believed his foreign policy was influenced by God. So it’s a bit of a surprise that he didn’t use the term “Unholy Trinity” instead. But we do have an Unholy Trinity in our media and it’s often hard to tell where one begins and where the other ends; Hindustan Times–NDTV–CNN-IBN. This threesome is easily the most potent propaganda machine. Add to this their little ones like Mint, NDTV Profit, CNBCTV18 and their siblings. The TV18 group does have an online site, Firstpost, through which it tries to balance the propaganda work of its TV channels. But that’s not the point.

In an article titled “The new Ram and Ravan” in Firstpost, Anant Rangaswami explains how HT buried the allegations against Robert Vadra in the inner pages to fool the public. Well, that story still remains buried. Now even the National Herald scam of Congress and Young Indian of the Gandhis remains buried in the media. But this isn’t about any of these. Then there is this extreme obsession of this Unholy Trinity with a guy called Pervez Musharraf. The number of times Barkha Dutt has rushed to interview him is not possible to count. The number of times the media hosts him in their conclaves and summits is not possible to count. I don’t have to run a history of Musharraf which is already known. But that is not the point.

If leadership is what India has to learn from an army guy then there any number of honourable generals in this country to learn from. A recent retired General is quite anti-govt so not acceptable. But hey, someone who is predominantly anti-India is the one to lecture on leadership. While individual interviews are fine, where in the world would you find such disgusting media pampering of someone to whom India is a sworn enemy? Imagine the Washington Post or New York Times hosting seminars on leadership and inviting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lecture Americans on it. I guess these summits don’t pay unless there is some controversy, some glamour and some comics. Seriously, you need to learn leadership from Katrina Kaif? I guess you’d need to if you want to be in the glamour business or sell mango juice. But that is not the point.

So what exactly is the point? It’s about this Unholy media Trinity that seems to protect and serve the govt and the Congress at all points of time. Focus on tiny issues of other political parties and cover up major issues that concern the govt or the Congress. Who pays for HT’s ego trip with such frivolous summits? YOU DO! How? Let’s do some math. There were 34 speakers invited for HT Summit 2012, most of them from foreign countries. Most of them charge speaking fees and all their travel expenses are paid by the host. So depending on the pecking order you can make your own calculations of how much it would cost to invite 34 speakers, put them up in swank hotels, pay for their travel, pay for all the meals during the 2-day summit. Do you feel lucky? Okay! Now, it is normal for corporate bodies to pay and sponsor such events, get a little media mileage over competitors and maybe even some good display. They could even bargain for precious favourable columns and air time to be used in the future. You know, all those luxury cars, SUVs, high value real estate, consumer goods; any kind of competitive business. Right? Take a look:

Well, what do you see? I admit I was wrong; there’s no car company or real estate company or consumer goods company. Except for a couple there aren’t even regular major advertisers. Instead, we see a host of govt companies. Most of them are oil and power companies! Some of these companies are more or less in some kind of monopoly. The Associate partners are ONGC and LIC, both huge govt companies. Interesting, eh? Now let’s do a count of Summit partners too.

Of the 14 companies listed as HT’s Summit partners you have: 1) ONGC 2) NTPC 3) LIC 4) Petronet LNG 5) Power Grid Corporation of India 6) Oil India Ltd 7) Power Finance Corporation 8) ESIC 9) SAIL 10) BHEL. Simply stunning! Of the 14 companies who are Summit partners, 8 are PSUs/Govt companies or companies in which our govt has a sizeable stake, in addition to ONGC and LIC as Associate partners. Mostly, your money! Does that tell a story? I guess it does and a big one too. So companies that are largely funded by the public or survive on public money are sponsors of a major event of HT Summit, an ego trip for the private media outlet. That’s the first lesson in leadership to learn: How to use your smooth connections with a political party to have govt companies shell out money for your luxury trip. If you were in place of HT would you care to return the favour? And if you were HT and part of the Unholy Trinity, would you care to ensure this nice party stays in power?

I know what you’re thinking. That this maybe a one-off year. Well, can’t tell because I haven’t been able to go into the 10-year record of HT’s Summit sponsors since they aren’t currently available. That might require an RTI inquiry with the govt, DAVP or with these govt companies. But what I can tell you is that this is no isolated case. Back in August 2011 the CAG was reporting certain wrong-doings in the contracts awarded to many parties. By Darth Vader, you will find the Unholy Trinity in there too. Remember how Times Now and the whole TOI group went after the CWG scam and Suresh Kalmadi? Well it was suggested by many that the main motivation for TOI going hammer and tongs at CWG and Kalmadi was not getting certain media contracts from the CWG organising committee. That was estimated at some 12 crores. Not really a big amount considering the size of the event and the size of scams we are used to. But who got the contracts? You get no prizes for guessing – the same Unholy Trinity of HT-NDTV-CNN-IBN.

Most of us are aware of “paid news”. Most of us are also aware of the huge spend on various dynasty ads of the govt. What we may be missing out is on the other leakages that aren’t quite evident to us routinely. I’m no RTI specialist or activist but I’m sure if an RTI is filed with the DAVP and govt companies it could well reveal the amount of ad spend on certain dedicated media outlets. Well, I suppose we shouldn’t complain. After all, Leadership isn’t free to learn! Especially, if it earns a tidy sum for some.