Arnaboxious - The Witch Hunter

This is a picture of woman being beaten up by a mob as you can plainly see. Her clothes have been torn by the mob as you can plainly see. Her name is Uma Khurana. She was a school teacher till LiveIndia accused her of running a sex-racket with school girls in a fake sting in August 2007. LiveIndia’s editor at that time was none other than Sudhir Chaudhary. The same guy has recently acquired more fame in the Jindal-Zee extortion sting. The fake sting not only damaged Uma Khurana personally, professionally and socially but also physically. She filed a case against LiveIndia but they may have settled it out of court later. TV channels don’t seem to learn. Still, a certain form of witch hunting continues on TV. This is now practiced in a much specialised form by Arnab Goswami (AG) on TimesNow. Kicking and screaming, interrupting speakers, badgering, often talking nonsense is an art that has been taken to a different level by the extremely obnoxious AG. This is not so when he does a one on one interview in his ‘Frankly Speaking’ where he appears to be far saner and civilised. So it’s safe to assume that what happens on his NewsHour is a deliberate “show”. If Arnab thinks it’s a great hit, he has to count as the biggest moron in news business.

The Witch-Hunter

Don’t know if AG is imitating Keith Olbermann of MSNBC or Sean Hannity of Fox. Throughout the last week or so AG has been carrying a series on Nitin Gadkari (NG) and his supposed fake investors. Fair enough! It’s the way that the whole expose is being organised each day as Part 1, Part 2… Part 14, Part 16, Part 19 (as of October 29), that makes one wonder if there is more to it than just exposing NG. One did not see such enthusiasm in exposing Robert Vadra, Salman Khurshid. The enthusiasm has to be journalistic and within levels of decency. Where the political aspect is concerned, nobody has any doubt that NG has blundered. That the funding of NG’s companies through allegedly fake investors is highly improper is not being debated. Whether these are illegal or not is for an inquiry to decide.

For starters AG had Anjali Damania with her silly SMSes as allegations. Then came another drama by Arvind Kejriwal & Co. that the media called a “damp squib”. But Arnab’s witch-hunt had actually started much before these events. He and TimesNow had started their inquiries into NG’s businesses early in August 2012. So till such time Arnab got some documents he played up the non-issues and when their allegations turned out damp-squibs he turned on to NG’s companies. What he did is a must and should be done. But the way it is being done smacks of a witch-hunt that seems to have a larger political objective.

The TimesNow reporters have been hounding NG like street dogs and have been chasing him all over the place. From RSS headquarters in Nagpur to the airport and chasing him like paparazzi. Those beat reporters should be as ashamed of themselves as AG should be. Take a look at the pics from TimesNow and also ABPNews. The reporters crowding all around NG and even making movement difficult. This is not just for NG; these street dogs that pass themselves off as reporters seem to think it is their birth-right to crowd individuals and shove their mics and cameras into people’s faces and bodies. PCI and NBA should outlaw this and issue an advisory to keep a clear distance of at least 6ft. from any individual the media wishes question. If not, these cowardly dogs should be sent to the municipal pound and made to spend a day with the dogs there to see how it feels.

And why are these TimesNow street dogs cowardly? Take a look at the second pic. This is one from a video that TNow repeatedly showed where Robert Vadra is getting into his car. Not one of the media dogs is anywhere near him. He is protected by those SPG guards and no one dared get anywhere near him to ask any question. So will these street dogs learn to respect individuals only when there are SPG or police around? Or when they belong to the Queen’s family? Same goes for the dogs from other channels. It is neither ethics nor professionalism that is being demanded. It is simple common decency that you don’t push and shove anyone, no matter what the issue is. And then AG demands answers for the nation. Thank you Arnab, obnoxious morons like you don’t need to speak for this nation!

That is one part of the story. Here is a tweet from the Monk. He suggests it is tough to cover Congress for a reporter but BJP loves media. Anyone who certified this guy a journalist should be stripped of his license to be a journalism-school principal. If Rajdeep doesn’t know that Opposition parties make their voices heard more through the media than govt voices then he should quit and tend his dog. In fact the news media itself is supposed to play an adversarial role to the govt of the day. On the contrary, our media seem to be slaves and parrots for the govt. Here’s the worse part: Because the BJP is more accessible for the media it seems Arnab and Rajdeep find cheap thrills in frequently targeting them rather than the real criminals in the govt. What does it say when post-release of the Jindal-Zee tapes Naveen Jindal goes on every news channel proclaiming his “innocence”? Where’s further investigation in Coalgate and of Naveen Jindal’s operations? And Jindal, the alleged coal-scammer, goes around certifying Rajdeep and Arnab as journalists with great ethics. The height of insults that Arnab can ever get is a comment, of all people, by a journalistic-bimbo who posted this comment about him on Madhu Kishwar’s website:

Sagarika Ghose, CNN IBN: Great piece on Arnab. He’s dangerous for TV news. Not all of us are like that though!

Imagine, the Social Genius of all people calling Arnab as “dangerous for TV”. Haha! That comment was in response to a scathing open letter Madhu Kishwar wrote to Arnab sometime back. (Read here). I also recommend that he read all the comments in response to that letter to realise how he has fallen in the eyes of viewers. So what makes AG behave in this fashion? Not sure, but I imagine years of playing third fiddle to Rajdeep and Barkha Dutt at NDTV could be one reason. The other reason could be to gain TRPs over NDTV and CNN-IBN. If that is true, then Arnab has to be pretty stupid. Any channel with decency and a fair bit of news can score over both NDTV and CNN-IBN quite easily. The simple advantage Arnab has over some other media celebs is nobody doubts his integrity. Not yet! But if he continues his theatrics and obnoxious witch-hunts people will indeed start doubting his integrity too.

Even within the BJP there is a strong opinion that Nitin Gadkari should resign. If not, he should definitely not be given another term as party president. This is apart from the man and the party welcoming a full inquiry. Arnab is within his rights to seek an inquiry. He has no moral right to witch-hunt anyone. All the channels were quick to discuss the Jindal-ZeeNews extortion episode. While that is a welcome change one wonders why they aren’t following up with an investigation on Naveen Jindal. If Zee is alleged to have sought payments for “silence” it does make me wonder if other channels have already been paid in some form or the other for “silence”. Everyone observing news channels was pretty clear that after the Robert Vadra and Salman Khurshid episodes the channels would go after a BJP personality for ‘balance’ and that would extend right till the HP and Gujarat elections. It does appear that Arnab has chosen it upon himself to be that obnoxious witch-hunter. There’s more bad news, Sunday Guardian even suggests it’s an attempt to “Hammer Gadkari to save Vadra and other scamsters” and I quote:

“Apparently, a strong word was conveyed that they should leave Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law well alone. Ministers, including I&B boss Ambika Soni, are said to have reached out to the media houses, gently suggesting that further interest in the doings of Robert Vadra and his multifarious business activities would be most unwelcome”.

None of this is lost on viewers and observers. There are some who believe Arnab’s belligerent witch-hunt of Gadkari is over a petty issue of not having got an interview like his close competitors did. Some believe what Sunday Guardian suggests. Whatever the motivation, Arnab would do well to control his belligerence on TV. He would do himself a lot of good if he treated his panellists and his targets with a certain level of decency and respect and not with obnoxious witch-hunts. There’s a 100 crore defamation suit against TimesNow; wonder what happened to that.

Note: WitchHunter image from www.dakkadakka.com.. modified by @Udgeetha

Like Rats Fighting A Plague

Media introspection! Self-introspection! This is what Rajdeep Sardesai screamed for the 2016th time on his show on October 25. Here’s what I wrote in the post “Confederation of Indian Agitators”. It was an attempt at a sarcastic look into some NGO operations: “In case you haven't heard, over the last decade or so there are many NGOs created whose job is to just channel funds. They are NGO “fund raisers”. Some are even supported by banks. They collect funds from Indians, NRIs and others and channel those funds to the NGOs of the choice of the donor. Their earnings come from commissions from the funds donated.”.

Last night on Karan (The Tool) Thapar’s show on CNN-IBN they were discussing the conviction of Rajat Gupta for insider trading. Most of our media members are in deep shock over the conviction of such a “good man”. The Social Genius even tweeted she had met him once and he spoke “perfect Bengali” (Mr President, take that warning!). The judge who convicted Gupta told him there are many good men in history who have committed bad deeds. Naturally, during the Tool’s show Ramalinga Raju and his good deeds came up for discussion. Sanjay Baru, former media advisor to PM, mentioned all of Raju’s good deeds. No, he wasn’t defending Raju in any way. None mentioned the difference that Raju is still being “tried” while Gupta’s trial is over and he’s been sentenced. In some part of the democratic world, crimes do get punished and fairly swiftly. In India we should trust Beni Prasad Verma who laughed that Salman Khurshid could even be involved in a scam of 76 lakhs. Yeah, even petty NGOs do better than that.

This here is the pic of the website of Quadriga Art. The site claims it’s a “global leader in direct marketing and creative services.  We offer nonprofit organizations, fundraising agencies and commercial brands innovative direct marketing campaign solutions that produce extraordinary results. For more than seventy years, Quadriga Art has helped value-driven clients raise money and create connections”. So you see, as the first para says, this fund-raising broker thing is becoming fairly common in India too. But here’s the surprise as Anderson Cooper reported in a series of NGO frauds that had some connection to Quadriga:

“But here's the problem: Not one dime has gone directly to help disabled veterans. Instead, CNN's Drew Griffin discovered the charity sends free stuff to veterans groups - stuff they say they didn't ask for and don't need. We're talking about thousands of bags of coconut M&Ms, bulk shipments of chef's aprons and military dress shoes. The veterans groups have had to sell the items to raise money so they could buy items vets actually do need. So, where did the nearly $56 million donated by Americans go? Griffin followed the money trail to a company called Quadriga Art, a company that specializes in fundraising. Quadriga Art and its subsidiaries have more than 500 charities on their client list, including DVNF. A source who had first-hand dealings with Quadriga tells us it’s the "financial equivalent of heroin addiction for charities".

Now, the list of NGO frauds that Cooper covered in his series on AC360 is too long to cover in a single post. Just search for “AC360 Charity fund frauds” and you will likely run into a coal mine. No, this coal isn’t in mother earth. What should trouble us is the number of NGOs in India who are similarly receiving a lot of funds but nobody knows where these funds are really going. The US Senate has launched an inquiry into the NGO fraud mess. In sharp contrast some of these Indian NGO operators are celebrated TV panellists, have received Padma Shri awards and some individuals are even on govt bodies. One such person is Binayak Sen who is a ‘convict’ but is on the Planning Commission. Mine is not to wonder if he is really guilty or not. But fact is he has been convicted and his conviction is under appeal. Even before he is cleared by courts the GOI puts him on the Planning Commission. I guess, considering his brilliance, Rajat Gupta too would be welcomed on the Planning Commission by the GOI.

Following the Thapar show Rajdeep Sardesai, the Monk, followed as usual. Following the Jindal-Zee extortion spat he had the same topic on his mind again: “Media introspection”. Following a series of introspections viewers will be convinced nothing will change. Rajdeep’s whole show can be summed up in one sentence of Justice Katju: “You want everybody to be regulated except yourself.. You are what? Lords and Gods”? Following another slap from Katju, Rajdeep will learn nothing. Following…. Never mind! If there was ever true and honest introspection, the news media would have wondered about many panellists they get on their shows that are dubious. Since we are on NGOs, let’s talk about Teesta Setalvad.

The most outrageous decoration ever has to be that of Teesta Setalvad. According to reports she is on ‘anticipatory bail’. Time and again the funding of her NGO, her fake affidavits and complaints from her own colleagues have been reported. In yet another damning report this is what The Pioneer carried today:

“The FCRA permission granted on November 21, 2007 to CJP by the Ministry of Home Affairs mentioned that “The bank account mentioned in your application should be used for receiving foreign contribution and no other amount should be credited to this account”. However, a local donation of Rs 10 Lakh, received from The Chatwal Groups by cheque no376284 dated 26/02/09, was deposited by CJP in this FCRA account… These were in clear violation of condition mentioned in the FCRA registration”. Huh? The Chatwal group? Oh, like Teesta got Padma Shri I recall somebody from The Chatwal Group was also awarded Padma Bhushan despite wide protests. Do read the full report in The Pioneer for the amazing transfer, handling and misuse of funds reported in Teesta’s NGO.

If newspapers are repeatedly carrying so many reports on wrong doings of Teesta how is it that she is such a favourite panellist with our TV channels? It doesn’t stop there. She not only gets a Padma award, she gets to be on Sonia Gandhi’s NAC. This is like a private club that drafts laws for the nation. Rajat Gupta must be regretting his misdeeds weren’t in India. He could have been making laws here. A convict on the Planning Commission, a tainted NGO operator in the NAC! What’s the message to ordinary citizens? Crime Pays? That’s not all Teesta is also on the govt’s Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). This is a body under the HRD ministry that influences decisions on education in India. No wonder many people joke that we might as well have Ajmal Kasab teaching marketing tactics in business schools.

The serious question is about the Coalgate issue being totally buried in the media. If Zee had, as alleged, blackmailed Naveen Jindal to the tune of 100 crores for silence why are the other channels silent on Jindal and Coalgate? Why shouldn’t one suspect that they have already been silenced through some form or the other? There is another case of payments by a steel company ISPAT to VBS (suggesting Virbhadra Singh of Congress) which has been in the news. The reports are around a page long in most sites and newspapers, including The Hindu (October 22). Buried in the report is one sentence that Rajdeep and others aren’t talking about yet. It says: “Mittal diary for 2006-2010 show routine payoffs to…. Payments to journalists for stopping negative articles and photographs are also listed in these cash accounts”. Why isn’t the media or the BEA or the PCI asking for these names? Shouldn't this raise quite an alarm in the media? Nothing!

The charade of introspection and self-regulation is as big a scam as Coalgate. Last night on Rajdeep’s show he had N. Ram as a panellist to discuss this so called “media introspection”. None of the channels has so far even vaguely reported the land grab case of N. Ram. Nothing! All the NGO representatives and business celebrities who often feature on media panels somehow turn out to be connected to some scam or wrong-doing or the other. That the media is the first line of defence for the corrupt is increasingly coming across as true. Corruption and scams are a nation-wide plague. The more one scams the more the respectability. Scams less than crores seem to have even lost respectability. The day illegal dealings and scams in the media start being punished severely I believe corruption will start diminishing in other spheres too. In the meantime, imagine a battalion of rats trying to protect you from plague. 

Zee News - Media Mafia Sinks To A New Low

Blackmail, extortion is not new to the news media. This is one of the reasons I call the media “India’sBiggest Mafia”. Here’s a report from Sucheta Dalal (from 2003) that I quoted in a previous post:

“Last week, the Mumbai police arrested Rishi Chopra of The Economic Times along with an accomplice (a former journalist with another business daily) in an alleged extortion attempt. The duo was trapped accepting a Rs 700,000 bribe which was the second installment of a Rs 2.5 million payoff to kill a report about the shenanigans of one Poonamchand Malu of Malu Financial Services. Worse, the pay-off itself had apparently been haggled down from an initial demand of Rs 10 million to Rs 2.5 million. Although corruption in the media is no longer news, the actual arrest of two scribes and the sums involved, marked a new low in this once honourable profession”.

We now have a new case where Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s company Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. (JSPL), in a reverse sting, has filed an FIR against officials of the Zee News group for blackmailing them to the tune of 100 crores for suppressing news related to their involvement in Coalgate. The FIR includes tapes of recorded conversations between JSPL officials and Zee representatives in at least three meetings. Currently, the blackmail is stated to be in the form of advertisements demanded by Zee. The tapes have been sent for forensic examination according to the latest reports (The Hindu – October 15).

This is what The Hindu states: According to the FIR, the meetings between JSPL officials and Zee representatives took place on September 13, 17 and 19 at a South Delhi hotel. On the first day, the FIR states, three JSPL officials met one of the journalists during which Rs. 20 crore was demanded in the shape of advertisements and in the second meeting the demand was scaled up.

None of this is surprising. I have been a witness to rival groups of publications blackmailing companies and seeking advertisements for many years. One can also safely assume that is a common practice in media. Some media outlets may be brazen and some maybe subtle but gentle arm twisting is a standard wide-spread practice. In this case, the sum being demanded or negotiated was huge (100 crores) and therefore it could seriously hurt a company already ravaged by accusations. The second aspect is that Coalgate is not a local or state issue. It’s a national issue. What I mean is that if there is a similar issue restricted only to Hoshiarpur or Coimbatore for instance, some local/state level newspaper can get away with blackmail for a smaller sum like 10-25 lakhs or thereabouts. In the case of Coalgate, even if JSPL had succumbed to Zee there is no guarantee some other news channel, a future JPC or SIT can suppress any real offences. So for both reasons the option with JSPL was not to succumb to the alleged blackmailing.

Here’s news that’s different from the past though. The Broadcast Editors’ Association (BEA) has quickly conducted an inquiry by 3-man bench. Livemint reports: “According to BEA’s press release, a committee comprising senior broadcast journalists N. K. Singh, Dibang and Rahul Kanwal arrived at the unanimous conclusion “that Mr. Sudhir Chaudhary is found to have acted in a manner that is unbecoming of an editor and in a fashion that is prejudicial to the interest and objects of the BEA”. Predictably, Zee News has stood by its employees and its editor. A legal process will have greater bearing on the end outcome as against the BEA decision. Of course, the BEA decision is absolutely right.

Now, I have some problems with that committee of BEA that conducted the inquiry. But before that here are some rants by a tainted journalist. Haha! Who else could it be? Her tweets are reactions that truly reflect the “Albatross” around her neck that I referred to in the post “Bark in the USA”. Barkha tweets about the Zee incident as if she possesses the “innocence of journalists”. Little does it occur to this media celeb that the crimes alleged against her in Radiagate are far more serious. The allegations of “lobbying and brokering” in cabinet and govt formation are far more serious allegations than the issue of blackmailing a company for advertisements in lieu of suppression of news. She even rants that nobody is talking about it. I wonder what stops NDTV from talking about it? Even channels and newspapers avoided Radiagate till it was inevitable. Worse, in her case (unlike the BEA in this case) the head of Editors’ Guild, Rajdeep Sardesai, even defended her nonsense. It looks like she has also forgotten her own tragic and disgusting program on NDTV when she tried to defend herself. So Barkha would do well to hold her horses. That “Albatross” around her neck is going to stay for a long time.

Barkha quotes The Hindu on the Zee News case. That brings us to another question. Why are all major media outlets absolutely silent in the case of N. Ram of The Hindu and the land related FIR against him?  Reports indicated he has even sought anticipatory bail. Would NDTV care to report? Oh hang on, does NDTV have some business tie up with The Hindu? I haven’t seen any tweets from Barkha on this. Never mind! We are selective in our outrage, you see?

Now, the BEA needs to be commended to for action against Sudhir Chaudhary. However, it would have been fair if they had “suspended” him instead of “expelling” him. The final verdict on the tapes is still to be established by the police. They could have waited a bit longer before expelling him. Not very important, but the committee itself could have been differently constituted. It has at least two members who are peers of Chaudhary, Dibang and Kanwal. Instead, they could have chosen a committee of non-media members which would have made their decision even more respectable. Still, considering how deep the media mafia runs this response by the BEA is definitely a welcome change. Before cleaning up corruption in politics and govt, it’s our news media that needs a large broom.