The Unethical Scoundrels At TimesNow

Linda Tripp would have made a great chief editor at TimesNow or any of the TOI outlets. Linda who? Linda Tripp is famous for her involvement in the Monica Lewinsky – Bill Clinton Oval office affair. Linda was a friend and co-worker of Lewinsky and had secretly recorded telephone conversations with the latter where she had confided in Tripp about her affair at the White House. Tripp claimed she was doing this because she is a patriot. She should have been prosecuted and would have spent time in jail under her State laws but she bought immunity with Clinton’s prosecutors in exchange for the tape and was thus spared. Wiretapping and recording without the knowledge of the other person is illegal and punishable in the US. The only escape could be self-defence under certain circumstances. For many years Linda Tripp has been among the most loathed and despised woman in her country. She is seen as an epitome of betrayal of trust and friendship. We all know what or who a scoundrel is but, still, for the record:

Almost every reporter in TimesNow qualifies for the title and the description. In their quest for silly soundbites there is nothing that their reporters haven’t done. They have stalked people, poked mics into their faces and bodies, poked mics and cameras into their cars, shouted and screamed at them, refuse to take “no comment” as an answer and keep pestering beyond tolerance. They have even stalked residences of people and harassed spouses of political targets accused of something or merely for soundbites. Remember how these same scoundrels made a grand theatre of the Rohtak “Belter sisters” right into their village, home and interviews with family? All for a kick! Here’s a pic from December 11 with one of their scoundrels badgering a guy:

I don’t know the stupid reporter’s name and it doesn’t matter. Because Arnab Goswami wants to rant and scream every night like his pants were on fire, his reporters have picked up the same habit and cult. They believe others are not humans and are perhaps pigs and deserve to be treated that way. 

The guy in the TimesNow pic is supposedly Rajeshwar Singh of some Dharam Jagran Manch. The TimesNow reporter kept barking at him repeatedly on the issue of conversions even when the guy kept saying he had nothing to say. She tells him “You gave soundbites in the morning, why can’t you give me soundbites now”? What is that supposed to mean? That she has a God-given or Constitutional entitlement to soundbites? No matter what you want to accuse someone of, when the person says “no comments” a respectable reporter can push a little bit but in the end should be able to take “no” for an answer. Looks like all the TimesNow reporters (and most from other channels too) have studied journalism from the School for Scoundrels. And like Linda Tripp one of their scoundrels named Samia tries to con a Delhi police officer (over the Uber rape case) in this video (3.04 mins):

Imagine the unscrupulous rogue’s brazen deception. That’s how Arnab would word it. She calls the officer on the phone, tells her its “off record” and shamelessly plays it on the speaker phone and the TimesNow editors gladly play it too. This is why the Editors Guild of India is a bunch of shameless morons that I call a “Union of snakes”. For this blatant betrayal and unethical practice, the reporter should have been sacked and so too the studio editor who let it play. But as we have all come to learn, for the scoundrels in the media, ethics are for others. They will moralise the whole country but will behave like third-rate unethical scoundrels themselves. Is this a one-off stray case that happened accidentally? Not at all, here’s a previous one which is clearly wilfully done with a guy called Naveen Tyagi of Hindu Mahasabha in the first week of December (1 min):

Now this Tyagi guy wants to brand and ban all “item girls” as prostitutes. I have shortened the video to the relevant part to demonstrate the point but you can watch the full 5-minute video on Youtube. It is interesting how this works. First, they tell you (and have obviously told Tyagi) that this is “off camera”. In which case, why were they still recording it? Any answers? And having video-recorded that “off camera” conversation they air it claiming it is in public interest. The perfect opportunity for Arnab’s little underwear, the scoundrel called Anand Narasimhan, to go on a self-righteous rant with a hashtag #MoralMonster, when it is Timesnow anchors and reporters who are the real #MoralMonsters. Who are these people? And do all Hindus really follow the “diktats” of any Sabha or individual as these morons rant?

The rant is that Timesnow wants to show their “mindset”. You and I may not agree with what Tyagi thinks about item-girls but that is irrelevant. The fact is the conversation was off-record. Supposing you and I were talking on the phone and you were to tell me “between you and me, Arnab is having an affair”. I promise to keep it to myself and not disclose the conversation but the very next day I tweet about it, what would you say to me? How would you feel and what would you think of me?

As soon as the Timesnow scoundrels aired the “off record” video, the anchors got hold of a few women activists who condemned Tyagi, the Hindu Mahasabha and everyone on Jupiter too. Not surprisingly, there were a few idiots who told Timesnow they will carry out protests against Tyagi and his Sabha for going to SC with such an appeal (to declare item girls as prostitutes). These are the morons that Timesnow encourages as virtuous people. Tyagi has not threatened to attack, kill or carry out mass agitation against item-girls nor has posed any physical threat to them. Going to court (no matter how stupid your demand) is the most reasonable thing to do in a democracy. Why would the moron-friends of Timesnow want to protest against that? But this foolish outrage is exactly what Arnab and his stupid bimbos want to provoke. It doesn’t stop there because the agenda of these scoundrels runs deeper as the related TOI report will establish:

“Times View

The Hindu Mahasabha leader's comments on what kind of clothes women should wear and why item girls should be treated as prostitutes smacks of the medieval mindset that is exhibited by outfits like the Taliban or the Islamic State. What is alarming is that such statements are becoming increasingly frequent in India from right wing groups of all hues, some citing religion and others caste traditions as their justification for moral policing. The prime minister should be aware that at least some of these groups feel emboldened by the perception that there is now a government that is sympathetic to their viewpoint. Mr Modi has repeatedly emphasized that he wants to build a modern India that can hold its head high in the global community. Unless such groups are reined in, India's image can only take a beating, at home and abroad”.

There you go! That’s the agenda. First play a video that is meant to be off-record and shouldn’t have been played at all. Give a fake explanation that they play this in public interest when there was no public threat at all of any kind. All that Tyagi did was express an opinion and said he will approach the SC. Even if that is a “mindset” that is not agreeable Timesnow had no business to betray his confidence and fool people. But, obviously, the juice is that they want to connect it to PM Modi and claim it damages India’s image.

Surgical procedure: Play an off-record conversation where people often tend to blabber a lot. Claim it poses a serious threat to society when there is none. Concoct a political angle and agenda by somehow blaming Modi and the BJP for such instances and go on a rampage. And these are the scoundrels who moralise and sermonise the world about ethics.