The Surrogate Interview

For many reasons I cannot disclose many intricate details in this post but I will offer enough for readers to ponder. Surviving online with some kind of news outlet or media-watch site is a tough job. Some like Firstpost may be well-funded and have the access of Network18 to rely upon for content and distribution. Don’t know how Rediff does but it has online shopping business too. Sites like NitiCentral have to rely on limited access to news networks. Last year a satire site had to bite the dust and merge with an MSM branch to survive. Many have to make compromises that are forced entirely by their grim financial situation. You know, like the old boxing mafia in the US used to do. They fixed matches, up and comers were forced to take a dive and promising careers were killed. Here’s half a true story:

“My night. I could've taken Wilson apart that night. So what happens? He gets a title shot outdoors in the ballpark, and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palookaville. I was never no good after that night, Charley. It was like a peak you reach, and then it's downhill. It was you, Charley. You was my brother. You should've looked out for me a little bit… You should've taken care of me just a little bit instead of making me take them dives for the short-end money. You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am. Let's face it”.

"The medium is the message" said Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. If you tune into TimesNow or CNN-IBN or NDTV or an online site like Newslaundry you know pretty much what you’ll get. You know NDTV is alleged to have indulged in financial frauds and indirectly “facilitated” their IT assessment officer for “speedy disposal” (as the DLF chairman calls it). We have also seen the propaganda, plagiarism with fake videos and fake reports, fake tweets to support lobbying on some issue and even outright lies by some of them. Take a look at this:

 

So the crooks at NDTV believe “guilty by association” is legitimate news reporting. Of course, this is couched in clever trickery of not being inaccurate but the tweet by India TV exposes what the scumbags and scumbaginis at NDTV really are. They don’t miss even a remote chance to tar and malign Narendra Modi. So that’s what brings us to the question: why would Narendra Modi appear on a show in which this corrupt channel is a media partner? The answer isn’t simple. The other two associates of this event are Facebook (FB) and Newslaundry (NL). Who initiated this event is not clear to the public but based on evidence we have to assume since this is a social media event it is a Facebook event. But chances also are that the event was “concocted” in association by one or more of the partners or their PR brokers. The event is called “Candidates 2014” and is supposedly …. Well take a look at what NL said:

NL first put up a page that said (as in the first para of text) “Madhu Trehan interviews prime-ministerial front-runners”. Ha! What a scam! It included the convict Lalu Prasad who can’t even contest elections and others were Modi, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav. So people pointed out this blooper and a few hours later this was changed to “… top contenders”. Top contenders for what? The speaker’s position in the next LS? The silliness of the new title seems lost on NL. Notice that under the text it says “You can be the first to comment” and that is in the revised page. For some reason NL deleted around 90 comments that I had seen when the page was first up on February 20. They even put up a notice saying comments for the thread are closed as the pic on the left shows. If everything is clean and transparent why all this skulduggery?

Kanchan Gupta, who heads NitiCentral, put out this a tweet and stated it’s an open event and anybody can broadcast and Niti too will broadcast. That was enough to start a scramble between the advertised partners of the event and that’s where the fun part starts. Here is an exchange between KanchanG and Barkha Dutt (who else could it have been?):

So the group editor of NDTV says “from what I understand” they are exclusive broadcast partners. The last tweet above from KanchanG says he heard differently (in another tweet he mentioned from Modi’s office) that it was a FB event and that he will be broadcasting it anyway. Elsewhere, Vikram Chandra, the usually amiable guy from NDTV, had a clear indication of what anyone else broadcasting the event would tantamount to:

Okay, so VikramC says it would be piracy. FB’s also said NDTV and NL are partners in this grand event. However, press releases weren't all that clear. So let’s now get a bit more into this puzzle.

 

On being asked about this deal and why others can’t broadcast, Abhinandan Sekhri, a founder and investor in NL, has this answer as shown in the tweet. Oh yeah! “Not sponsored by anyone… tu nahi samjhega”. So according to AS it’s an NL-FB event and NDTV is the “partner”. Err… “Tu nahi samjhega”! I agree with that part. Nobody understands. AS is an AAP member and the same arrogance that runs through AAP statements runs through this guy’s dialogue too. AS is the one who actually runs NL. Everything in NL is managed by him. Madhu Trehan just does her ‘Clothesline’ once a week or so. AS is also a vendor for NDTV. He runs a firm called ‘SmallScreen’ which produces videos, animations and scripts for many clients. So, without a doubt, AS is a talented guy and the animations and sketches you see on NL mostly come from him and, evidently, his team from SmallScreen.

Like I said in the beginning, it is hard to sustain an online news or satire site in India. Madhu Trehan has often asked the question on whether they should seek sponsors or subscriptions from viewers. I don’t think the subscriptions route worked all that well. So it is likely that NL didn’t have a sustainable revenue model. Remember, this was supposed to be a media-critic and analyst. NL did that job pretty well; bringing out the hypocrisies, ironies and idiosyncrasies frequently. It also did a fine job on putting some of the media celebs on the mat in its interviews. All this was under the heady tagline “Sab ki Dhulai” (Washing everyone or thrashing everyone – depending on how you read it). But looks like they finally ran out of detergent. NL has now gone the MSM way partnering a channel with allegations of corruption and financial fraud.

The change at NL was visible about 10-15 days ago I think. Their site was down for maintenance they said and then it came up in a new avatar and design. What struck me most was a stingingly spiteful article against Tarun Tejpal’s “rape victim” on Valentine’s Day. The writer poured scorn on the victim and made out Tejpal to be the victim of her malicious campaign sort of. Cleverly, as with other MSM morons, the writer of this spiteful and hate-filled article calls Tejpal’s prey “MsTehelka-Assault-Victim”. Astonishing! Why is she Tehelka’s victim and not Tejpal’s victim? Is this the honest discourse Madhu Trehan had promised NL readers? But then Madhu was always an MSM member. Some things don’t change. The name of the author of that article? Nirupama Sekhri! Nice! So that should tell you how NL is now following the “Tejpalisation” of media. Tejpalisation essentially involves reckless writing, writing propaganda for one particular party and their friends and slowly turning a rape victim, in the case of a media celebrity, into the offender. NL as you knew it is over. As a reader points out “Get used to it”! How did this turnaround or compromise happen? It’s not very hard to guess or should I say “Tu nahi samjhega”? I estimate the ownership pattern of NL itself might have changed.

Let’s look at the line up for the event. There’s Modi, Lalu, Akhilesh, Kejriwal and MamataB. Would Modi have agreed to an event initiated by NL? I don’t think so. Would Modi have agreed to an event initiated by NDTV? Fly a kite! Therefore, the only possibility is Facebook would have initiated it and roped in Modi. Besides, who would really want to listen to Lalu or Akhilesh? I don’t know, maybe an “organised” mob. What about Kejriwal? What exactly would be special about AK in another event? He is on TV almost 24X7 there is nothing that anyone can learn anew from his tape-recorded “Ambani is corrupt, Modi is corrupt and you are corrupt” dialogues. MamataB? Maybe a few but she is no way a major attraction beyond Bengal. In short, without Modi this event would have been still-born. And the only entity that could have roped in Modi is FB. KanchanG suggests Modi’s office wasn’t aware of the other partners of the event.

Leave aside FB. One of the other two partners probably created the event and one of them got FB to sell it to Modi (and the others) because it’s clearly unlikely Modi would have agreed to. And is it all for free? No sponsors? I sincerely doubt it. In fact Modi supporters aren’t very happy that he would be appearing on NDTV, a channel that abused him for a decade and still continues to abuse him in very “clever” ways as the first tweet in this post shows. So what happened? NDTV got a surrogate interview to telecast that they otherwise wouldn’t have got. Modi has appeared in interviews with Timesnow and CNN-IBN over the years but not in a major exclusive with NDTV. This is their kill in response to exclusive interviews on another channel. In the following lines that I quoted in the beginning lie an answer:

“You should've taken care of me just a little bit instead of making me take them dives for the short-end money…” Who took the dives for the short-end money? That’s for you to figure out. All I can say for sure is that NL as a media-critic brand is over. In its new avatar you will find it more directly aligned with one of the MSM outlets. As for NDTV, its pathetic slide down the drain will continue and with the prospect of a political change at the centre their future doesn’t look too bright. NL may temporarily glow under the lights of this event but I would have to once again quote but rephrase the lines in the 2nd para:

“You don't understand. You coulda had class. You coulda been a contender. You coulda been somebody instead of a…”

Sreenivasan Jain Vs Niti Central

In case you haven’t already read the previous post ‘NDTV & Tehelka – Faking Limits’ I recommend you do. This is because this post concerns the programmes aired by NDTV on June 27 on the Ishrat Jehan encounter case. The entire 90 minutes (30 in the afternoon and 60 at night) of the programming rests on some CBI papers of “Black beard-White beard” that NDTV claimed proved Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had advance information of the encounter. I just call it the “Beard story”.

The MSM is now getting frequently rattled by articles scrutinising their shows like a surgeon. Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV is upset. Very very upset! He was the one who aired the “beard” stories. In response to his show Kartikeya Tanna at NitiCentral criticised some of the points raised by Jain. A critical part of Tanna’s article (which was also mentioned in my previous post) reads as under:

Journalistic incompetence or predetermined mind?

Firstly, in the report (at 5:25), he (Jain) actually says that the High Court has already established the Ishrat encounter as fake. One wonders what is left for the CBI and the courts to do! In fact, only around two weeks ago, when the CBI obsessed over the LeT links of the dead, the High Cpurt told it to focus on whether the encounter was fake. Whether this is pure journalistic incompetence or a predetermined mind, I would let readers decide.

That’s right if the High Court had already established Ishrat’s encounter was “fake” there’s not much left to do for the CBI and the courts except for the guilty to be sentenced. This claim that the court had already established the encounter was fake is damaging to Jain’s case and he makes it the principal point of a lengthy rebuttal to Niti Central. Here’s a pic as an excerpt from that rebuttal:

Aha, why am I posting an image instead of just quoting Jain? Well, you see pages have this nasty habit of disappearing from NDTV’s website or contents get altered. So what you see in the pic was what it was at 9.13pm on June 29. Jain’s claim that HC had accepted it as a fake encounter appeared at 5.25 in the video posted at NDTV website per Tanna (which Jain refers to as 5.30). So Jain uses “perhaps” and says he heard the discussion at the counter indicated by Tanna but couldn’t find it there. Amazing! The link that Tanna provides in his article for the 5.25 reference and which Jain now refers to both lead to this LINK of the report. Voila! The video is a report by anchor Kajori Sen (who wasn't anchoring the original show) and shows Jain reporting on the case. There’s just one problem with the video as this image shows:

Note carefully, in the above pic of the video the timestamp is June 27, 19.03 and the length is only 3.30 mins. Now why in the world would Tanna be stupid enough to point at a counter at 5.25 when the video itself only 3.30? And Jain in his rebuttal points to this same video and claims he has heard it and finds he hasn’t claimed HC had accepted the “fake” stuff. Mystery! Well Jain may have the “original” video which has simply DISAPPEARD from the NDTV website. That original “Beard story” was a full length half hour programme on June 27 around 3.30pm of around 25 minutes. That video has conveniently disappeared from NDTV’s site and replaced by this video of 3.30mins. Now even the link provided in the Niti Central article naturally leads to this wrong video.

So what was in the video of the Beard-story that aired at around 3.30pm on June 27? Well, I had watched it and I guarantee that Tanna has correctly quoted Jain claiming HC accepting the encounter was fake. On the left is a tweet that Jain sent at 3.29pm on June 27 just claiming his “breaking news” on the Beard-story. So what happened in that afternoon show of June 27? Well, since the video has disappeared I reproduce below few facts from it from my memory. And I assure you, this cannot be disputed by NDTV. So here it goes:

1) Around 3.30pm on June 27 Sreenivasan Jain broke the Beard-story about Modi and Shah being aware of the encounter prior to the incident. This because NDTV “accessed” some CBI papers. 2) Jain was reporting from the studio and had his reporter Rohit Bhan joining in from Ahmedabad. 3) I recall a female reporter from Mumbai adding sound-bites but I am not sure so we will let this one pass. 4) The two main participants on Jain’s show in the afternoon were Jaynarayan Vyas of the BJP and Vrinda Grover, the lawyer for Ishrat’s family.

5) From the beginning of the show Jain was kicking and screaming at Vyas about the new evidence and Vyas fumbled for answers at this sudden badgering. It was at this point that Vyas offered a reason that the matter was still before the High Court.. and Srinivasan instantly responded by saying the High Court had already accepted the encounter was fake. This is what happened at 5.25 in the programme as mentioned by Tanna. As for Vrinda Grover she was just screaming angrily she’s not a Congress agent and the case is not manipulated by Congress and this shouldn’t be made a Congress-BJP fight. For good measure she also screamed that there is a whole lot of anti-Muslim sentiment that led to such “fake” encounters. There was nothing more of substance in that show.

That is the crux of the problem that makes the rebuttal of Jain hollow and unacceptable. Because the video of the afternoon show has been conveniently removed by NDTV. I do not know Kartikeya Tanna or anyone at Niti Central. But having read Tanna’s past articles I can vouch that he places great value on facts, avoids distortion and writes his stuff in a very measured tone.

In this case Jain is wrong and he should put up the full video of his afternoon shown on June 27 which will conclusively establish Tanna is absolutely right in his observation. Period! Now then, after posting his rebuttal at 9.13 pm on June 29, Jain grandly claims in a tweet at 9.21pm “Chapter closed”. Well dear Sreenivasan, chapter is not closed unless you reload the original video from the afternoon of June 27 for the public to see the truth. NDTV dropped its original tagline “Experience truth first” a long time back and Jain should figure out why. Having watched that afternoon show myself I stand by Kartikeya Tanna’s article and his observations. Based on the above, in ‘Sreenivasan Jain V Niti Central’ you decide.

From My Inbox To Fib-erals

Here’s classic prose: “We Jesuit-educated, English newspaper-reading citizens who are “hostage to the Delhi-based bogus Left-liberal commentariat”. Also, apparently, the “drum-beaters of the Establishment”. This description of us is from the mission statement of the just-launched Niti Central, a news website promoted by Friends of the BJP…  and funded by Rajesh Jain, one of the country’s most well-known Internet entrepreneurs (he sold his company for Rs. 499 crore in 1999 to Ramalinga Raju who was arrested for fraud a decade later)”. Ahem! That is someone who goes by the name of Priya Ramani, writes columns for Livemint (“We the endangered people” September 8). The article is not very different from how Prakash Karat defends political murders by CPM goons. Rajesh Jain who funds NitiCentral also sold something to Ramalinga Raju who was arrested for fraud and therefore NitiCentral is born out of blood-stained money I suppose. Clever, very clever, isn’t it?

I get some mails every day. Most of these have compliments, suggestions, links to articles or incidents worth covering on this blog. I will share some of these mails and also some tweets from those in the media as we go along. Here’s a mail I received from a self-confessed “elite”, also a fan of this blog, who mentions the Delhi circle of ‘crème-de-la-crème’ doesn’t accept my articles too well for some reasons. (No reference to Ramani). Frankly, I don’t expect them to, no matter what. 

The mail further states that my being from Gujarat makes the posts suspect for them. (Er.. tainted like RajeshJain-funded?) Ah well, given their persuasions it would snow in Gujarat in May if the same posts were to be written from Kumbakonam I suppose. Still, the writer of the mail seemed to argue my case with friends. My reply was:  What is written is more important than who writes it. And my added advice to this friend was not to argue for me: “It’s better to lose an argument than lose a friend”. That’s a value system. Values can change, principles are enduring.

Here’s a tweet from someone who calls herself a columnist. Not exactly a big celebrity, but a columnist is mostly an “Opinionist”. Yeah, a lot like Ramani. Although the tweet wasn’t to me it refers to MediaCrooks and suggests undisclosed profiles lack courage. My response to that is also given. The reason I have blacked out her name is that this could have come from any of those media celebs who use this line when they run out of rationale. In just a few minutes this pompous, opinionated columnist will discover what some journalists on the ground really think. Come to think of it, the nation owes a great debt to the person who leaked the Radiagate tapes. That’s an anonymous person who hasn’t been identified. Imagine, if instead of Simon Denyer of WaPo someone called Maneetar Dumbari had written the same “tragic figure” article in a newspaper in Bihar, the media or PMO wouldn’t even have heard of it. That’s true, our elites are so steeped in the celebrity cult that any view counts only if it has a “tag” on it. That’s when commie-liberals, no Fib-erals, stand up and take notice. 499 Crores does get the attention of Priya Ramani. Doesn’t surprise me!

Over a decade ago I read a book about P&G, one of the most respected companies in the world. It was titled “Winning with the P&G 99” by an ex-employee, Charles Decker. The book deals with the 99 principles that made and keep P&G a great company. I have never forgotten some of those principles and here’s one of them:

“The prevailing attitude (in P&G) is that WHAT is right is far more important than WHO is right. Facts, truth, logic have far more authority at P&G than any individual” --Brad Butler, former P&G Chairman.

It’s a principle that is imprinted in my mind. Which is why I also hold the principle that what is written is more important than who writes it. This blog rarely relies on mere opinions. The posts attempt the best to use hard, indisputable facts. But since logic and reason don’t work with prejudiced minds this site also generously uses sarcasm, humour and gentle ridicule. But hey, facts, logic, truth aren’t for our supposed MSM journalists most of whom neither have principles nor values. Facts, truth, logic have far more authority at P&G he says. In his G+ Hangout, Narendra Modi made an important point. “Criticism needs research. In absence of that it will be just allegations”. Because our media celebs don’t research and merely peddle opinions, there is a consistent and glaring disconnect that is easy to expose. Naturally, it makes them feel “endangered”.

Here’s another mail. This one is from a mainstream journalist as he refers to himself. He says “don’t tell anyone… I might get fired”. He’s a Journalist, not an opinionated columnist like the tweeter and Ramani earlier.That’s the life journalists who are not celebs live. I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me either. I guess the man must have checked up the whole internet to find out who I am, where I live and what dark organisations I am associated with before he wrote to me. Haha! That’s what media celebs are scared of – simple facts and truths. But the hardworking journalists on the ground know what they go through, how their voices are suppressed or their notes twisted.

Here’s another one. Surprise! Again from a journalist! Now, “detailing” is not possible unless you fact-check. You don’t have to fact-check to peddle opinions. Read the blogs and columns from most media celebs, you can easily tell they are not only very personalised opinions but also agenda-driven. The honest truth is, the journalists in the mails have simply gone by what’s written on this site and not by who writes it. That’s the true test of how good a message or article is. That will be the day when celebs in the MSM start evaluating their own values, principles and prejudices reflected in their writes and tweets.

Now here’s another principle from the P&G 99: If a decision has to be made in the absence of facts, never confuse personal opinions with informed judgment. Specifically, ''The data suggests...'' is safer than beginning with “I think” or “In my opinion”…That’s perfect advice for many of our columnists.

Now here’s a tweet that should shock those who still believe an “ID tag” is what counts if what is written has to be worth it. This is not from a follower or a fan of this blog. This is from a very prominent reporter who is on News TV almost every day. The person knows me as much as the person whose tweet I quoted first. Zero, absolute stranger! The most abused line on TV has to be: “Having said that...” Next time you hear that line you can easily identify the ‘opinionated’ hawker. Why would a reasonable person say something and then go on to say something contradictory? Even worse, if they have to say “having said that...” then why say that thing in the first place? 

So you see, the problem with our media crooks is not the identity really. It is that ordinary people can openly and courageously say the right thing freely but the crooks are bound by the agenda of the organisation they are chained to. Not facts, truth or logic! The other thing to learn is that hardworking journalists on the ground have absolutely nothing in common with the opinion-peddling, opinion-swinging celebs and anchors. There could be more surprises in store.