The Queen's Poodles Bending The Bunkum

Take a good look at these 2 pics below. It’s not a ‘find the 10 differences’ contest but it would be hard for anyone to miss the major difference. Just so you know the pic on the left is from the time when the Robert Vadra land scam was at its peak in the media and the one on the right is of Narendra Modi in Delhi on June 18.

On the right there is the usual crowd of uncouth, uncivilised reporters and cameramen crowding Modi’s vehicle pushing and shoving for some crumbs. The media refuses to stop this indecent behaviour by their members. Remember, Modi is under ‘Z’ security. Any of those cameramen could be a suicide bomber. And on the left is Vadra (in light grey suit) getting into his car accompanied by a bodyguard. Do you see any reporters or cameramen hounding him? None! This “Daamad” is also under Z security. Times Now captures his images like a thief or a spy from a good distance. No reporter or cameraman was picketing Vadra’s house for soundbites. Have you ever seen vehicles of Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi being mobbed by these mongrels any time? Fact: These people who hound everyone else cannot get within a mile of the Gandhi family. That’s the secret!

So a former NDTV beat reporter Sandeep Bhushan spilled the beans on the fake reports of Sonia’s Unhappiness in the Open Magazine. Sonia unhappy over Digvijay’s remarks over Karkare, Sonia unhappy over Jharkhand governor, Sonia unhappy over Rae Bareli roads, Sonia unhappy over Ashwani Kumar and Bansal. It’s a long list of “unhappy” Sonia. Sandeep Bhushan, as an insider, puts out the dirt on all the fake news about Sonia’s unhappiness that is being spun by the media. I have said before that Sonia may not be a wizard on any topic which is why she can’t directly take questions in the media or from the people. Even during the Delhi Gangrape protests in December 2012 her cronies picked out a group of six to have a “hugs and kisses” session with her to show how unhappy she was. Of course, spinning most of it is none other than the Queen’s first poodle: NDTV. Bhushan has worked with NDTV as also Headlines Today and the Open article destroys a lot of myths about Sonia. Her wisdom, intelligence, compassion and anger are all concoctions by her right-hand man Ahmed Patel and spun by channels like NDTV. That’s it! Nothing more!

Once the Open article was out there were others quick to jump on the spin-doctoring story but in all these 9 years none in the media ever bothered to ask any serious questions of SoniaG and they still don’t. Therefore, it is with great satisfaction that I record that sites like MediaCrooks and other SM sites have been more daring in questioning the media’s role and equations in managing SoniaG’s image as the Queen who can’t be touched. If you haven’t read of these following articles, I recommend you do:

June 2011: All The Queen's Poodles.... How media celebs and their beat reporters report and tweet fake interpretations to protect the Queen.

June 2011: Why Is Indian Media Scared Of Sonia Gandhi? Rahul Kanwal in a public meeting cuts off a question on SoniaG. This is where I started wondering why our media is so scared of the lady and fall at her feet like her durbaris.

July 2011: No wild allegations against Gandhis please – Where Rajdeep shuts out Vishwabandhu Gupta from talking about black money issues concerning the Gandhi family.

July 2012: Sonia's Supreme Sacrifice – The media, without a single question or investigation despite Subramaniam Swamy’s many statements, have concluded SoniaG made a great sacrifice by not becoming PM in 2004. They never bothered to ask if there were other reasons.

October 2012: Flanking The Queen & Protecting Her Secrets – How the media, along with Congress members, acts as a frontline defence force to protect SoniaG from anything and everything that is negative to the Congress or their govt.

October 2012: The Sonia Gandhi travel & health bulletin – On how SoniaG slips out of India in secret aircrafts and slips back in and how the media slaves ask no questions about her health under the garb of “private matter”.

November 2012: Rajdeep on deception lane – In which Rajdeep gladly defends Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald scam and asks “Where is the fraud”?

December 2012: Delhi Protests - When Chickens Run To The Media – On how the media allowed Sheila Dikshit to put up a tearful soap on TV and how Sonia Gandhi was so moved that she met a ‘select six’ over the Delhi Gangrape protests.

TV channels like NDTV owe their existence to “compassion” by the Congress and GOI and naturally by SoniaG. It is not very different for others. The tabloid Tehelka is practically a doormat for the party. The editors who scream and shout about Modi and everyone else probably piss in their pants or skirts when it comes to SoniaG. Such is the grip that the Congress has on their necks. Take a look at Rajdeep Sardesai’s programme over the National Herald newspaper building scam by the Gandhi family. He even asks “where is the fraud”? Sure enough, the media has quietly buried the National Herald scam and no one’s going to talk about it again. At CNN-IBN the beat reporter who was involved in the Cash4Votes sting stated he was made to feel like a “stray dog”. Is that any surprise Sandeep Bhushan now spills the beans on NDTV in similar fashion?

This is not a first for NDTV by any measure. Can anyone forget Radiagate? It will be etched in Indian media history as the expose of the biggest crony journalists who are in fact slaves of the Congress. Prannoy Roy himself has been accused of scams and cases have been filed in 1998 which have mysteriously disappeared. There is also a report on coastal regulations violation by Prannoy Roy in building luxury properties. How does he get away with all this? Crawling helps! Recently Vinod Dua’s public spat with Roy has been the target of much laughter on the social media. Then there is Khadija Ejaz, an intern at NDTV, who filed a damaging report about her experience with them (read NDTV: Train with the beast).

Barkha, Prannoy, Rajdeep, Arnab, Kanwal, ShekharG all claiming to be great champions of journalism must really look deep into their conscience (if they have one) and ask how they became poodles of the Queen and how they killed honest journalism by bending the bunkum for her. 

Barkha Dutt – Nira Radia Tapes & NDTV’s Response

In the famous blog by Chetanya Kunte after the 26/11 attacks which Barkha Dutt and NDTV decided was “appropriate” for legal action for defamation, NDTV managed to suppress Kunte’s voice, but made his blog and his message a phenomenal success on the net. They are now set to popularise the so far relatively unknown Open Magazine (OM). So not surprisingly, in response to the Barkha Dutt-Nira Radia tapes NDTV has once again chosen to play “victim” by using the D word. Defamation? It must be the primary education for any journalist or public figure that “truth” does not constitute defamation. It Exposes. And truth is the best defence against defamatory action. In the response to the expose NDTV has threatened to take “appropriate action”. (One has to wonder what that appropriate action would be – Mud-slinging? Legal action? Conducting a sting on Manu Joseph? Digging up juicy tit-bits from Joseph’s past? What could that possibly mean?)

NDTV’s response here.

Now then, NDTV has perhaps forgotten all the sting operations it carried against various people. Filming and recording people without their knowledge to be used against them as investigative journalism and as evidence in their reports. It is Barkha’s singular misfortune that she was trapped in the phone-tapping by government agencies when the primary target of investigation would appear to be Nira Radia. Let’s examine the NDTV response to the Open Magazine (OM) expose: (NDTV responses are in Red)

First, Barkha and NDTV have nowhere in their response questioned the authenticity of the tapes itself. Therefore, one must proceed with the belief that they accept the tapes to be authentic and accurate (unless they question it in future statements)

“In response to the Open Magazine cover story dated 20th November, 2010 NDTV would like to object in the strongest terms to the clear misrepresentation of conversations between Barkha Dutt and Ms. Nira Radia, that took place in May 2009.”

What exactly was the misrepresentation? The report was the tape and the transcript. So where exactly did Barkha find misrepresentation? On the contrary, I wonder if such an explosive tape about some other people had landed in the hands of NDTV how would Barkha handle it. It would have been with extraordinary cacophony and screaming headlines and even conviction of the people involved as guilty by Barkha herself.

“In the pursuit of news and information, journalists talk to an array of people from all professional backgrounds; this case being an  unfolding political story on cabinet formation, after the general elections.”

Sure, we expect journalists to talk to a lot of people from all walks of life. Journalists talk to politicians, businessmen, lobbyists, terrorists, criminals, maoists. And they should in the interest of fair reporting.  However, it is not just WHO you talk to but WHAT you talk about that is also significant. If the Barka-Radia conversation was one where a journalist was seeking inputs or even inside information on political formations that would be perfectly legitimate. Is that the case here? My interpretation is different and each person hearing that may have a different interpretation.  But what would be the inference made by a “reasonable” man? Laws are made on the assumptions of people behaving and acting reasonably.  In the case of this conversation it doesn’t seem reasonably convincing that it was merely journalistic pursuit in an unfolding political story. All the more so since it appears that it is the “person” calling the journalist frequently when normally it would have been the other way around.

“The fact that the very editor of the magazine that has published this story accepts the distortion in the story's caption and goes on to say that there is nothing "remarkable" in the content speaks for itself.”

No where in the NDTV response does Manu Joseph say anything of that sort. Also,  I am sure Joseph will respond to NDTV’s stand in due course in his own magazine under a response in his name. Interpreting private communication between Barkha and Joseph does not constitute anything. The word “distortion” also does not appear to be one used by Manu Joseph, it is clearly NDTVs interpretation.

“NDTV believes the magazine should first verify and corroborate facts before participating in a defamatory smear campaign.”

I completely agree. Only, this is fundamentally no smear campaign against NDTV. It is just co-incidence that in exposing lobbyists like Nira Radia, Barkha Dutt happened to be one she communicated with. However, who should OM verify with? With NDTV or Nira Radia or Barkha Dutt? NDTV forgets that the expose is not primarily to tarnish NDTV or Barkha but a report that adds to the fire that is the 2G Spectrum scandal. Such noble thoughts do not seem to occur to NDTV or Barkha in their own reporting. Let me just quote a few examples: Where was corroboration for all the ranting of Teesta Setalvad against Narendra Modi or NDTV’s own ranting against Modi? Where was all the corroboration for the humiliation heaped on Arushi’s parents in that infamous murder case? Where is all the corroboration for the explosive “saffron terror” syndrome?

It doesn’t seem to be apparent to Barkha Dutt and NDTV that the phone conversations were tapped by a government agency investigating serious economic offences or criminal activities. The target of the investigation obviously seems to be Nira Radia. In all of Radia’s conversations anyone else could have been at the other end of the telephone line. A politician, a corrupt businessman, a criminal, a money-launderer. But the fact remains that it happened to be journalists in this particular expose. In this case Barkha Dutt and in another Vir Sanghvi. If anything, this has only served to strengthen the public belief that our journalists are no different from our politicians.And there is no reason to believe that the government agencies do not possess tapes of Radia's conversation with many other people too.

Barkha is also extremely fortunate that NDTV has chosen to respond to this expose in her support. Does it mean the conversations Barkha was having with Nira Radia was approved by or in knowledge of NDTV? Any major organisation would have typically stated that the conversation Barkha was having was in her “individual and private” capacity. This is also a warning for all media channels not to have their brand names be so heavily associated with "personalities". A media channel needs to be bigger than personalities. Else, one flawed celebrity would be enough to bring the house down.