Rajdeep Sardesai Blames ‘Corrupt Society’ For Media Weakness

Thats right! In a seminar hosted by Divya Bhaskar in Ahmedabad on Saturday, 18^th December Rajdeep Sardesai blamed the ills of the media on a corrupt society.

The DNA reports: "Today's TV viewer or reader is only in search of crime and cricket which eventually affects the credibility of the journalists," said Padmashree Rajdeep Sardesai. He added that the media at times seems week due to a corrupt society. So because people are crazy about crime stories, cinema and cricket, journalists are willing to sacrifice ‘credibility’? He also went on to say "At times, we take our viewers for granted."

I wonder how Rajdeep came to this great scientific conclusion that media is weak because of a corrupt society. What makes up ‘society’? Politicians and journalists are a very small number when compared to our populous society. The number of influential businessmen is even smaller when compared to politicians and journalists. So this extraordinary logic that a corrupt society is to blame for media ills is wanton and thoughtless at best.  Society has largely been a victim of corruption and not the perpetrator. Society is largely made up of ordinary men and women who work or do business and lead an honest life. A big chunk of society barely makes ends meet.  It is the number of corrupt people in powerful places that is a very small number in comparison.  The media is a slave to this very small population of the corrupt and not of the society.  To blame society for media’s problems is like blaming the rape victim for being provocatively dressed.  And this comes from Rajdeep Sardesai, the Chief Editor of CNN-IBN, a channel which does not exactly cover itself in glory where honest reporting is concerned. (Read the CNN-IBN fake tweets article here.)

Being credible, honest, fair are choices any professional makes. That applies to journalists too. In what way does society influence media to be anything else? On the contrary it’s the media that has the power to indulge in propaganda and lop sided stories. If stories of adulterous professors get greater TRPs then it’s the media that plays it up for drama, don’t blame society.  Rahul Mahajan’s spat with his wife from a reality show was a prime time main story on CNN-IBN. Who runs these stories?  Does society ask for such crap on a news channel? There are many other channels specialising in such dirt, what makes Rajdeep’s channel make such non-issues a major headline? Rajdeep should know that the biggest business on the internet is pornography. So if porn were to be legalised in India would CNN-IBN be peddling porn stories because it’s very popular and demanded? What kind of twisted logic is that, Rajdeep? Pray what part of society compels CNN-IBN to use fake tweets to support or legalise lobbying? What compels TV channels to dish out biased reports day in and day out? Society’s demands may compel competition, but does it compel journalists to act as power brokers with lobbyists like Nira Radia?

Rajdeep Sardesai should find better reasons for media’s weaknesses and not blame society.

CNN-IBN – Indian Of The Year – The Sham Awards

Here’s the announcement on their webpage:  CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2010, the biggest and the most credible award of the nation is back in its 5th edition. Most credible? Right now, ‘credible’ is the last word to describe anything concerning Indian news media. Least of all a channel headed by Rajdeep Sardesai, the man who likes the line ‘Hammam mein sab nangen hain’.

The problem is when supposed ‘news’ channels start giving out awards, especially calling those awards ‘Indian Of The Year’.  This blog has consistently protested a news outlet giving out awards as this is a serious conflict of interest. News channels are not investigative or spy agencies who know the goings-on behind the scene in respect of some that they choose to award. And yes, I am referring to politicians in particular.  CNN-IBN’s award categories include Politics, Business, Entertainment, Sports and Public service. Awards for sports and public service categories are always welcome. Entertainment categories have plenty of their own but another award cannot cause much harm.  What does harm is the politics and business category.  Especially politics, one can still condone the business category.

A news outlet is meant to be a watchdog over politicians and businessmen. Therefore, instituting awards for them is a direct conflict of interest. Let us look at some past CNN-IBN IOTY winners since 2006 and current year nominations:

2006: Manmohan Singh -  Now that MMS has come to be known as the head of the most corrupt government ever in Indian history, will CNN-IBN stand up and give him that award? Ordinary citizens may learn facts by hindsight, but news outlets are expected to possess prudence. A fair and reliable blog, Sandeepweb,  lists MMS at no.4 on India’s most loathsome people for 2010. 

2007: P. Chidambaram - To quote CNN-IBN “For engineering a spectacular growth rate and being an astute economic manager despite coalition pressures”. Since then, PC has been shunted out of the Finance Ministry. My own blog has asked him to come clean on the phone tapping and Radia tapes. Allegations by Subramanian Swamy still remain unanswered.

2008: Nitish Kumar – In a tribe of ever growing corrupt politicians the Bihar CM is one who definitely appears to stand out. Much as he is worthy of admiration, there is no justification for a news channel to be giving him awards. 

 2009: Rahul Gandhi – “For energising the Congress and being the key strategist behind the party's revival in Uttar Pradesh”. So energising or reviving a political party makes him ‘Indian of the year’?  I can at best understand ‘Congressman’ of the year maybe. As for Rahul Gandhi the latest salvo has been fired by Ram Jethmalani and a lot of questions about Rahul remain unanswered. I am yet to be convinced the final skeleton from Rahul’s cupboard has tumbled out yet. My posts here and here express my reservations abundantly. Yet for the ass-licking news channels he must appear to be Godsend for India! The same UP strategy of Rahul was all too evident in Bihar elections. So much for his wisdom and the prudence of CNN-IBN. Sandeepweb lists him as the 2nd most loathsome person of 2010.

2010: (Nominations) Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal, Mayawati (Mayawati?), Nitish Kumar, Pranab Mukherjee and Raman Singh. Some of these politicians may have done commendable work. But is it the business of a news channel to confer awards on them?

Is it any surprise that most of the winners and nominees are from the Congress?  There are wisecracks who have called CNN-IBN’s program ‘Face the nation’ as “Fool the nation’. Such awards are the greatest attempt to glorify corrupt politicians, with stray exceptions. ‘Fool the nation’ doesn’t seem very far-fetched. And CNN-IBN is not the only one, watch out for the NDTV awards too. When it comes to ass-licking of politicians my bet is on NDTV to outdo CNN-IBN. Both deserve the ‘Ass-Lickers Of The Decade’ Award!

Time and history are the best judges of politicians, not some biased and slanted news channels.

Indian Media - 'Manmohan is dead and long live Rahul' ?

The headline is a direct quote from Ram Jethmalani's article mentioned in this post. On August 27, 2010 I wrote this post: 'Rahul Gandhi – India’s biggest disaster in the making'. Nothing has changed in the least bit since then. From equating the RSS with SIMI back then, this moron has travelled some more distance in equating Narendra Modi with Mao Zedong. This when he was confronted with straight, honest questions by young students in Ahmedabad. Straight, honest questions that the media should be confronting him with. Following the recent scams Rahul, like his mother, handed out a certificate of ‘cleanliness’ to Manmohan Singh.

Various allegations against Rahul Gandhi are floating on the internet for a long time now. Some of them serious enough to warrant a thorough investigation. Yet, our ass-licking media will neither report those nor even remotely mention those. Very few news papers carried bits and pieces in inner pages as an afterthought.

There is this allegation of rape against Rahul Gandhi which should have made front page headlines everywhere, but there was hardly a whisper. The only report being the legal notice sent by his lawyers to those who published the allegations. His being detained at Boston airport by the FBI in 2001, along with his latino girlfriend and US $ 200,000 in cash went unreported. He was supposedly travelling with his Italian passport. Questions have been raised over his education as well. His M.Phil claim is not supported by his certificate as can be seen in this article. And in all of this he travels abroad and has certificates  under the name of Raul Vinci. Effectively, this is a two faced man child who is being touted as the next  Prime Minister of India by the Congress, its cronies, and of course the servantile media. One magazine, India Today, went as far as asking Pranab Mukherjee if he would work in Rahul’s cabinet. The poor man out of decency responded stating it was time for him to retire.

Subramanian Swamy, the maverick politician of Janata Party,  has long been waging a lonely war against Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. His speeches and articles against the two would read like a charge sheet, yet neither the Congress or the media raises these issues. They will probably wait till the whole chapter has reached a 2Scam-like situation before they answer the questions. Unfortunately, by then India would be down the drain by a few more lakhs of crores. It is in this context that Ram Jethmalani’s voice and concern needs wide coverage and here is what he wrote in The Sunday Guardian on December 5 (Excerpt provided below, read the full article here.)

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“Some questions for Congress’ Prince Charming” (By Ram Jethmalani)

1. We have no objection to your mother's ambition to see you installed as India's Prime Minister. Obviously she did not entertain this ambition either for herself or any of her children in 1991. Are you prepared to take the nation into confidence and disclose the qualifications you have acquired since then to take into your hands the destiny of this complex and most populous and poverty stricken democracy?

2. Do you agree that the best available statesman in the country should fill that post? If yes, how have you convinced yourself that you are the one? We would not mind if your mother answers this question. We hope you will not turn to our dear friends Mani Shankar Aiyar or Abhishek Singhvi to ghost write the answers.

3. We are highly appreciative of the Election Commission which compels candidates for public office to disclose their material assets.

We wish they logically mandate the disclosure of intellectual assets as well. But if democracy is all about transparency, would you kindly let the nation know what academic qualifications you have acquired, when, how and from which institutions. It will help if you also tell the curious Indian nation what books you have read during the last five years; have you published any articles or any readable material on politics, economics, terrorism, war and peace? Is there any speech in Parliament, to the local Rotary Club or to a bunch of tiny toddlers with a single quotable quote that illumines or inspires and gives us some clue to your intellectual attainments? We know quite a few talented young men in the Congress party and naturally people would like to be satisfied that you are better endowed than them all. That your mother is Soniaji or your father was Rajivji is not enough evidence.

4. There have been oft-repeated charges of financial impropriety and worse against your family, including by the president of Janata Party, Subramanian Swamy, Swiss magazines and, most unusually in a book on the KGB. Why have you not responded?

If you plead ignorance of all the stuff mentioned in the questions you do not deserve to be India's Prime Minister any way. Will the free press look into this serious business and make effective the People's Right to Know?

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It is time our servantile media picked up the cue and started asking questions. India deserves her dignity to be restored once again. The ordinary men, women and children of this country could do with an honest and sincere PM for a change, not a two faced toddler like Rahul Gandhi or Raul Vinci. With so much written about Rahul Gandhi on these lines let us see if Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Arun Poorie, Prabhu Chawla, Vir Sanghvi, M.J. Akbar can finally start asking truthful questions. (The first in the list should be fired anyway) Else, they will continue to cement their reputation as stool pigeons and not journalists.