PM's Press Meet - 'Friendly Fire'

Here are two tweets from Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today. He sounds upset in both. This is following the very private meeting the Prime Minister had with five editors from the print media.

Rahul Kanwal:

“Since you don't like message, shoot messenger! Wonder if that's new media strategy of govt. Even sympathisers seem to (be) turning against UPA”

“Boy Cong incredibly angry with media. 1st PM attacks press, then spokespersons launch scathing attack on air. Case of shooting d messenger?”

I believe it’s very unfair to call it a ‘press meet’. It looked like a luncheon meet of the ‘mob’ for a friendly discussion on the state of affairs of their turf. It’s strange you would think. A Prime Minister holds a press meet with five select editors from the print media and then needs to be defended by his own spokespersons. That is precisely what Manish Tiwari and Ambika Soni were doing on  June 29.

Some of the firm assertions of Manmohan Singh at this meet were “I am not a lame duck PM” and the media is an “accuser, prosecutor and judge”. I agree with the media part though. That is their general approach to all issues. Other than that, the PM generally blamed the opposition for the lame duck tag. These statements were made when most of the ‘chosen’ editors were ones who are known to be friendly to the Congress.

It is also strange that the PMO has decided MMS will now meet the media every week. This is in stark contrast to months of silence and is clearly an excess. I wonder who devised this strategy, the PM himself or his media advisor Harish Khare. Nobody wants the PM to meet the press every week. Every week would not only be an over-kill but just as boring. And how do they pick the editors for the meeting? Do they draw lots? Do they go by circulation or viewership? Do they go by friendliness of the media outlet? And in this day and age a closed-door meeting? Because MMS is camera-shy? Weird reasoning!

If I were one of the five editors chosen for this particular meet I would have declined. In any other sensible country the PMO would have journalists who are accredited by his office for regular meetings, like the White House has. It would have been appropriate for the PM to meet those journalists all together. After all, those journalists do get to travel with him on Air India One on his official travels.

After the press meet Kumar Ketkar of Divya Marathi and Alok Mehta of Nai Duniya were almost the spokespersons for the PM themselves. They were disseminating the utterances of MMS to the rest of the media. So the rest of the media was delivering what I would term as second-hand news. Is this what the PM wants this country’s media to be? Dealing in second-hand news? And then analyse second-hand news for the vast population?

An edition of Divya Marathi was recently launched by none other than P. Chidambaram. This is the Dainik Bhaskar group. The Divya Bhaskar edition in Gujarat is a severely anti-Modi newspaper. Then there is Nai Duniya’s Alok Mehta. This newspaper is circulated in parts of MP and published from Indore. Then there is Business Standard’s T.N. Ninnan which, of course, is a business paper as its name suggests with limited circulation. There is Raj Chengappa from the Tribune. The PM is a great fan of the Tribune himself.

So Rahul Kanwal has his own fraternity to blame for the nonsense that was the press meet. The PMO cannot and should not pick and choose journalists that it wants to meet. The five wise men who met the PM should have declined and asked that the PM meet all the journalists accredited by the PMO. Lame ducks shouldn’t get to choose their crutches.

Here’s another thing. When the PM meets a bunch of five journalists next time, would the issues remain the same? Would the questions remain the same? So each time the select journalists would get to address or hear the PM on a different set of questions and issues. By itself there is nothing wrong in that. But the very crooked idea of limiting the meet to five journalists is to restrict the agenda, the questions and the issues.

So Rahul Kanwal’s lament, while justified, should only reflect on the media itself. The media which normally acts like a mafia union should not accept press meets that pick journalists at the whims of the PMO for an audience. The first bunch of journalists who met the PM were from friendly media outlets. The media first willingly allows its own manipulation and then cries foul. The drama can only be called ‘friendly fire’!

As for the Congress, in keeping with its devious policies, it might as well run a ‘Malamal Weekly’ lottery to pick the winners from the media who will get to meet the PM in future.

CNN-IBN Using Fake Tweets & Twitter IDs To Legalise Lobbying ?

Dalalmedia has come up with a post, with supporting evidence, that CNN-IBN used fake Twitter IDs and fake tweets in support of legalising lobbying. This was on the program hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai on December 16. Here's an excerpt from the site: 

CNN-IBN MEDIA MANIPULATION: CAUGHT RED HANDED 
WITH INCRIMINATING EVIDENCES
I was watching the programme ‘Should Lobbying be Legalised’ a debate chaired and moderated by Rajdeep Sardesai in CNN-IBN’s website. The Programme was aired on 16/12/2010 and was available in the CNN-IBN website. Customarily in such programmes they run Twitter comments to reflect from social media supposedly to show what the public believe and say.  I was appalled to find that these comments were manipulated, i.e. ghost created and run by IBN’s own team, all those dubious comments seem to reflect the sentiments and to show and thrust the fact that people are for ‘LOBBYING’ and they support  ‘LEGALISING LOBBYING’. Please see and read the comments yourself from screenshots of the programme. On suspicion, I crossed checked the twitter handles that were shown in the programme and none were authentic or existing....

Read the full article with picture grabs from CNN-IBN and Twitter at Dalalmedia.

In an earlier post today I had written about Rajdeep Sardesai being unfit to sermonise any one on media responsibilities. If the twitter scam reported above is correct then he is not just a poor journalist, he would also be a poor liar. Increasingly, the media shoots itself in the foot with lies, but now the new method of fake tweets is another feather in its dirty cap. CNN-IBN has some explaining to do.

Read my previous post: Rajdeep Sardesai To Sermonise On Role & Responsibilities Of Media ? 


UPDATE (17/12/2010 - 7.45PM):  Since the issue of fake tweets was taken up by many bloggers CNN-IBN has acknowledged the goof with a flimsy explanation. However, the channel has issued an apology and that should settle the matter there. (Read their apology here)

Rajdeep Sardesai To Sermonise On Role & Responsibilities Of Media ?

DNA newspaper reports a seminar is being organised by Divya Bhaskar in Ahmedabad on 'Role and Responsibilities of Media'. Excellent topic, considering the current circumstances in the media. Only one problem. The sermoniser-in-chief is going to be Rajdeep Sardesai. The DNA goes on to add “Some other topics which will be discussed in the seminar include values, professionalism, and freedom of media as well as political intervention in media”. Isn’t that neat? And Rajdeep will be moralising in the very state of Gujarat which brought him fame through his venomously biased reporting of the riots (along with Barkha Dutt, of course). So let’s check out how responsible Rajdeep Sardesai is.  Both mediamen and politicians have long believed that public memory is short. Unfortunately, in the new tech-age that’s not easily done.

Ask yourself a question. Would you, as a host, want to ever humiliate or attempt to insult your key speaker at a seminar? I wonder how Rajdeep would feel if the seminar host tried to humiliate him every step of the way. It would be safe to say as a responsible host or media person that is probably the last thing you would want to do. But not our Rajdeep.

Flashback to October 2007 at the HT Summit, of which CNN-IBN is a partner, where Rajdeep Sardesai was the host of the event. Narendra Modi was the key speaker in one of the events and following his address,  the behaviour of Rajdeep Sardesai was most irresponsible and disgraceful to say the least. Deviating from the topic of the program Rajdeep tried his best to humiliate Narendra Modi, even as the audience applauded Modi’s address and replies. He even went on to refer to Modi the favourite title of ‘Mass Murderer’ bestowed upon him by the editor of HT, Vir Sanghvi and complimented Modi with the title of ‘hero of hatred’.  He completely forgot the sheer decency and grace of Modi attending a summit hosted by HT despite being called a mass murderer by Vir Sanghvi of HT. Would Rajdeep agree to be the key speaker for an organisation that calls him such names? Responsible media? Values? Professionalism? Watch the video below:

Rajdeep did get a resounding figurative slap from Narendra Modi. But he doesn’t seem to have learnt any lessons. Modi directly accused him and the media of dividing the nation. And rightly so. Let’s open another dark chapter from CNN-IBN and the sham ‘Indian of the year awards’ that Rajdeep’s channel doles out, quite probably as ‘quid pro quo’. In 2009 the award was given to the moron extraordinaire Rahul Gandhi. Why? For energising the Congress in UP! Energising the Congress in UP is an accomplishment worthy of the title of ‘Indian of the year’? Mind you, Congress didn’t even win UP, it was Mayawati who wiped out the other parties. We are used to sycophancy in the Congress (Italian) but sycophancy from the media is the specialisation of the likes of CNN-IBN, NDTV. To bestow such a title on a man who has practically achieved nothing for India or done nothing speaks a lot of about media values, responsibility and professionalism. In fact, campaigning in Bihar in February 2010 Rahul Gandhi stated: “To change India, we must change Gujarat” ! Change Gujarat? A development model that other states are trying to follow? This happens to be one in a long line of moronic assertions by Rahul Gandhi who got thoroughly spanked by the student audience of L.N. Mishra College in Darbhanga. Watch the video below:

Now, the students in that meeting had put up the video on Youtube. Aaj Tak carried a part of it. But CNN-IBN ? No, CNN-IBN did not carry the news at all. They black out all the stupidity at Rahul Gandhi’s meetings. So much so, when Rahul was in Ahmedabad sometime ago he himself blacked out the media, knowing he was bound to goof up. And the students did ask him serious questions. Yes, serious questions which Rajdeep Sardesai will not ask Rahul Gandhi and yet his channel will honour the moron with awards carrying the ‘India’ name.Professional and responsible, indeed!

Regardless of how many faults I might find in Rahul Gandhi, if I were the host of a seminar where he were to be the key-note speaker I wouldn’t subject him to the hostility and humiliation that Rajdeep attempted to dish out to Narendra Modi. Yet Rajdeep will sermonise people on values, professionalism and responsibilities of media. Take that! And if any more proof of Rajdeep’s morals and ethics were needed, you just have to wonder how he was quick to jump to the defence of Barkha Dutt and her thoroughly unethical interaction with Nira Radia. Rajdeep Sardesai needs to learn ethics, values, professionalism and responsibility before he can sermonise anyone. Would any sensible journalist want the same reputation that Rajdeep has today? You decide. The seminar is on Saturday, 18th December, and the banner below from Twitpic says it aptly.