Rajdeep, CNN-IBN Join Gujarat Election Campaign

Lying is considered a moral offence. Sometimes a lie is even considered healthy if it saves someone or contributes to a good cause; which is why if you look up all our laws there isn’t one against lying. It’s an offence to lie only under oath in a hearing. This is the greatest protection under which our news media thrives and makes its living. As Howard Beale would tell you: “TV is not the truth, it's an amusement park....We lie like hell”. In an earlier post I mentioned Vikram Chandra of NDTV lamenting the degeneration of news. Following the arrest of ZeeNews editors in an extortion case we had more soul-searching in the media. Who else but Rajdeep Sardesai could have tweeted: “I guess journalists are more feared today, but sadly less respected. We are more arrogant, less ethical. Gnight”. (Nov 28) More feared? Nobody fears or respects journalists anymore, that’s the reason Jindal group screwed the morons from Zee. Rajdeep’s channel also has the brand name IBNLive but he might remember that it often earns the nickname CNN-IBNLies. So on Nov 28 RS once again does a show “Is the media facing a serious credibility crisis”?

Any introspection has to begin with the What and Why media got to where it is. You will find nothing of that sort in RS’s show. Among the panellists were N. Ram, Shekhar Gupta and Vinod Mehta. These three gentlemen have quite a lot answering to do on their own. Who is introspecting? Gupta says editors and editorial intervention should be restored and that on TV the anchors and editors are rolled into one. Sort of judge, jury, and prosecutor all rolled into one. Gupta probably refuses to accept that there are no more editors. There are only “Editorialists” whose job is to “swing” public opinion for political pursuits. And it’s even more rewarding when it comes to Gujarat and elections in Gujarat. Over a decade our news channels have distributed some of the biggest lies about the state and about Narendra Modi. They have been exposed again and again but never learn. So, all the introspection that RS frequently attempts is poor theatre at best. Consider this ruling by an American court with respect to Fox News who appealed a verdict against them:

“In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States… During their appeal, FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves”. There! You see, that applies to Indian media too. The Fox case was actually against reporters hired by them and not enemies. Lying, falsifying reports, distortion are not crimes. This gets even better when it comes to Gujarat. So, in keeping with the tradition of the last decade CNN-IBN first sends out the Social Genius, to Gujarat on a mission to find out the condition of Muslims in the state. Then on November 29 RS runs a show on why Muslims are being ignored by BJP in the state. CNN-IBN has well and truly joined the election campaign.

Throughout her journey in Gujarat Sagarika let out some very Bimboesque tweets which have so come to represent her mind and her thinking. And such a moron is going to pass off her petty opinions as a great work of research. That’s CNN-IBN for you. Those opinions aren’t aired yet. They are going to be aired today afternoon and are quite predictable. And what exactly is Rajdeep’s problem? That the BJP hasn’t given a ticket to any Muslim candidate although they form 9 or 10% of Gujarat’s population! Yes, he is that naïve. He, being Numero Uno in political analysis, doesn’t understand the basis of selecting candidates and feels ticket distribution should be on the basis of population. That Hindus can’t represent Muslims as they do in many other constituencies in India or vice-versa. That only Muslims can represent themselves and no one else. It’s because of channels like Rajdeep’s that there is an entire site dedicated to media lies. Don’t laugh, it’s really called TVNewsLies and here are excerpts from their deception statement:

“Today's establishment media practice very little journalism and they devote minimal resources to reporting actual news… They spend most of their resources to create a false reality for the public while they distract you from the most important issues facing our world. For all practical purposes you can safely say that the reality portrayed by the establishment media bears little resemblance to the actual world in which we live… An easy way to think of this is that the people in the establishment media are holding up an orange for you to look at while they tell you that it is an apple…. Lies come in many forms. Partial truths, selective facts, out of context quotes and information, partial historical perspective and out right misrepresentation of facts. It is easy to manipulate the public. If you become aware of the methods of deception you are better prepared to sift through the propaganda for the few facts that are actually made available by our broadcast our news media”.

RS seems to have little problem with the massive appeasement policies of various govts including the GOI towards the Muslims. He has problems only when Muslims in Gujarat aren’t given tickets for the election by the BJP. It never bothered him that all the MPs from Delhi are Hindus voted by Muslims too from a party that indulges in Muslim-appeasement. Election tickets are a political issue. Tickets are issued also based on political manoeuvres of the opponents. The most condemned politics in recent times, even in the media, has been the politics of caste and religion. Rajdeep seems to still live in an era of Madhavsinh Solanki’s KHAM theory in Gujarat. The theory that made Gujarat voters dump the Congress. But fairness to the population or fair representation is hardly Rajdeep’s motive. The simple motive is to trash BJP and Narendra Modi any way he can; which is what he has been doing the last ten years. He either wants apologies from Modi or portray Muslims as being discriminated against in Gujarat. This, at a time when even Muslims are beginning to acknowledge they have suffered more at the hands of other parties.

During the HT Summit in 2007 Rajdeep asked probably the dumbest question a host could ask. He asked Modi if Gujarat’s development reaches its entire people or only the Hindu majority. Modi responded by asking if water flows in the Sabarmati does it cater only to 90% or to all the 100% whose lives depend on that water. Rajdeep also used that occasion to reiterate the “Mass murderer” tag for Modi. He also used the term “Hero of hatred” to describe Modi. With all this animosity and hatred within him, on what grounds does Rajdeep even consider himself morally fit to question any decision of Modi? But hell, its election season and he has to do his bit for the campaign against Modi. And Muslims have been such a phenomenal tool for the media just as they are for certain political parties.

And if that wasn’t enough there is Shweta Bhatt, wife of Sanjiv Bhatt, who will now contest on a Congress ticket against Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad. Excellent! Nothing wrong with that. She is the wife of the “Super cop”, the “top cop” and the “whistle-blower” so touted by the media. On Rajdeep’s very channel Sanjiv Bhatt called Modi a “common criminal”. So thrilled was CNN-IBN that they kept playing that sound-bite over and over again. The SIT on Gujarat riots rejected claims of Bhatt and yet the media kept backing him. The whole world suspected then that Sanjiv Bhatt was nothing more than a Congress stooge. Some of his affidavits were even reported to be drafted by a reporter from TOI, Manoj Mitta. But Rajdeep and his colleagues suspected nothing. Must be all those emails Bhatt was sending him. After all, he is Numero Uno when it comes to political analysis. And this guy talks about Muslims in Gujarat? Pathetic!

As far as I know, and I know with a certain authority too, that Muslims in Gujarat are much better off than in many other states in India. The few streets and gullys that CNN-IBN and other channels show in their reports are not unique to Muslims. These can be found in other communities too in Gujarat where the poor live. Poverty hasn’t disappeared from India and it hasn’t totally disappeared from Gujarat. But guess what, at every opportunity CNN-IBN will be there to rake up old wounds under the garb “Gujarat Muslims: A new narrative”. The title is as deceptive as it possibly can. The manner in which both Sagarika and Rajdeep have been screaming about Muslims are nearly attempts to divide a state on religious lines and sowing seeds of communal disharmony. It can also amount to provoking Muslims with fears where there are none. Is there nothing else about Gujarat other than Muslims? Should that be the only factor that should decide elections? Has Rajdeep ever asked why there has never been a Muslim Nobel winner from India? Surely, day isn’t far off when he blames Modi for that too.

Someone did give an answer to the Social Genius on her journey of malice. Asifa Khan, a Congress member who recently joined BJP, told her: “A foot soldier from BJP is doing much better than a Congress MLA or Congress MP would have done”. I don’t think Rajdeep is going to hunt for a deep explanation why Congress is held in such contempt in Gujarat. Truth might be that the conditions of Muslims in a Muslim-ruled J&K maybe far worse than Gujarat. I doubt CNN-IBN or the Social Genius is going to do a show on that. As for the moronery of the husband-wife duo what says it better than Akhilesh Yadav, whose six months in charge of UP have seen 9 communal riots being their Indian of the year nominee? A bunch of bigots whose hatred for Modi and prejudice against Hindus have often coloured the vision of CNN-IBN. This isn’t the first time.

And then Rajdeep wonders if media is facing a credibility crisis. The problem for him, as also many other media celebs, is that they haven’t been able to juggle their work of putting out the bare minimum news with facts and that of their political agenda. Rajdeep, Sagarika and CNN-IBN have just joined the election campaign in Gujarat. It’s your guess which team they are rooting for. Right behind them is Headlines Today too. It’s only begun. Few months ago when Rajdeep was being asked by Twitterati to report on the Emergency anniversary on June 25 he hit back with a question. He asked if the same Tweeple will remember Babri anniversary on December 6. He’s in luck! This time December 6 is just around the eve of Gujarat elections. Someone will be there to exploit it for added impact in Gujarat. Guess who?

Arnaboxious - The Witch Hunter

This is a picture of woman being beaten up by a mob as you can plainly see. Her clothes have been torn by the mob as you can plainly see. Her name is Uma Khurana. She was a school teacher till LiveIndia accused her of running a sex-racket with school girls in a fake sting in August 2007. LiveIndia’s editor at that time was none other than Sudhir Chaudhary. The same guy has recently acquired more fame in the Jindal-Zee extortion sting. The fake sting not only damaged Uma Khurana personally, professionally and socially but also physically. She filed a case against LiveIndia but they may have settled it out of court later. TV channels don’t seem to learn. Still, a certain form of witch hunting continues on TV. This is now practiced in a much specialised form by Arnab Goswami (AG) on TimesNow. Kicking and screaming, interrupting speakers, badgering, often talking nonsense is an art that has been taken to a different level by the extremely obnoxious AG. This is not so when he does a one on one interview in his ‘Frankly Speaking’ where he appears to be far saner and civilised. So it’s safe to assume that what happens on his NewsHour is a deliberate “show”. If Arnab thinks it’s a great hit, he has to count as the biggest moron in news business.

The Witch-Hunter

Don’t know if AG is imitating Keith Olbermann of MSNBC or Sean Hannity of Fox. Throughout the last week or so AG has been carrying a series on Nitin Gadkari (NG) and his supposed fake investors. Fair enough! It’s the way that the whole expose is being organised each day as Part 1, Part 2… Part 14, Part 16, Part 19 (as of October 29), that makes one wonder if there is more to it than just exposing NG. One did not see such enthusiasm in exposing Robert Vadra, Salman Khurshid. The enthusiasm has to be journalistic and within levels of decency. Where the political aspect is concerned, nobody has any doubt that NG has blundered. That the funding of NG’s companies through allegedly fake investors is highly improper is not being debated. Whether these are illegal or not is for an inquiry to decide.

For starters AG had Anjali Damania with her silly SMSes as allegations. Then came another drama by Arvind Kejriwal & Co. that the media called a “damp squib”. But Arnab’s witch-hunt had actually started much before these events. He and TimesNow had started their inquiries into NG’s businesses early in August 2012. So till such time Arnab got some documents he played up the non-issues and when their allegations turned out damp-squibs he turned on to NG’s companies. What he did is a must and should be done. But the way it is being done smacks of a witch-hunt that seems to have a larger political objective.

The TimesNow reporters have been hounding NG like street dogs and have been chasing him all over the place. From RSS headquarters in Nagpur to the airport and chasing him like paparazzi. Those beat reporters should be as ashamed of themselves as AG should be. Take a look at the pics from TimesNow and also ABPNews. The reporters crowding all around NG and even making movement difficult. This is not just for NG; these street dogs that pass themselves off as reporters seem to think it is their birth-right to crowd individuals and shove their mics and cameras into people’s faces and bodies. PCI and NBA should outlaw this and issue an advisory to keep a clear distance of at least 6ft. from any individual the media wishes question. If not, these cowardly dogs should be sent to the municipal pound and made to spend a day with the dogs there to see how it feels.

And why are these TimesNow street dogs cowardly? Take a look at the second pic. This is one from a video that TNow repeatedly showed where Robert Vadra is getting into his car. Not one of the media dogs is anywhere near him. He is protected by those SPG guards and no one dared get anywhere near him to ask any question. So will these street dogs learn to respect individuals only when there are SPG or police around? Or when they belong to the Queen’s family? Same goes for the dogs from other channels. It is neither ethics nor professionalism that is being demanded. It is simple common decency that you don’t push and shove anyone, no matter what the issue is. And then AG demands answers for the nation. Thank you Arnab, obnoxious morons like you don’t need to speak for this nation!

That is one part of the story. Here is a tweet from the Monk. He suggests it is tough to cover Congress for a reporter but BJP loves media. Anyone who certified this guy a journalist should be stripped of his license to be a journalism-school principal. If Rajdeep doesn’t know that Opposition parties make their voices heard more through the media than govt voices then he should quit and tend his dog. In fact the news media itself is supposed to play an adversarial role to the govt of the day. On the contrary, our media seem to be slaves and parrots for the govt. Here’s the worse part: Because the BJP is more accessible for the media it seems Arnab and Rajdeep find cheap thrills in frequently targeting them rather than the real criminals in the govt. What does it say when post-release of the Jindal-Zee tapes Naveen Jindal goes on every news channel proclaiming his “innocence”? Where’s further investigation in Coalgate and of Naveen Jindal’s operations? And Jindal, the alleged coal-scammer, goes around certifying Rajdeep and Arnab as journalists with great ethics. The height of insults that Arnab can ever get is a comment, of all people, by a journalistic-bimbo who posted this comment about him on Madhu Kishwar’s website:

Sagarika Ghose, CNN IBN: Great piece on Arnab. He’s dangerous for TV news. Not all of us are like that though!

Imagine, the Social Genius of all people calling Arnab as “dangerous for TV”. Haha! That comment was in response to a scathing open letter Madhu Kishwar wrote to Arnab sometime back. (Read here). I also recommend that he read all the comments in response to that letter to realise how he has fallen in the eyes of viewers. So what makes AG behave in this fashion? Not sure, but I imagine years of playing third fiddle to Rajdeep and Barkha Dutt at NDTV could be one reason. The other reason could be to gain TRPs over NDTV and CNN-IBN. If that is true, then Arnab has to be pretty stupid. Any channel with decency and a fair bit of news can score over both NDTV and CNN-IBN quite easily. The simple advantage Arnab has over some other media celebs is nobody doubts his integrity. Not yet! But if he continues his theatrics and obnoxious witch-hunts people will indeed start doubting his integrity too.

Even within the BJP there is a strong opinion that Nitin Gadkari should resign. If not, he should definitely not be given another term as party president. This is apart from the man and the party welcoming a full inquiry. Arnab is within his rights to seek an inquiry. He has no moral right to witch-hunt anyone. All the channels were quick to discuss the Jindal-ZeeNews extortion episode. While that is a welcome change one wonders why they aren’t following up with an investigation on Naveen Jindal. If Zee is alleged to have sought payments for “silence” it does make me wonder if other channels have already been paid in some form or the other for “silence”. Everyone observing news channels was pretty clear that after the Robert Vadra and Salman Khurshid episodes the channels would go after a BJP personality for ‘balance’ and that would extend right till the HP and Gujarat elections. It does appear that Arnab has chosen it upon himself to be that obnoxious witch-hunter. There’s more bad news, Sunday Guardian even suggests it’s an attempt to “Hammer Gadkari to save Vadra and other scamsters” and I quote:

“Apparently, a strong word was conveyed that they should leave Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law well alone. Ministers, including I&B boss Ambika Soni, are said to have reached out to the media houses, gently suggesting that further interest in the doings of Robert Vadra and his multifarious business activities would be most unwelcome”.

None of this is lost on viewers and observers. There are some who believe Arnab’s belligerent witch-hunt of Gadkari is over a petty issue of not having got an interview like his close competitors did. Some believe what Sunday Guardian suggests. Whatever the motivation, Arnab would do well to control his belligerence on TV. He would do himself a lot of good if he treated his panellists and his targets with a certain level of decency and respect and not with obnoxious witch-hunts. There’s a 100 crore defamation suit against TimesNow; wonder what happened to that.

Note: WitchHunter image from www.dakkadakka.com.. modified by @Udgeetha

Like Rats Fighting A Plague

Media introspection! Self-introspection! This is what Rajdeep Sardesai screamed for the 2016th time on his show on October 25. Here’s what I wrote in the post “Confederation of Indian Agitators”. It was an attempt at a sarcastic look into some NGO operations: “In case you haven't heard, over the last decade or so there are many NGOs created whose job is to just channel funds. They are NGO “fund raisers”. Some are even supported by banks. They collect funds from Indians, NRIs and others and channel those funds to the NGOs of the choice of the donor. Their earnings come from commissions from the funds donated.”.

Last night on Karan (The Tool) Thapar’s show on CNN-IBN they were discussing the conviction of Rajat Gupta for insider trading. Most of our media members are in deep shock over the conviction of such a “good man”. The Social Genius even tweeted she had met him once and he spoke “perfect Bengali” (Mr President, take that warning!). The judge who convicted Gupta told him there are many good men in history who have committed bad deeds. Naturally, during the Tool’s show Ramalinga Raju and his good deeds came up for discussion. Sanjay Baru, former media advisor to PM, mentioned all of Raju’s good deeds. No, he wasn’t defending Raju in any way. None mentioned the difference that Raju is still being “tried” while Gupta’s trial is over and he’s been sentenced. In some part of the democratic world, crimes do get punished and fairly swiftly. In India we should trust Beni Prasad Verma who laughed that Salman Khurshid could even be involved in a scam of 76 lakhs. Yeah, even petty NGOs do better than that.

This here is the pic of the website of Quadriga Art. The site claims it’s a “global leader in direct marketing and creative services.  We offer nonprofit organizations, fundraising agencies and commercial brands innovative direct marketing campaign solutions that produce extraordinary results. For more than seventy years, Quadriga Art has helped value-driven clients raise money and create connections”. So you see, as the first para says, this fund-raising broker thing is becoming fairly common in India too. But here’s the surprise as Anderson Cooper reported in a series of NGO frauds that had some connection to Quadriga:

“But here's the problem: Not one dime has gone directly to help disabled veterans. Instead, CNN's Drew Griffin discovered the charity sends free stuff to veterans groups - stuff they say they didn't ask for and don't need. We're talking about thousands of bags of coconut M&Ms, bulk shipments of chef's aprons and military dress shoes. The veterans groups have had to sell the items to raise money so they could buy items vets actually do need. So, where did the nearly $56 million donated by Americans go? Griffin followed the money trail to a company called Quadriga Art, a company that specializes in fundraising. Quadriga Art and its subsidiaries have more than 500 charities on their client list, including DVNF. A source who had first-hand dealings with Quadriga tells us it’s the "financial equivalent of heroin addiction for charities".

Now, the list of NGO frauds that Cooper covered in his series on AC360 is too long to cover in a single post. Just search for “AC360 Charity fund frauds” and you will likely run into a coal mine. No, this coal isn’t in mother earth. What should trouble us is the number of NGOs in India who are similarly receiving a lot of funds but nobody knows where these funds are really going. The US Senate has launched an inquiry into the NGO fraud mess. In sharp contrast some of these Indian NGO operators are celebrated TV panellists, have received Padma Shri awards and some individuals are even on govt bodies. One such person is Binayak Sen who is a ‘convict’ but is on the Planning Commission. Mine is not to wonder if he is really guilty or not. But fact is he has been convicted and his conviction is under appeal. Even before he is cleared by courts the GOI puts him on the Planning Commission. I guess, considering his brilliance, Rajat Gupta too would be welcomed on the Planning Commission by the GOI.

Following the Thapar show Rajdeep Sardesai, the Monk, followed as usual. Following the Jindal-Zee extortion spat he had the same topic on his mind again: “Media introspection”. Following a series of introspections viewers will be convinced nothing will change. Rajdeep’s whole show can be summed up in one sentence of Justice Katju: “You want everybody to be regulated except yourself.. You are what? Lords and Gods”? Following another slap from Katju, Rajdeep will learn nothing. Following…. Never mind! If there was ever true and honest introspection, the news media would have wondered about many panellists they get on their shows that are dubious. Since we are on NGOs, let’s talk about Teesta Setalvad.

The most outrageous decoration ever has to be that of Teesta Setalvad. According to reports she is on ‘anticipatory bail’. Time and again the funding of her NGO, her fake affidavits and complaints from her own colleagues have been reported. In yet another damning report this is what The Pioneer carried today:

“The FCRA permission granted on November 21, 2007 to CJP by the Ministry of Home Affairs mentioned that “The bank account mentioned in your application should be used for receiving foreign contribution and no other amount should be credited to this account”. However, a local donation of Rs 10 Lakh, received from The Chatwal Groups by cheque no376284 dated 26/02/09, was deposited by CJP in this FCRA account… These were in clear violation of condition mentioned in the FCRA registration”. Huh? The Chatwal group? Oh, like Teesta got Padma Shri I recall somebody from The Chatwal Group was also awarded Padma Bhushan despite wide protests. Do read the full report in The Pioneer for the amazing transfer, handling and misuse of funds reported in Teesta’s NGO.

If newspapers are repeatedly carrying so many reports on wrong doings of Teesta how is it that she is such a favourite panellist with our TV channels? It doesn’t stop there. She not only gets a Padma award, she gets to be on Sonia Gandhi’s NAC. This is like a private club that drafts laws for the nation. Rajat Gupta must be regretting his misdeeds weren’t in India. He could have been making laws here. A convict on the Planning Commission, a tainted NGO operator in the NAC! What’s the message to ordinary citizens? Crime Pays? That’s not all Teesta is also on the govt’s Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). This is a body under the HRD ministry that influences decisions on education in India. No wonder many people joke that we might as well have Ajmal Kasab teaching marketing tactics in business schools.

The serious question is about the Coalgate issue being totally buried in the media. If Zee had, as alleged, blackmailed Naveen Jindal to the tune of 100 crores for silence why are the other channels silent on Jindal and Coalgate? Why shouldn’t one suspect that they have already been silenced through some form or the other? There is another case of payments by a steel company ISPAT to VBS (suggesting Virbhadra Singh of Congress) which has been in the news. The reports are around a page long in most sites and newspapers, including The Hindu (October 22). Buried in the report is one sentence that Rajdeep and others aren’t talking about yet. It says: “Mittal diary for 2006-2010 show routine payoffs to…. Payments to journalists for stopping negative articles and photographs are also listed in these cash accounts”. Why isn’t the media or the BEA or the PCI asking for these names? Shouldn't this raise quite an alarm in the media? Nothing!

The charade of introspection and self-regulation is as big a scam as Coalgate. Last night on Rajdeep’s show he had N. Ram as a panellist to discuss this so called “media introspection”. None of the channels has so far even vaguely reported the land grab case of N. Ram. Nothing! All the NGO representatives and business celebrities who often feature on media panels somehow turn out to be connected to some scam or wrong-doing or the other. That the media is the first line of defence for the corrupt is increasingly coming across as true. Corruption and scams are a nation-wide plague. The more one scams the more the respectability. Scams less than crores seem to have even lost respectability. The day illegal dealings and scams in the media start being punished severely I believe corruption will start diminishing in other spheres too. In the meantime, imagine a battalion of rats trying to protect you from plague.