MxMIndia

Tag: Arnab Goswami

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    What the government can’t, Goswami can!

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Last night on Times Now, Arnab Goswami took on the case of an Indian couple in Norway whose children have been taken away from them by the Norwegian authorities. What the government of India could not do, perhaps Goswami will. Child welfare is a concept that Indians know little about (any journalist who has visited orphanages in India or tried to meet any official in the concerned government departments will know what I mean). Therefore, the outrage is all to do with Indians being made to suffer rather than the legality of the case. Indians, as we know, cannot be criticised, attacked, ridiculed, or made fun of. We absolutely will not tolerate it. Look at the anger over a reference to Amritsar’s Golden Temple on American comedian and TV host Jay Leno’s Tonight Show if you want further proof.

     

    Meanwhile, it is amusing to watch Goswami use the BJP’s Mahesh Jethmalani for target practice. If I was Jethmalani, I would ignore calls from Times Now for a bit. It’s not easy to defend the BJP and its Sangh Parivar friends when the debate is about freedom of expression.

     

    TV anchor Barkha Dutt’s American-type accent as she interviewed US talk show empress Oprah Winfrey was also amusing. Where did that come from? Can Winfrey not understand if there’s not a couple of rolled rrrs in every sentence?

     

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    The Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad has made two arrests in the July 13, 2011 bomb blasts in Mumbai. However, given the police track record in such cases, TV and newspapers both displayed a little scepticism here. The two arrested are already in custody for some other cases and the masterminds are still elusive. Everyone has pointed that out. In which case we must ask ourselves if we really want to see giant photographs (Hindustan Times) of police officials with photos of the accused in their hands? Needless glorification of public servants who are just doing their jobs? Return of favours by grateful reporters?

     

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    It is a measure of how much Anna Hazare and his friends have faded from the public eye that their letters to political parties did not get the full treatment from the media. They asked many questions to which no party has bothered to provide any answers.

     

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    The Salman Rushdie controversy continues to intrigue and annoy. It seems to have taken precedence over whether the army chief was born in 1950 or 1951.

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers.

    Journalists’ covenants on cricket and more

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Aging batsmen, an arrogant captain making bad choices, indifferent performances, the Indian Premier League and the Board for Control of Cricket in India- all or some of these are to blame for the Indian cricket team’s unfortunate performance in Australia.

     

    Television, which was building itself up, started in a slow frenzy at the start of the weekend but it was all out there – foam, fits – by Sunday evening. Arnab Goswami of Times Now, amply helped by his alter ego Boria Majumdar inAustralia, was extremely saddened as only he can be by Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni in particular. Had Dhoni denigrated Test cricket by suggesting that he might retire from that version of the game? Was this the end of civilisation as we know it and so on? He was supported by Bishen Singh Bedi who was sputtering at the mouth with anger and by the cynical observations of another guest who got Goswami and Bedi even more enraged.

     

    Newspapers are still more circumspect but try ‘Shame Old Story’ and ‘Disgrace’ from The Times of India, ‘Perth Pangs’ and ‘India blunder, Oz plunder’ from Hindustan Times. Sunday Mid-Day tried to put a spin on it with ‘Bright Spark’, referring to bowler Umesh Yadav getting five wickets but the strap line below the headline emphasisedIndia’s batting collapse.

     

    Luckily forIndia’s beleaguered cricketers, a week is a very short time in journalism. Just before the India-Australia series started, I seem to rememberAustraliabeing hammered for losing toNew ZealandandIndiafeeling all pumped up because of its enormous talent and at-home victories. A couple of days atMelbourneand all that moaning and hype was completely reversed.

     

    My journalist friends and colleagues tell me that I should not be so hard on my fellow journalists and that it is the job of journalists to get hysterical and to have no memories at all, especially when it comes to sport. There is apparently some mysterious covenant signed by sports journalists (us general purpose journos are not privy to this procedure) by which they have to swear that they will make every effort not to remember what they had said or written the week before. Also that every loss by a sports team or person has to be portrayed as the end of the world and every victory had to be the best ever. I know this to be true from my experiences as a tennis fan (empirical evidence!).

     

    We already know that TV people have their own covenant which makes them swear to try and “save” Indiaat every opportunity and know as little as possible about any subject which gets them all excited.

     

    The cocktail of these two covenants makes for some very dramatic viewing and for those with longer attention spans, there are newspaper articles. Some sober commentators in print will try to look at the larger picture and to extrapolate future courses of action from past experiences. They may be chucked out of the Lodge for breaking the covenant unless they are long term offenders. But in these times, the hysteria will win. Except of course tillIndiawins something!

     

  • Press Council of India chairperson Justice Markandey Katju outbursts havve triggered a volley of criticism

    More bite for toothless PCI?

     

    By Akash Raha

    Recently Chairperson of Press Council of India (PCI), Justice Markandey Katju triggered a volley of criticism and discussion after he lambasted the broadcast media, saying most of them suffer from “very poor intellectual level”. He went on to suggest that broadcast media should come under the purview of the PCI. MxM India asked some well-known media faces what they think.

    Arnab Goswami, Editor in Chief, Times Now and Vice President, Broadcast Editors’ Association (BEA) told MxMIndia: “I don’t know why Justice Katju is making these comments. There is absolutely no need to try and demolish the principle of self-regulation in TV news which ensures that electronic media is free and out of control of vested interests. Justice Katju should not make these sweeping generalizations.”

    Upset over Justice Katju’s comments on the media, former Chief Justice of India J S Verma too is reported to have recently called the PCI an “ineffective” body and said it should wrap up if it does not meet its mandate. Verma chairs the News Broadcasting Standard Authority (NBSA), which is set up by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA). In a recent statement Verma said that he is “deeply anguished” with the kind of language that Justice Katju uses which “sounds authoritarian”. NBA has requested the Prime Minister to stop the PCI from meddling with the dealings of broadcast media.

    On whether broadcast media should come under the ambit of the PCI, Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor in Chief, IBN18 Network said “I believe that the self-regulation mechanism which has been put in place by major news broadcasters must be allowed to strengthen itself. The Press Council has been unable to curb pernicious practices in the print media such as ‘paid news’, so I don’t see how mandating it to now to oversee the electronic media will serve any purpose.”

    Talking about whether he thinks electronic media should be brought under the purview of  PCI Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, an independent journalist and critic, said, “The electronic media needs to be regulated independently – this is because self-regulation is inadequate and ineffective under certain extreme circumstances. The regulator should be independent of both media interests – including the interests of the big corporate media – as well as the government. Even if the regulator is funded by the government, it can be truly autonomous and/or independent if it is Constitutionally mandated thus – such examples include the Supreme Court of India, the Election Commission of India and the Comptroller & Auditor General of India. Ideally the electronic media should have a separate regulator. Even if the ambit of the Press Council of India is widened to include the electronic medium, it has to be made truly independent and autonomous and, most importantly, empowered. The Press Council in its current form has no punitive powers and is hence akin to a toothless tiger.”

    To put things in perspective, PCI was established as a statutory print watchdog by an Act of Parliament in 1978. In recent times, PCI has come under question following chairperson Justice Markandey Katju’s recent remarks on the state of the media in India and its inability to keep a check on paid news.

    When asked if Justice Katju was trying to police the media, Mr Guha Thakurta played down the suggestion, saying, “The Press Council of India is a quasi-judicial body set up an act of Parliament. The way it is supposed to function has been clearly laid down. There is no question of Justice Katju (or for that matter, any Chairman of the Press Council) acting as either a good cop or a bad cop.”

    The question remains, should news broadcast come under the ambit of PCI? One of the reasons for opposing such a suggestion remains that since PCI has been unable to check the menace of paid news in print, there is no reason why it should make any positive change in the broadcast industry. Another argument says that the only reason why PCI has been unable to make a change is because it is still a toothless quasi-judiciary body and the government needs to empower it and give it some tooth. Either way, in this chatter and amidst much confusion is set Justice Katju and his criticism of media professionals as he sees them as naïve and stupid. Criticism which has obviously riled the veterans of the broadcast industry.

    In the wake of this controversy, several discussion forums are being organized on the PCI, the question of paid news, etc. The Foundation for Media Professionals (FMP) is organizing a panel discussion in collaboration with the Press Club of India on the topic ‘Media and Public Interest: Freedom vs Accountability’ on November 12 at Press Club of India, New Delhi. The panelists at this discussion will be Markandey Katju, Rajdeep Sardesai, Neelabh Mishra, Zoya Hasan, Pankaj Pachauri, Abheek Barman, Madabhushi Sridhar and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta with T R Ramachandran as moderator.

    Later, on November 18, MxMIndia has partnered the event ‘Paid News: Fooling People all the Time’ organised by Moneylife Foundation and Citizens Action Network with the support of industrialist Cyrus Guzder to be held in Mumbai’s Madame Cama Hall. The evening will see the screening of the documentary ‘Brokering News’ followed by a panel discussion with senior journalists and the film-maker Umesh Aggarwal. The panelists at this discussion are Umesh Aggarwal, Ayaz Memon, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Bhawana Somaaya, and Sucheta Dalal. This panel plans to discuss the issue of paid news, which has been a bugbear even for regulatory bodies such as the PCI.

    For more: http://www.mxmindia.com/2011/11/mxmindia-partners-%E2%80%98paid-news%E2%80%99-event/

  • The veteran editor was at his candid best in a chat with Arnab Goswami at the launch of his memoirs

    Vinod Mehta: When I became an editor, I started to learn (Video Report)

     

     

     

     

    In our tribute package to Vinod Mehta, we thought we should replay a video report of the launch of ‘Lucknow Boy’ where the late editor answered questions posed by Arnab Goswami. Read on… 

     

     

     

     

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    I used to be terrified at my ignorance, I knew absolutely nothing… when I became an editor, I started to learn.”

    It was as candid as it could get. Addressing an elite gathering of politicians, journalists, close friends and family, Vinod Mehta, Editor-in-Chief, Outlook, was at his ‘truthful’ best, as he shared his life experiences and views. It was at the release of his memoirs, ‘Lucknow Boy’ in New Delhi yesterday that Mr Mehta confessed, “We journalists have the best seats in the tournament, but some of us, editors particularly, think that we are players. “

    The book launch ceremony began with Mr Suhel Seth, Managing Partner of Counselage India, reading a few excerpts to an eager audience.

     

    Editor-in-Chief of Times Now, Mr Arnab Goswami was then invited to moderate a short discussion with the author. Mr Goswami admitted that to him, Mr Mehta was like, ‘the god of journalism, whom I admire the most.” Adding further, he related an incident from the previous night when he posed two choices to Mr Mehta, asking him which work out of the two was he more proud of, Debonair centrespread or the last page of Outlook. The reply, said Mr Goswami was in line with his habit of being upfront when very easily he chose the last page of Outlook, his own work.

     

    What followed was a candid one-on-one between the ‘king of television news’ as Suhel Seth billed Mr Goswami him, and one of the most ‘Independent’ editors of our times. Ranging from the reasons behind writing this book, to the greatest risks undertaken, to why a journalist and a politician can never be friends, Mr Mehta answered all questions posed by Mr Goswami. When asked if he were 35, would he do television, Mr Mehta, without mincing words, said, ‘Television does not interest me”.

     

     
    On why he wrote his memoirs
    [youtube width=”450″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srM-E8i6wKI[/youtube]
    On why he doesn’t want to do Television
    [youtube width=”450″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2gxTDo_eFE[/youtube]
    On the need for editors to be able to ‘smell’ the news
    [youtube width=”450″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvuDgAPjIIQ[/youtube]
    On why politicians and journalists can never be friends
    [youtube width=”450″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZOKWWHH6uw[/youtube]
    On how does it feel to look back
    [youtube width=”450″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftm_IeG-zds[/youtube]
    On the best thing that has happened in journalism in the last 40 years
    [youtube width=”450″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBb7OzUOL8s[/youtube]
    And a reasonably fair attendance from the political world did not deter him from admitting that the one thing that he has hated all his life is to ask a politician a favour. Mr Mehta is of the strong opinion that politicians and journalists can never be friends. He said, “We follow two different vocations. Politicians are in the business of embellishment, spin, emphasis when emphasis is not necessary and sometimes they are in the business of telling lies. We as journalists on the other hand, with all our imperfections, are in the business of trying to get at the truth.”

     

    On a lighter note, Mr Mehta also shared some bits of his journey as an editor, as a student and above all, as a person.

     

    To recount some faces present at the gathering, first up politicians: MoS for Commerce & Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, Union Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy, BJP MP Tarun Vijay, Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi, CPI National Secretary D Raja, Lok Sabha MP Jay Panda, MP and Chairman of IPL Governing Council, Rajiv Shukla and Former Minister of External Affairs, Natwar Singh. The media was represented by senior editors Tarun Tejpal, Saeed Naqvi and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. Also, author Gurcharan Das and Indrajit Hazra of Hindustan Times, and of course the Outlook team.

     

     

  • Mediaah! tries to find out which of the news channel stars fit the Times of India descriptor of over-the-top anchors

    Mediaah!: Is Arnab Goswami the “over-the-top anchor” in the TOI ad?

    By Pradyuman Maheshwari

     

    This is not the first time that someone from within the Bennett, Coleman & Co empire has taken on Arnab Goswami and Times Now. In the past, Prashant Panday went hammer and tongs at Arnab. The post was on Prashant’s Facebook wall, and didn’t beat about the bush. I must say I was quite surprised that the CEO of a group company which runs the very popular Radio Mirchi network could write all of it so openly (read: An open letter to Arnab ).

    The fact that Prashant wrote it and still has his job speaks volumes for the internal democracy that exists in the group. Though my wicked brain thinks there’s more to it… especially when I saw this ad on the sports pages of the Mumbai edition. Chhota 15×3 ad, but very interesting.

    You must read the text… all of it.

     

    Heated discussions. Accusations and counter accusations. Provocative soundbytes. Panelists competing to outshout each other. Inflammatory visuals. Over-the-top anchors. That’s the stuff TV news is made of. But while it may stir your emotions, does it really leave you better informed about the subject being discussed? Probably not.

    That’s where the print media comes in. Since we don’t labour under the tyranny of having to fill in news 24 hours a day, we can afford to be choosy about what we publish. Beyond the sound and fury of TV’s breaking news, we provide balance, perspective and sober discourse.

    And nobody does it better that The Times of India, the world’s leading English newspaper.We give our readers accurate and balanced news, along with insightful analysis. And we ensure that all points of view are covered. So after you’ve been stirred and shaken by TV news at night, wake up to a bright new day. And get informed by The Times of India.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Not all of it is untrue. Panelists do outshout each other on news TV. Put Jayanthi Natarajan and Ravi Shankar Prasad in one discussion and there’s more noise and less discussion. Also you can be sure you won’t find all the news on television… esp the private channels. Doordarshan News has a lot more meat, but it is soooo boring.

    What deserves another look and no real reading between the lines is a bit from the first para:

    Heated discussions. Accusations and counter accusations. Provocative soundbytes. Panelists competing to outshout each other. Inflammatory visuals. Over-the-top anchors. That’s the stuff TV news is made of.

    So let’s look at the people who dominate the nightly news on the English non-business news channels, which I guess is what the TOI ad is talking about: Rahul Kanwal (Headlines Today), Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose (CNN-IBN), Vikram Chandra, Barkha Dutt, Prannoy Roy (NDTV 24×7) and of course Arnab Goswami on Times Now. There’s also Rahul Shivshankar on NewsX, but my cable operator doesn’t offer the channel, so would reserve comment on him.

    Rahul Kanwal is aggressive and provocative, but he is not sound and fury. Rajdeep has mellowed (and become very good once again), but Sagarika can go high-pitched. On NDTV, Dr Roy and Vikram C are exceedingly softspoken and can’t harm a fly. Barkha still attempts to ask some tough questions, but like Rajdeep isn’t what she used to be around the time of the Gujarat riots.

    The one man who fits most of the attributes described in the Times (of India) ad is Arnab Goswami. I don’t agree with him being over-the-top, though there are many who believe so. I think he asks the tough questions, and is possibly the only one to do so day after day. Yes, he gets carried away, but needs to be cruel with our politicians. And even as I join others in lampooning Arnab for his the-nation-wants-to-know-line, the fact of the matter is that we all really want to know.

    I do feel that Times Now overstretches itself on issues like Pakistan, China or racism, but heck we need it.  As for inflammatory visuals, I think the print media is also fairly irresponsible. Though the impact of television is a lot, lot more on the common man or woman.

    Let’s keep this discussion on. Email Mediaah! at pradyumanm@mxmindia.com and I will carry the best comment here when I am back on Tuesday.

     

     

    Pataudi, RIP

     

    But for the time when he patted me on the back and gave me an autograph, I’ve never met him. But heard loads about him.

    When the news of Tiger Pataudi’s passing came in last night, almost by reflex I called a colleague to check if we could get someone in adland to reminisce dealings with him for endorsements. Then we tried checking on his connections as editor of Sportsworld and for his stint at Dev Features. The Sportsworld team is scattered all over. There’s an interesting tribute by Derek O’Brien in The Telegraph.

    I called Vivek Sengupta on reading his tweet, and finally convinced him to write a few lines. That was around midnight. Vivek may have turned into a public affairs and PR practitioner for a while, but he’s essentially a journo. He knew I wanted him to write, and sent his copy in an hour.

    Meanwhile, we had no luck with getting an adman to write on Pataudi’s ads. But here are two of his TVC that I found on YouTube (the  first a rather long Gwalior Suitings ad and the other being the recent Lays TVC with Saif)

    [youtube width=”350″ height=”260″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iei989o4l-I[/youtube]

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    [youtube width=”350″ height=”260″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTVIrhnt5x4[/youtube]

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Buzz me if you have a story to tell. Confidentiality assured. There are various ways you can reach me:

    pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com, 23050B5D, pradyumanm@gmail.com, @pmahesh, 98338 76278.

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji on the petrol hike coverage, Times Now on Modi, Omar Abdullah’s marriage…

    Arnab Goswami as a BJP adviser?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Expectedly, the petrol price hike was top of the mind on Friday morning, as readers already depressed with the news the night before, groaned their way through morning chores. Most newspapers slammed the hike, pointing out that it would add to inflationary pressures, that this so-called drop in the rupee was not reason enough for a Rs 3 hike and that most of the price per litre went towards taxes anyway. In addition, the apparent move to push people towards diesel was short-sighted because one day diesel subsidy would also have to go and then, the environmental cost.

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    Hindustan Times’ Delhi edition lead with the new India-China standoff over oil exploration in the South China Sea but put the story on the fold in Mumbai, taking the petrol hike and a local municipal story on top. The Times of India gave prominence to its newly constituted Social Impact Awards.

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    The end of Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s marriage was in the papers, but then everyone respected his right to privacy. This meant that the juicy stuff was left out. Interestingly, The Hindu, follows the media coverage in disapproval and finds out that a possible new wife named for Abdullah – as a sort of political alliance – is an imaginary or invented person. Of course, should one wonder whether anyone would care if Omar Abdullah looked like most other Indian politicians (ugly)? Or perhaps if it is time the media dropped the pseudo-coy line and went all out and attacked famous people? Or if it is fair to tempt the reader with titbits and then hold back, claiming goodie-goodie rights?

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    Sonia Gandhi’s return to a workday was frontpaged as was the United States dubbing the Indian Mujahideen a terror outfit. Most papers pointed out that the authorities were still a bit lost on solving both the Mumbai and Delhi blasts. The rains in north India – which are wreaking havoc – got little play in the rest of the country but were covered in the north, with the Tribune in Chandigarh warning of more rain in the next 24 hours. The Ahmedabad edition of The Times of India carried prominently the story of policeman Rahul Sharma describing how he was charge-sheeted by the Gujarat government for talking to the Supreme Court appointed amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran about the 2002 riots. Chief minister Narendra Modi’s fast for goodwill did not feature on page 1.

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    This is of course in stark contrast to our friends in the world of television. Modi’s fast is getting a minute by minute update on some channels. Times Now or at least its biggest hero Arnab Goswami could become adviser to the BJP on how to win the next election, since his News Hour debate on Thursday night brooked no opposition to his view that Modi’s fast for goodwill (sadbhavna) was in the rightness of things. This line appears to be in contrast to The Times of India’s coverage and editorials of Modi and the latest events, but who knows? It must be added that Headlines Today runs neck and neck with Times Now when it comes to the rightwing slant, but then it has far more practice.

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    The petrol hike was given its space and so was cricketer Rahul Dravid’s retirement from One Day Internationals. On Wednesday and Thursday, Indian television did what it does best and to good effect here – it showcased the story of Indian hockey players being given peanuts in prize money and so shamed governments into coughing up more. Several newspapers – Mid-Day particularly in Mumbai – also did their bit.

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    The images of Bihar policemen beating up villagers were frightening and truly a triumph for television.

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    Here’s to a promising weekend, with all our drama kings and queens in full flow!