Tag: freaking news

By Ranjona Banerji

 

Writing or speaking negatively about the BJP, RSS and Sangh Parivar never fails to attract plenty of anger and insults – both on paper and via the internet. There are enough stories about journalists getting various kinds of threats and women usually bear the brunt as imaginative descriptions of rape are often attached to these threats. While other political groups may also take umbrage in unpalatable forms, the rage of the right wing in India is particularly vicious.

 

In the current battle over who owns the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Hindu columnist Vidya Subrahmaniam went back into history and Patel’s scathing letters to the RSS. Since then, she has received 250 calls threatening death by callers claiming to be from the Tamil Nadu branches of the RSS and VHP. She is quoted as saying, “The callers have been abusive and also threatened physical harm by bombing me at my home. They have used filthy and vulgar words.”

 

While one can get inured to insults and threats via snail mail, email, social media and the comments sections of websites and journals, getting phone calls at home is quite another matter. Political parties need to work out better ways to control their cadre and the police need to understand how to deal with such abuse.

 

Interestingly, our political parties are so caught up in scoring points over each other that the Congress’s Ajay Maken took up the matter with the implication that Subrahmaniam had approached the Congress for help, which she denied. The BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi just sidestepped the actual threats with an attack on the Congress. Taking responsibility for actions is not something politicians find it easy to do – perhaps that requires character?

 

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The trial into the phone-hacking and bribing of police and other officials by former News of the World editors and staff has started in the UK. It is worth following the questioning of Rebekkah Brooks and Andy Caulson, both the accused editors. Lots of murky and salacious stuff is emerging but behind the muck, there are some very real questions of media over-reaching which have to be tackled. The scandal did not just shut down the News of the World, it also led to Ruper Murdoch being questioned by MPs, with him apologising. A commission into media ethics headed by Judge Brian Levenson was set up and its report is still being debated by editors and Parliament.

 

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Media ethics… Hmm not a bad subject to debate in India either? A scuttlebutt says that a prominent cricket “historian” has been dumped by a news channel on which he was a favourite for reasons that could be best described as unknown. However, newspapers of the same group continue to use his ‘writing’. What is going on?

 

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The Mumbai edition of the Hindustan Times has started a series on Mumbai’s roads. A full-page everyday looks at problem roads and solutions with excellent graphics. Good layout, negotiable text and plenty of information – HT has to be commended for this effort. This is what establishes a city newspaper.

 

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Newspapers – and they are well within their right to do so – have started using RTI and RTI activists to collect information on how much the government spends on itself. We have been informed about how much petrol and diesel is used by government in Delhi. We have been told that meetings were cancelled because people had to catch flights. We have been told that drivers earn more than ministers in Maharashtra because of overtime. All is well.

 

But as any canny journalist can tell you, all those stories can be reversed. You can outrage that to save on petrol bills, bureaucrats in Delhi who did no work and did not visit troubled areas. The amount of money spent on cancelled plane tickets just for one meeting can be another story. And ministers in Maharashtra who never step out of Mantralaya can be one more. Wait for it!

 

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

Indian newspapers seem to be trying to follow a western pattern in the run up to the next general elections by picking their favoured candidates/parties most likely to win in 2014. However they don’t quite have the hang of it yet. So while there is a general tilt towards the BJP, they suddenly appear to veer off into the opposite direction. American newspapers seem to have taken their own sides too and much more emphatically. The New York Times is firmly against Narendra Modi while The Wall Street Journal favours him. This has, not unnaturally, caused some heartburn in the parallel universe of the social media which is filled with Modi fans. But there should be nothing to worry for them: several international newspapers like The Guardian and The Telegraph (politically as diverse as you can get) have questioned the sanity or validity of Rahul Gandhi’s various remarks.

 

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This is not connected with any evidence, empirical or otherwise, or is not even conjecture. But it vitally important at this time to keep an eagle eye on the media at this point in time. This is when the bogey of paid news rises, as elections approach. This is when managements decide it is time to make money out of political parties and individual candidates by printing pro-stories for a consideration. One easy giveaway is when the same newspaper carries diametrically opposite stories on the same party or same candidate on different days. Often managements, who are extremely clever and strategic, neglect to inform their troublesome colleagues in the editorial department of what they are up to.

 

There is much confusion about paid news in the general public. Some see at as a tag to be attached to journalists who do not support their chosen political party or candidate. Others see it as journalists looking for freebies and are willing to write anything for in return – whether from a political party or a five star hotel. The first contention is nonsensical. Just because journalists disagree with your political ideas does not make them agents of the other party. Tragically however, the other breed does exist: the journalist who will write anything for money and the journalist who is in the pay or thrall of a political party. There is a third category, seen more often in the non-English media where a journalist is forced by managements to act as a marketer as well.

 

These are the scourges of the profession. It is because of them that managements like Bennett Coleman introduced Medianet where a celebrity or wannabe celebrity can pay the newspaper to get favourable news printed. Other managements have followed suit. These are no longer editorial decisions or the actions of a crooked journalist. Medianet and its variations are now rampant and no reader can (or should) believe most of what appears in the glamour papers.

 

Paid News is the Medianet of politics. And there are other similar strategies for corporate and business coverage as well. Journalists one has to say have brought this upon themselves. But readers and viewers can exercise judgment for themselves. There are a couple of well-known columnists who appear on TV as spokespersons for the BJP for instance. Therefore when you read their columns you have a clear picture of where they come from. Supporters for the Congress are a bit thin on the ground and every “secular” person is not necessarily a Congress agent.

 

But there is no question that this is dangerous territory, filled with landmines for readers, viewers and those journalists who have not sold out. The Election Commission has taken Paid News seriously and has recently included newspaper managements in its scrutiny. This general election is going to be extremely vicious and divisive and the scope for transgressing all the rules is massive. On our toes, then.

 

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

I just do not get the Old Spice ad with Milind Soman. He’s a good friend Milind Soman and a good-looking man. But something about the ad doesn’t click. For one, Old Spice flubbed very badly by dubbing the original international ad starring Isaiah Mustapha on the assumption that Indians don’t understand anything. Having done that, they have now tried to take the same idea – manliness and a sense of humour and cobbled together an ad which achieves neither. Soman looks either too pleased with himself or unconvinced at the words he’s made to spout, which are not that funny anyway. In fact, you cannot figure what he’s saying at first listen which defeats the whole purpose anyway.

 

One understands that Old Spice doesn’t want to be seen as a fuddy-duddy brand but also doesn’t want to be seen as a dude-y brand. Its current positioning however seems to be neither and nowhere at all.

 

I found the whole Park Avenue take off on manliness in their Beer Shampoo ads far more amusing. It was ridiculous on the manliness part of it – frightening bears, chopping gigantic logs of wood, being stupid enough to drink the shampoo (something which Old Spice does not achieve) – and then contrasted that with the shiny bouncy hair that is presumably every man’s dream.

 

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The Hindu family coup against professional editors has now turned absurd. The newspaper itself ran a story about how employees burst firecrackers with joy because The Family had returned. There was a giveaway tucked into that story somewhere – promises of large bonuses. Yeah, we would all go the firecracker way if those were coming to us.

 

On Twitter, Malini Parthasarathy has been taking pot shots at professional journalists and very pointedly putting the professional in inverted commas. Meanwhile, MK Venu, resident editor of The Hindu’s Delhi edition has also quit.

 

Some of the problem seems to be former editor Siddharth Varadarajan’s decision not to give Narendra Modi front-page news every time he squeaked. The Hindu family has said that they are not pro-Hindutva (which has long been evident) but they did not buy Varadarajan’s explanation that Modi did not deserve to hog the front page.

 

However, these are problems which should be sorted out by a phone call. There has to be something deeper than that in an overnight removal of an editor two years after a dramatic decision to remove editorial from family control. Six members of the Hindu board are still against N Ram’s decision to remove Varadarajan and CEO Arun Anant and also at Ram’s use of a double vote. How that plays out is yet to be seen but the alacrity with which other board members have jumped into editorial roles might show that these six will have to lick their wounds.

 

The Hindu has achieved something which its mighty magnificence has withstood for 135 years – made itself a laughing stock. If anyone is licking their chops here, it is The Times of India which will see this as a boost to their advancement into South India.

 

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Random thoughts: Sachin Tendulkar’s impending retirement has been hogging headlines and that is bound to make his fans delirious and detractors left fulminating. One suspects the fans will win. The Economic Times has dumped its non-economic feature-driven back page and replaced it with sports. How will that play out? The Hindustan Times is still continuing with its half-jacket on the front page, unknown to what purpose. However I did get a very nice collection of bathing soaps as a gift for renewing my subscription. This makes up for the DVD of Paan Singh Tomar which I did not receive last year!

 

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

One more shake-up at The Hindu has the media a bit, well, shook up. Overturning what was a controversial decision two years ago, the Hindu board has now removed Siddharth Varadarajan as editor of the paper and Arun Anant as CEO. Interestingly, it was N Ram who fought with his brothers and sisters and the board and bulldozed his way to make sure Varadarajan got the job and The Hindu its first professional (non-family) editor in 50 years. And now it is N Ram who has sacked Varadarajan, a very well-respected journalist.

 

The allegations against Varadarajan tilt on the bizarre side: that he had diverged from the “core values” of the paper, that there was “editorialisation in the guise of news and manipulation of news coverage.” Anant has been accused of ruining industrial relations and of having a “communal” approach at times. There are hints that a PIL filed by Subramaniam Swamy over Varadarajan’s US citizenship may have had some role to play here – it comes up for hearing this week.

 

Also strange is the fact the six board members have opposed this move by N Ram to remove Varadarajan. When Varadarajan was appointed in 2011, the board had been against all the moves by Ram to professionalise the editorship of The Hindu. Ram had referenced other family-owned groups like The Times of India at the time, where family members do not hold controlling editorial posts.

 

In many ways, this new flip-flop takes The Hindu back in time. For what it’s worth, The Hindu has been a very respected newspaper in India and the world and is looked by many to be a sort of gold standard for its fair investigations and its Constitutional stance and the fact that it did not appear to bow down to corporate interests. But the family saga which keeps playing out in the background means that every professional journalist and potential CEO will be even more wary about taking up an offer from The Hindu.

 

Varadarajan, rather than accepting being kept on as a contributing editor and “senior columnist” resigned immediately, making the announcement on twitter – as seems to be the norm these days. His tweet which was put up at 5.28 pm on October 21 says, “With The Hindu’s owners deciding to revert to being a family run and edited newspaper, I am resigning from The Hindu with immediate effect.”

 

All those who resigned when Varadarajan was appointed in 2011 are now back – N Ravi, Malini Parthasarathy and Nirmala Lakshman – at the top as is N Ram.

 

The obvious implication is that the family could not bear to be away from the editorial decisions of their newspaper and have therefore buried their differences – however bitter they may have been. It also may mean that the somewhat more contemporary feel of The Hindu will now revert to its early fuddy-duddy days.

 

Anant, the former CEO, has been accused of forcing permanent employees towards the contract system and this could well have been a major thorn for the board. The Hindu is well known for allowing people to stay in positions until eternity regardless of ability – a strategy most other newspapers have long since abandoned. Although heartening for employees ensured of permanent employment disconnected with their output and a welcome change from the new hire and fire policies rampant elsewhere, it is also true that running a professional newspaper with excessive deadwood can be counterproductive if not impossible.

 

Whatever the reasons for these changes, both journalism and professionalism undoubtedly take a bit of a beating when a much-admired newspaper like The Hindu falls back in time.

 

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

The Supreme Court has taken the media back to one of its most shameful episodes: the exposures against senior journalists in the Niira Radia tapes. For those who have been living on Mars since 2010, here goes. The transcripts of the conversations between corporate lobbyist and various people including several journalists were leaked by Outlook and Open magazines. Radia’s phones had been tapped by the Income Tax department after allegations of financial irregularities by a former associate. But the tapping led to enormous breakthroughs in the 2G spectrum scam case.

 

Radia, employed by the Ambanis, the Tatas and Mittals, was heard talking to various journalists asking them to help ensure that A Raja became telecom minister in the 2009 UPA Cabinet. She said she was speaking on behalf of Kanimozhi of the DMK. Of the journalists she spoke to, Barkha Dutt of NDTV sounded the most helpful as also did Vir Sanghvi, then editorial director and columnist with Hindustan Times. Sanghvi and Radia also discussed how Sanghvi’s columns could be used to project Mukesh Ambani’s point of view as far as the KG Basin gas project was concerned.

 

There was an understandable uproar after the tapes were made public and Sanghvi lost his once very well-respected column but that was about it. Dutt remained defiant, putting down her comments as regular journalistic practices. In an incredible TV show, she told several senior journalists who questioned her that they knew little about how journalism in New Delhi functioned and moreover that she didn’t think there was anything remarkable in a corporate lobbyist who represented people with telecom interests calling journalists to influence Cabinet selections.

 

Indeed, if that is what passes for standard practice for journalists in Delhi, it is tragic as far as Indian journalism is concerned. This new Supreme Court directive will lead to the tapes being examined again and perhaps Indian journalists and media houses will be under the scanner again for several nefarious practices. Too much has been allowed already in the name of making money. Nothing wrong with profit at all: we all know it is vital for survival of our system. But for people who spend all day pointing fingers at other people to bend the rules when it comes to themselves is unacceptable.

 

There is a tangential discussion possible here on the inroads which the public relations industry has made into journalism but that is for another day. The onus here is on the journalists – all very senior and powerful – that Radia spoke to. Interestingly, not one thought that there was a story in the fact that the Tatas and the Mittals wanted Raja to be telecom minister and not Dayanidhi Maran or that the DMK insisted on retaining telecom or indeed on the divisions within Karunanidhi’s family made apparent by Radia’s requests. At face value, this looked like a great story to the rest of us.

 

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If journalistic integrity needs to be examined again, so does the problem of paid news and corporate interests in the media. The big story for the last couple of days for almost every newspaper, journal and news channel has been the FIR lodged by the CBI against Kumar Mangalam Birla for his company’s involvement in the coal allocation scam. However, there are allegations and insinuations that the story has either not been covered or has been downplayed by Hindustan Times and by Headlines Today. The Hindustan Times is a Birla company owned by Kumar Mangalam’s cousin Shobhana Bhartia and Kumar Mangalam Birla has invested heavily in the India Today group.

 

From what I have checked, Hindustan Times on October 16 of its Mumbai edition did not carry the story as lead, unlike every other paper. The story appeared on page 10, a nation page, below the fold. I cannot confirm the Headlines Today accusation because I did not track the channel after the story broke.

 

However, there can be little doubt that this is how corporate investment is a potential danger for even a semblance of free and fair journalism: conflict of interest. Is it possible to keep burying such a story? Conversely, how would it look if these journals or news channels tried to support KM Birla? Indrajit Hazra, a columnist with Hindustan Times, has written this rather scathing piece for newslaundry.com on this “lapse”: http://www.newslaundry.com/2013/10/canaries-in-the-mine-shaft/

 

R Sukumar, editor of Mint, also from the Hindustan Times group, has this perspective to offer in Mint: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/F7R4IYn8nJp2Kj5C5RwtaN/Edspace–The-Kumarmangalam-Birla-story.html

 

It’s a slippery slope and we’re all falling down it as far as I can see…

 

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

Cyclone Phailin (I almost put a hashtag before Phailin as a default reaction from too much Twitter!) was obviously an acid test not just for state administrations but also for the media. And for the most part, the media did a very good job. Many brave young reporters stood with their rain gear bringing us the latest from the coastline and inner areas of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh last Saturday, with almost non-stop cyclone coverage.

 

Anchors in the studios filled us in with the meteorological stuff, all in CNN style minus Anderson Cooper and holographic images of course. For some reason, Times Now did not get the memo that Phailin, name chosen this time by Thailand, was pronounced Pey-lin and so continued with the ‘F’ effect.

 

Of the lot of them, CNN-IBN was the least restrained and most professional. Or at least I was jogging along with this impression until at crunch time when the cyclone was supposed to hit they went into a sponsored feature from Siemens. I mention the company name because I remember it. For newscasters and advertisers, there are times when you have to realise that advertising is intrusive and it is better PR to just put it on hold for a while.

 

Ads were the problem across all channels however but that was just regular breaks. And everyone understands that media houses have to make money but perhaps even the advertiser needs to wonder if they want their brand associated with natural disasters as they unfold.

 

Newspapers did what they have to do under such circumstances: gather all the information available and put into perspective for their readers.

 

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As usual, social media was steps ahead of everyone else and many followed American meteorologist Eric Holthaus on Twitter for his predictions. As it turned out, Holthaus may have overestimated the category that Phailin would fall into but his constant tweets, updates and pictures were of great help. (His handle is @EricHolthaus for those interested).

 

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Phailin and its coverage will hopefully nudge the media in India – of all kinds – towards better weather and climate coverage. Newspapers like The Hindu and Hindustan Times are among the few that take it seriously, the rest just give it a cursory nod. Of the TV channels, NDTV has stuck to bringing the weather to its viewers long after its once most recognisable weather girl Anuradha has presumably moved on to other things.

 

It seems amazing that this phenomenon which affects our lives and that of our planet everyday is so ignored. And with all the advances in meteorology and in technology, there is plenty of fascinating information available. As we saw with the Phailin coverage, the Indian Meteorological Department has moved forward in leaps and bounds. Surely, the weather is worthy of a little more attention?

 

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Taking off from that, why have climate change and the environment fallen below the media’s radar? Its effects are there for everyone to see and experience. We need to take the sciences a little more seriously perhaps in the media. I’m not saying stop salivating over Bollywood, cricket and Narendra Modi. I’m just saying widen the frame a bit…

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

At the outset, I take no credit for what I’m about to relate. The way events unfolded may be entirely coincidental but they are curious. A few weeks ago I tweeted that CNN-IBN’s normally excellent satirical news programme, The Week That Wasn’t now appeared to have become overtly right wing. Someone retweeted this to Kunal Vijaykar, surely one of the funniest men on Indian television and an exceptional mimic. Vijaykar replied asking what I meant and I explained that all political parties were made fun of but the BJP. There was no further communication after this exchange.

 

However, the next episode of The Week That Wasn’t had a little fun at Narendra Modi’s expense. The opportunity was immense – that incredible Happy Birthday to Narendraji song sung by Mallika Sherawat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i-OyKTTdG8). It was Sherawat though who bore the brunt of the jokes made on the show, not Modi barring a few elliptical remarks. And according to some observers, a line about Modi’s birthday cake coming from Best Bakery (which I saw) was removed in the reruns. Interestingly, I saw the line about Best Bakery doing the rounds on Twitter the day of Modi’s birthday, which was a Tuesday (September 17). The Week That Wasn’t is aired on the weekend so…

 

The week after that, the show struggled again to try and find something funny to say about the BJP and settled on LK Advani for some feeble attacks. The impression was this has to be done so let’s get on with it. This week too was weak and meagre at best. However the jokes about Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Mulayam, Manmohan Singh and sundry other people remain better than the rest. From the past, Vijaykar’s take on former president Pratibha Patil is perhaps his best, followed by his Mayawati. The last BJP person who was targeted as far as I can remember was Nitin Gadkari and he was easy pickings.

 

Sadly, the skit on Laloo Prasad Yadav this week, after he went to jail, was not up to standard in spite of all the excellent matter available for satire. I sense tiredness in the show’s funny bone. Perhaps it needs a rejig. Perhaps its writers need a holiday. Perhaps they need a better understanding of politics.

 

This is not to suggest that the show has to be fair and attack all political parties equally. It is well within its rights to be biased and support whoever it wants. In which case, it should inform us all of its intentions rather than pretend that it treats everyone equally. It does appear though that the TV18 group, after all the churning that has happened staff-wise, has become right wing. It was always evident in firstpost.com and now is visible often on TV. I’m not even alluding here to media gossip which is rife but just going by what you see on TV and read.

 

It is odd though that the India Today group which is often accused of being right wing and pro-BJP and RSS can come up with that excellent So Sorry series which pokes brilliant fun at everyone while The Week That Wasn’t no longer can. The So Sorry cartoon on Rahul Gandhi and the “nonsense” ordinance and Narendra Modi dreaming of become PM are two of my favourites.

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

Brian Lara came to Dehradun on Thursday to be part of a charity cricket match organised by the Indian Medical Association to raise money for the Kedarnath hospital. A school boy I met after the match told me that Lara left the venue early after the media “irritated” him. The media apparently did not let autograph hunters and the several schoolchildren present interact with Lara and tried to hog his attention the whole time.

 

I have no way of independently verifying this story but it sounds plausible. It also reflects how our fraternity behaves and in some cases, has to behave. The arrival of an international cricket celebrity in a city like Dehradun is a big moment for the local media as much as for everyone else. It is hardly surprising that the media would try and get every last drop they could out of Lara. And the justification is not tough either: any media has the potential to reach many more than the people gathered at an event. So a media invasion is for the greater good.

 

However logical this argument is, there are some inherent flaws. Any person – celebrity or otherwise – has the right to interact with people around him or her who are there to for that purpose. Aside from that, media interference can impede the actual event for which the celebrity has been included. Most experienced event organisers therefore set aside an area for the media to interact with celebrities without destroying the event.

 

But some discipline is required for the media to acknowledge that it is not the be all and end all of an event and to shave off some arrogance by allowing an event to continue smoothly. The Indian media is especially at fault here – and although this can be construed as pointing fingers, photographers and TV people can be especially disruptive. Everyone appreciates they have a job to do but it cannot be at the expense of everyone else’s convenience.

 

I understand that it is a thin line. That a media presence is much sought after and that it plays a very important and distinct role. I myself can remember being angry when the media is not respected or not given enough access at an event. But conversely, I also remember the anger when some sections of the media misbehave publicly if only because it impedes others from doing their jobs.

 

This article by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan which appeared in the Daily Mail spells out the rather unpleasant side of how Indian journalists can operate: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2433772/How-Delhi-gang-rape-revealed-ugly-truth-Indias-journalists.html

 

My experience at Wimbledon showed how the media can be treated with respect for its own professionalism as well as for the space for tennis stars and their millions of fans. Apart from press conferences, there were opportunities for one-on-one interviews, for mingling in the players’ restaurant and watching matches easily, all regulated by a hard-working press centre. It can be done so that everyone is reasonably satisfied.

 

There is one other problem. There is actually no such thing as “the media”, except when it comes to issues like constitutional rights. We are a random group of individuals who are competing with each other for access. It’s hard for the outside world to understand. And sometimes I wonder if we do ourselves, when you consider the high sense of entitlement some of us demonstrate.

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

What a drama over being called a “dehati aurat” or a village woman. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi made a speech in Delhi where he claimed that according to media reports, Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif called Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh a “dehati aurat”. Modi was furious at this insult (this is a media column, so we shall ignore the insults that the BJP and Modi have chucked at the prime minister) and ready to go to war with Pakistan over this comment.

 

Then the “media” involved, as in Barkha Dutt of NDTV and Hamid Mir of Pakistan’s GEO TV jumped into the story. Dutt said that she had been part of that interview with Sharif and he did not call Singh a village woman or any such thing. To murmurings that Sharif told a parable which mentioned village women or things were said off the record which mentioned village women, Dutt was unequivocal – Singh was not insulted.

 

The role of Hamid Mir was not so clear. First reactions from him seemed to indicate that there was something in what Modi had said or indeed that Mir was the source. After that, Mir appeared to confirm what Dutt was saying.
The end result was just a lot of hot air. But let us assume that Sharif did say what he was accused of saying, for the sake of argument. Modi will play it up in a speech because that is his wont. What is less acceptable is the media reaction. Just because random politicians ratchet up the atmosphere with a bit of sabre-rattling does not mean the sheep who seem to run TV studios have to run behind him. A herd mentality does not have to be a media speciality.

 

It might have made better sense to first investigate the source of Modi’s accusations, if indeed better sense is an expectation one can seriously have from television.

 

The media also need not become over-excited to become part of either the political process or a war-mongering effort. Some political parties may want to use them and others will appear to ignore them. The effectiveness of the media is best served by staying aloof and sceptical of everyone. The Dutt-Vir Sanghvi-Niira Radia conversations only remind us of the dangers of thinking that as journalists we are duty bound to start assisting political parties or formations. If you want to do that, quit your job and join a party.
Moreover, young reporters and anchors seem to let their patriotism sway them in the direction of war-mongers without taking a look at the bigger picture. I am not sure how cynicism can be inculcated in a person but when I was starting out it was hammered into us by our seniors. Or it could be that when journalism was a low-paying vocation, only cynics, nutcases and those so inclined ventured towards it. Now that it has become a “career” with prospects, the vocational or passion aspect has dimmed. I have no proof of this, only empirical evidence but still.

 

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As for the village woman remark itself and the reaction to it, the media might have stopped a moment to consider the innate sexism which takes the phrase to be an insult. The fact that being a village woman or more properly an unsophisticated female is a legitimate insult is something which the media needs to reflect on. These sexist postures run deep in Indian society and the media at least needs to jump on them and expose them for what they are.

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

There were two very illuminating and fascinating discussions on BBC World Service and CNN this week. The first was BBC’s Hard Talk where Stephen Sackur interviewed the musician Roger Waters, founder member of the iconic rock band Pink Floyd. Waters is an intriguing figure not just because of the manner in which he left the band and then fought with the other band members to stop them from using the name but also for his song writing which challenged political positions, especially fascist ideas, but also for his spectacular stage shows. A concert in Mumbai a few years ago had fans from geriatrics with walking sticks to young engineering students all showing up.

 

Waters today is older and wiser and in a rare occurrence one sensed that the normally tough Sackur, a relentless questioner, was a bit overcome by fandom. Now 70, Waters discussed his father who was a conscientious objector at the start of the Second World War who then became a soldier, the influence of Syd Barrett the band Pink Floyd, the problems within the band after Barrett’s departure and allegations of anti-Semetism made against him. He refused to discuss his differences with guitarist David Gilmour who was not part of the original line-up and who headed the band after Waters left it. This was much to the disappointment of Sackur and of millions of Waters’ fans.

 

He even stumped Sackur a bit when he said he was surprised that Sackur should ask such an unintelligent question (pertaining to the possibility of the band reuniting). Waters referred to his parting of ways with Pink Floyd as “the schism” and also admitted that he was wrong to have fought a legal battle over the use of the name.

 

To watch the interview was not just enjoyable from the perspective of a rock fan but also to track the trajectory of a rock star and to understand the motivations of musicians. A good interview is one which draws out a person and allows the viewer glimpses into intriguing minds – without of course abandoning the constraints of civil behaviour. This interview won on all counts. A must for Waters fans, if it can be found on youtube.

 

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The second watchable TV experience was a discussion on CNN’s 360 with Anderson Cooper on the retrial ordered into the case of Marissa Alexander who was granted a retrial after she was convicted for 20 years for firing a gun in the air during a domestic dispute.

 

Lawyers, journalists and legal experts discussed the case. Even for those who had no knowledge of this case it was a fascinating conversation as the law, its provisions and its misuse were all talked about. The people involved in the conversation appeared to be knowledgeable even when they were opinionated. It goes without saying that no one yelled, threw accusations or started in-fighting on subjects outside the main topic.

 

**

 

As for Indian news television, it seems once more to be headed towards a war with Pakistan. I have been proud to be a journalist for almost 30 years. But I shudder at the thought that we the media are now in the business of open war-mongering.

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

10 Horrifying Facts about Flying You’ll be Better Off Not Knowing” says the yahoo.co.in site which insists on opening with my Tata Docomo dongle. Why tell me is then, is what I want to ask and then remember it’s just as well that I saw the headline a day after I’ve flown from Mumbai to Dehra Dun.

 

As much as everyone goes on about small town India and how important it now is and the rest of that malarkey, the morning papers in only arrive in our part of this capital of Uttarakhand around 11 am. The newspaper is a late bearer of bad news and sometimes not even well constructed. I read an article about senior living centres which mentioned an upscale facility in Doon not far from our house here. However the local edition of The Times of India did not bother to print the story which I had read in Mumbai. The Hindustan Times comes when it or the newspaperman feels like it. The Asian Age is even more temperamental. Only The Hindu and the local Garhwal Post never miss the bus.

 

The reason for this long diatribe is simple: Where print fails, television and more significantly, the internet step in. I cannot be at the Social Media Week in Mumbai, co-hosted by MxMIndia.com, but there is no doubt that the social media has affected journalism, as friends and former colleagues Sidharth Bhatia, Sachin Kalbag and CP Surendran will be discussing today. In fact twitter has relieved several journalists of the task of calling people and asking for their opinions. It is much easier to just log into twitter and find out. In Mid-Day years ago, getting five people for the “Voices” column was a pain for some. How happy they would have been in today’s world!

 

But more seriously, there is a visible tendency amongst journalists to take social media as a barometer for what is happening in the world. And without dismissing the significance of social media, there is an inherent laziness in this form of thinking. Yes, social media is a powerful tool for sharing information and opinions and spreading news around the world in seconds. With no newspapers and without having switched on the television, I have learnt from people’s tweets and RTs in the past 10 minutes that the siege as Westgate Mall in Nairobi is still on, that the Supreme Court has made the Aadhar Card voluntary and that Ram Jethmalani has two wives and many girlfriends according to Subramaniam Swamy. Well, actually I already knew the last one because it’s old news and I’m old. What is intriguing is why Swamy needs to be spreading gossip but then he is what he is.

 

However, more things happen on the ground than on social media and there are more feelings and opinions and ideas out there as well. It may be clichéd but India is a large and complicated country and if you are going to report or pontificate about it, you have to get out there to get a sense of what’s going on. Cost-cutting and glorified sub-editors becoming editors sometimes lead to ridiculous situations where reporters are castigated for stepping out of the office. But telephone or internet newsgathering is just bad journalism. Currently, at best, social media is a barometer for what’s happening on social media. For the rest, the world still exists.