A Contrarian View

Yes, I like reading Mint and no I'm not angling for a job there - even though Mint pays bucket loads of cash, even if you barely have enough experience. But, let us not go there. I got this rather angry email from a reader who wanted this printed - this isn't defamatory or scurrilous sadly, but to the guys at Mint who read this blog, pass the contents of the post below on to RN, since it is addressed to him (this blog is only the notepad).
PS: Before the post, I hear that our Sonia's Goebbels is on his death-bed? I have no love lost for Priya Ranjan, but the guy supposedly has a collapsed left ventricle. I doubt there will be dramatic changes in media policy if PRDM were to go now, but he did a fantastic job herding the masses during the Nuclear vote. As for Indian football, well we languish in the 120's now, but there have been flickering signs of life lately.
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Dear Mr. Narisetti,
I'm a believer like you are. I believe in the transformative force of journalism, and the written word in particular. That's why I've braved low salaries, professional humiliation, inflated egos {"I'm as good as Henry Luce, if not better," proclaimed one editor in a closed door "knowledge" (I hate to use the franchise-contracting, vernacular expression "gyaan") durbar he loved to hold}, and virtual ostracisation from my community in one little corner of the country that your paper loves to homogeneously lump as "south of the Vindhyas".
I believe that human beings—artistes, politicians, writers, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs, and even journalists—are at their creative and innovative best when they set out to create wealth. There's no greater joy and excitement in this world than chronicling that process of wealth creation. Business journalism gives you that vantage point. I shared your belief about the crying need for "lighthouse" journalism as opposed to the "lamppost" journalism being practiced in much of the mainstream media in India. It sounded like a line from one of your SAJA convention speeches, but on face value, it did sound most noble.
Looking at the rather eclectic collection of bylines in your paper, it appears you don't have time of the day for anyone who hasn't been a general assignment reporter, or at least an office help at Smyrna Post or such like. I'm not so sure if you'd take someone who's hardly crossed the shores of this country inhabited by the great unwashed, too seriously, but here's my two paise worth anyways.
I read you blog "Kudos to The Economic Times" dated September 28, 2008 where you manifest your elation at the business news market leader The Economic Times waking up to the fundamentals of good journalism. Maybe it's my blinkered worldview, but I'm not so sure if it befits the editor (who in private circles claims to run the only world class print product in India) to reproduce the internal memos written by a rival editor. This when you can't even be 100 per cent sure of the letter's provenance and veracity. I clicked on the top right corner of your website to check if the Mint "Code of Ethics" has any clues. "Editors, by virtue of their positions of authority, must be ethical role models for all employees. An important part of an editor's leadership responsibility is to exhibit the highest standards of integrity in all dealings with employees, customers and the world at large. Editors must avoid even implicit or unspoken approval of any actions that may be damaging to the reputation of HT Media, and must always exercise sound business judgment in the performance of their duties," says para VII. If it is transparency and the readers'-right-to-know that you put above everything else, wouldn't your paper have served such interests better by explicitly naming the trouble besieged private bank that was borrowing short-term funds at a scary 20 per cent-plus interest rate? Surely, sir, the goings on at a bank that has safe keeps the hard-earned monies of millions of Indians is more important than the internal machinations of a paper you and your closest colleagues loathe.
Mint's coverage of the media as any other business sector was a refreshing change. In an environment where proprietor interests made it virtually impossible for journalists to write objectively about rival media houses, Mint's reportage was praiseworthy till you undid all the good work by putting out a biased and self-congratulatory audit of news reports soon after Budget 2008. Mint not surprisingly came out smelling of roses having got nearly every Budget related story right whereas, you primary rival ET, according to your painstaking research put out just about 10 accurate stories out of 15 in the run up to the annual February end exercise that one of your most important lieutenants had consigned to the dustbins not so long ago. You claim to know little about ET's editor Rahul Joshi. Neither do I (I've only heard about his legendary ambidextrous prowess with the Blackberry, and his ability to text at the speed of light) nor do I hold a brief for the paper he edits. But as a reader, I'm certain ET carried more than the 15 Budget stories you cared give it credit for in you audit. On the matter of reproducing the letter (and not for the first time in your paper) in question, do I detect a voyeuristic pleasure? You claim that "the reason to applaud ET is not to make this a back-handed compliment". A few sentences later you quote your deputy's bottomline. "Let's continue to focus on what we do and need to do and not on what others don't do." Well if that wasn't a back-handed compliment, show me another.
Actually, your deputy is right. You'd do well focus on what you should do. For a start, give the readers news, and stop pretending to be WSJ's facsimile edition. All this "unbiased and clear-minded chronicling of the Indian dream" appears quite like the "discovery of India" trips undertaken by the green horn heir apparent of the country leading political party. Just as he discovered the plight of Vidarbha cotton farmers last year, one of your editors too woke up to pleasures of hailing a radio taxi in our metros, a good two years after some of these happy chappies made their crores in this business. And in the latest (beer sodden) issue of your much acclaimed weekend magazine Lounge, you told us about the abundant supplies of craft beer in India (or was it Gurgaon?). Helpful tip: It helps to get out of your gated Delhi colonies, and swanky condos to look for a story.
Sir, honourable practitioners of this profession did exist (the owner of this blog, for example) before you decided play the knight-in-the-shining-armour. And this was by no means a Mickey Mouse journalism league, for you, and your fellow brown sahibs to come rescue. Get off your high horses, stop the grandstanding (this country can't handle two N Ram's for gods sake), and remember it's not the White Man's Burden anymore. As businesses discover everywhere in the world, arrogance towards the local market is the highway to Erehwon (Kellogs found that out, and maybe in the course of time you too will).
Your friend Lefley in Cincinnati won't disagree.
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