Someone sent me an SMS the other day, saying why hasn't K said anything about the 'Tapes' and the 'Fall of Journalism'. Given that this blog has a title like this, I thought I should say something but after that twat Avirook 'exposed' himself making me collateral damage in the process, it would seem petty to write a post.
Though, truth be told I was rather gleeful to see Avirook's benefactor in journalism exposed as a dictation-taking sham artist. Then again, I've always had a strong opinion about 'The V'. Imagine if News X had taken off under old management, it might well have been called News RIL, I don't think any of the old News X staff can talk about the credibility of that set-up any longer. Anyway, as usual, I dither.
Honestly, was this bound to happen one day, sure it was. I mean, yes the leaked tapes are targeted at certain journalists and politicians, particularly journalists and politicians who are/were friendly to a particular industrialist (well, duh!) and the government has now dubbed Niira Radia as a foriegn agent. But, to be fair to Miss Radia, she was very good at her job. Not excellent, because if she was excellent these tapes would never have come out, but she was good.
But first, I really do not believe it is a crime for journalists to talk to lobbyists, it has happened before and it will happen again. They can give you interesting leads and even help you along in a story. On the other hand, taking dictation from them is well, indefensible. We all talk to these people, meet them at the Taj Chambers as we start climbing the ladder from being correspondents to being editors.
There are however a couple of very troubling questions that this episode has raised, the first is that rank-and-file journalists, the guys who go out on the street and get the stories are seen to be fairly powerless. Whatever happened to the pushy reporter? Most reporters are happy for their editors to correct and maul their story in exchange for the lead story on TV or a front page story byline in a newspaper? That several young reporters have a lack of confidence in their language is one thing, but a lack of confidence in their stories?
The second troubling issue is that some journalists seem to have been nothing more than cheap spies. Whether or not someone can prove a fiduciary link is not the question, a news list in my opinion is sacred until the product makes the airwaves or hits the stands. Many years ago, my now wife and then girlfriend who worked for a rival publication then asked me whether we were doing a story on XXX. I flipped my lid, and later discovered that she had been coerced by her then editor to ask me this. I lost all respect for that man that day, to take advantage of young reporter to do something like this is wrong. To volunteer information is bizarre.
As Sukumar pointed out in his column on November 27, these conversations were private and we all say a lot of things in private conversations, make aspersions and call call people names. If people call other people names in a phone call, oh well, they never thought that they would get caught. And usually if they call you names, they never liked you anyway.
Anyway, a few friends and me are planning to do a panel discussion on the topic. Not trying to involve the usual suspects, we are trying to get a lot of younger journalists as well as others who understand what the internet is all about. I will post the details on my Twitter feed as well as this blog.
And there is another cautionary tale here, when you build your reputation around honesty and ethics, be sure never to trip up or have someone trip up doing your dirty work. There isn't a detergent built that can clear the stains on that reputation.
Showing posts with label The V. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The V. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Guess who is back?
A little birdie, well a rather large birdie to be fair to the man, told me that Peter Mukerjea is back in India and all has been forgiven by everyone other than 'Mr Why-didn't-I-get-a-Gong'. The really interesting part of this small item of News is that no less than Uncle M himself has given him a new operation and that is to launch Fox News in India. Since this is a blog post and not a news piece I can use the term 'sources' freely - the new channel, with a history of hardly showing any news, or biased news at best - which will not make it any different than every other channel on Indian television - will be launched by end-2010. Of course, fat-arsed idiots will be licking their lips at the prospect of ripping someone else off (though it is a bad career move to rip Uncle M off) this 'supposed' new channel might also depart from the obvious by being a bit more right-wing than usual - and right-wing does not mean 'War, War, War!'
Now one can question whether India really needs another news channel - there are no conclusive numbers to show that being in the English general news category is remotely profitable. Every single channel in the space suffers from the 'paid news' syndrome. Print publications at least - well English print at least - puts out 'Consumer Connect Initiative' or 'Media Marketing Initiative' - you don't see that when channels go ga-ga promoting movies and the like. Indeed, this interesting nugget in Money Life makes you wonder how viable the media is in general. And in India, the iPad will hardly be a sudden White Knight. Ask any magazine that costs more than Rs 50.
PS: And as the debate about what journalists should do when confronted with a life or death situation, CNN's Anderson Cooper shows the way.
Now one can question whether India really needs another news channel - there are no conclusive numbers to show that being in the English general news category is remotely profitable. Every single channel in the space suffers from the 'paid news' syndrome. Print publications at least - well English print at least - puts out 'Consumer Connect Initiative' or 'Media Marketing Initiative' - you don't see that when channels go ga-ga promoting movies and the like. Indeed, this interesting nugget in Money Life makes you wonder how viable the media is in general. And in India, the iPad will hardly be a sudden White Knight. Ask any magazine that costs more than Rs 50.
PS: And as the debate about what journalists should do when confronted with a life or death situation, CNN's Anderson Cooper shows the way.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wind-Sock?
If The Indian Express (where in something that would have made Ponytail proud, journalism awards were given to the son-in-law, anyone surprised?) is changing its spots so dramatically, can a change of government be in the offing? The Q leak, though symptomatic of the way the UPA regime has used the CBI for its own odds and ends (much like the NDA also did) is rumored to be followed up by other large exposes before the fourth round on May 7. I wonder how quickly RajdeepTV starts changing their stance as well - ET carried a decent story today on how bureaucrats are trying to save their skins as happened during polling in 2004 (and given that the ToI and ET sites are run by Indiatimes a completely schizo web company you can't find the article).
The other really funny thing is that the 'psychopath's' antics in Pilibhit seem to have worked - confused identity and the BJP's own problems with his father (and the Emergency) be damned. BCCL of course, always goes where the wind blows - I think there is a Mr. Big song of the same name - this eighties and nineties music thing is getting a bit much - have Sweet Child O' Mine playing right now while also trying to watch the two worst teams in the IPL go at each other. What will happen to the news organisations that find themselves tied to the Congress thanks to reasons of ownership or otherwise? Well, the Congress-owned paper won't be making ministers of it anytime soon, and after the funny accusation of calling Advani a mask for Modi - funny because everybody has known that fact for a while, much like MMS is a cover for Rahulbaba. Seriously, expecting either Advani or MMS to last out till 2014 is asking for far too much. Call a spade a spade, but do it fairly.
That said, I still believe that 1992, 2002 and IC-814 will be problems for the BJP going forward not just the 'Hindu' agenda forwarded by Togadia and Muthalik. Ditching the ugly side is important. Nothing wrong in nationalism, nothing wrong in demanding and creating a stronger India. But the past has a bad habit of appearing at all the wrong times. Shit happened, shit hit the fan, if you don't clean all the shit quickly, you can still fall ill after several years.
It seems the Bevdaas have beaten Dildo's team. Remind me to send Nokia's marketing guys a 'told you so' note!
The other really funny thing is that the 'psychopath's' antics in Pilibhit seem to have worked - confused identity and the BJP's own problems with his father (and the Emergency) be damned. BCCL of course, always goes where the wind blows - I think there is a Mr. Big song of the same name - this eighties and nineties music thing is getting a bit much - have Sweet Child O' Mine playing right now while also trying to watch the two worst teams in the IPL go at each other. What will happen to the news organisations that find themselves tied to the Congress thanks to reasons of ownership or otherwise? Well, the Congress-owned paper won't be making ministers of it anytime soon, and after the funny accusation of calling Advani a mask for Modi - funny because everybody has known that fact for a while, much like MMS is a cover for Rahulbaba. Seriously, expecting either Advani or MMS to last out till 2014 is asking for far too much. Call a spade a spade, but do it fairly.
That said, I still believe that 1992, 2002 and IC-814 will be problems for the BJP going forward not just the 'Hindu' agenda forwarded by Togadia and Muthalik. Ditching the ugly side is important. Nothing wrong in nationalism, nothing wrong in demanding and creating a stronger India. But the past has a bad habit of appearing at all the wrong times. Shit happened, shit hit the fan, if you don't clean all the shit quickly, you can still fall ill after several years.
It seems the Bevdaas have beaten Dildo's team. Remind me to send Nokia's marketing guys a 'told you so' note!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Best served cold?
I don't get the IPL connection in the story and let me assure you not too many people bought tickets to watch IPL games - at least I bought none, but still watched five of seven games in Delhi. And believe me, I was not alone. Anyway, this is a Sidewinder missile at 9X, makes for entertaining reading though. Won't get into the financial plans of General Entertainment Channels though, because I don't watch them and therefore have no frikkin' clue!
But to add to the point, the IPL is more than just ticket sales - I was told by an extremely reliable source, who cannot be named because of Ramadoss - that while the Royal Challengers Bangalore were godawful last year, sales of RC climbed some 30 per cent afterwards. C'mon even KKR dropped off after their amazing start, but because SRK managed to sell KKR as a Bong team rather than a 'Kolkata' team, it got the entire diaspora excited. Sales of other stuff certainly increased and the teams made money from selling lounges and general gobbledegook. But then again, in reality only Kolkata, Punjab and Rajasthan made any money last year. And while the first season was a ratings success and I'm sure that season 2 will be a ratings success, it remains to be seen if the IPL will make 'money'. Money does not guarantee success of more money - just look at Chelsea Football Club.
So how successful has the IPL really been? Maybe, we'll answer that once the elections are over. What will be really interesting this time is that the IPL and the General Elections, or least the campaigning will definitely coincide, and that should lead to interesting news bulletins. So for eight weeks, half the paper will be politics and half the paper cricket. But newspapers can still run larger editions, can you imagine the chaos in the news channels. Nobody will watch the news because everyone will be busy watching cricket. Dang, what an absolutely brilliant move by Lalit Modi!
But to add to the point, the IPL is more than just ticket sales - I was told by an extremely reliable source, who cannot be named because of Ramadoss - that while the Royal Challengers Bangalore were godawful last year, sales of RC climbed some 30 per cent afterwards. C'mon even KKR dropped off after their amazing start, but because SRK managed to sell KKR as a Bong team rather than a 'Kolkata' team, it got the entire diaspora excited. Sales of other stuff certainly increased and the teams made money from selling lounges and general gobbledegook. But then again, in reality only Kolkata, Punjab and Rajasthan made any money last year. And while the first season was a ratings success and I'm sure that season 2 will be a ratings success, it remains to be seen if the IPL will make 'money'. Money does not guarantee success of more money - just look at Chelsea Football Club.
So how successful has the IPL really been? Maybe, we'll answer that once the elections are over. What will be really interesting this time is that the IPL and the General Elections, or least the campaigning will definitely coincide, and that should lead to interesting news bulletins. So for eight weeks, half the paper will be politics and half the paper cricket. But newspapers can still run larger editions, can you imagine the chaos in the news channels. Nobody will watch the news because everyone will be busy watching cricket. Dang, what an absolutely brilliant move by Lalit Modi!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Paper, paper everywhere...
I don't know if The V reads this blog, but after reading Counterpoint this Sunday I have a sneaky suspicion that he does. I posted the link to the Time article but the piece was also in the print edition and I also made fun of the bailout. You know where our media bosses got a handout from the government.
Though, and really a three - five per cent excise isn't really that much, so the argument that the government will continue to tax the living daylights out of everything is relatively untrue - though I'm sure given a chance Chiddu would have imposed a service tax on journalism as well. The big announcement was the 15 per cent hike in DAVP rates.
With the real estate sector, the cornerstone of print media advertising (along with the Ponytail, a master of the hire then fire school of thought - makes the placements look good) in a tailspin (though the Ponytail obviously carries on undaunted), the papers needed new advertisers. After all the bills of the senior marketing chaps had to be paid.
With business journalists, the ones who brought in the adverts over the past decade being no good anymore, they rolled out the political bureaus. The 15 per cent rise in DAVP rates is also a great way for the 'Hand' to buy positive political coverage. But given that one proprietor is a sitting 'Hand' MP and another was just given a gong, coverage wouldn't have too bad any which way. Well, it will neutralise Jaitley's implants across the media - papers would be loathe to lose the little assured advertising that they have. After all even the herbal quacks who promised that they've cured Cancer/AIDS/Virginity have stopped advertising.
Did the newspaper industry need a bailout in the first place? Well, in a weird sort of way they are just reaping what they have sown. Think about it, there was no logical reason for papers to be priced at the levels they have been priced. Even before newsprint prices climbed through the roof, the advent of the 120-page daily spectacular (in Mumbai - Times of India + Mumbai Mirror + Bombay Times + Local Supplement + Sponsored Supplement + Classifieds easily crossed 120 pages on a regular basis) meant that printing prices were going through the roof.
The concept of the free flanking product meant that prices spiralled further out of control. The cheaper ad rates in the 'flanking products' often meant that the main paper/magazine lost out on revenue. These pricing decisions were decided not by editorial folks, but those in management. Sure, there was wildly irrational hiring, lazy bums got paid huge amounts of money just to make sure they didn't join another 'proposed' paper. And fair enough, staff costs have to be cut. But will paper owners bite the bullets and raise daily prices to more sustainable levels? A copy of the NYT still costs $1 (Rs 50) and that is not an inconsiderable sum of money. But should a daily - loaded newspaper in India continue to cost Rs 2 - 2.50? I have a feeling that the Rs 5 newspaper isn't very far away.
Oh, and about the Internet - the sites of every major paper in India are so horrible, that they all need a rebuild. Save DNA perhaps.
Though, and really a three - five per cent excise isn't really that much, so the argument that the government will continue to tax the living daylights out of everything is relatively untrue - though I'm sure given a chance Chiddu would have imposed a service tax on journalism as well. The big announcement was the 15 per cent hike in DAVP rates.
With the real estate sector, the cornerstone of print media advertising (along with the Ponytail, a master of the hire then fire school of thought - makes the placements look good) in a tailspin (though the Ponytail obviously carries on undaunted), the papers needed new advertisers. After all the bills of the senior marketing chaps had to be paid.
With business journalists, the ones who brought in the adverts over the past decade being no good anymore, they rolled out the political bureaus. The 15 per cent rise in DAVP rates is also a great way for the 'Hand' to buy positive political coverage. But given that one proprietor is a sitting 'Hand' MP and another was just given a gong, coverage wouldn't have too bad any which way. Well, it will neutralise Jaitley's implants across the media - papers would be loathe to lose the little assured advertising that they have. After all even the herbal quacks who promised that they've cured Cancer/AIDS/Virginity have stopped advertising.
Did the newspaper industry need a bailout in the first place? Well, in a weird sort of way they are just reaping what they have sown. Think about it, there was no logical reason for papers to be priced at the levels they have been priced. Even before newsprint prices climbed through the roof, the advent of the 120-page daily spectacular (in Mumbai - Times of India + Mumbai Mirror + Bombay Times + Local Supplement + Sponsored Supplement + Classifieds easily crossed 120 pages on a regular basis) meant that printing prices were going through the roof.
The concept of the free flanking product meant that prices spiralled further out of control. The cheaper ad rates in the 'flanking products' often meant that the main paper/magazine lost out on revenue. These pricing decisions were decided not by editorial folks, but those in management. Sure, there was wildly irrational hiring, lazy bums got paid huge amounts of money just to make sure they didn't join another 'proposed' paper. And fair enough, staff costs have to be cut. But will paper owners bite the bullets and raise daily prices to more sustainable levels? A copy of the NYT still costs $1 (Rs 50) and that is not an inconsiderable sum of money. But should a daily - loaded newspaper in India continue to cost Rs 2 - 2.50? I have a feeling that the Rs 5 newspaper isn't very far away.
Oh, and about the Internet - the sites of every major paper in India are so horrible, that they all need a rebuild. Save DNA perhaps.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Pet Peeves
Everyone has a pet peeve, and journalists have pet peeves about certain things. For some people in a particular pink paper, it is economy class travel. For others it is not being served Scotch. For me, it is the overwhelming majority of technology coverage in most newspapers. And the reason I am constipated today, and thus I’m really bugged, is the anchors of both the leading dailies. The first is ToI not knowing how Google Adsense works – it is called IP tracking I do it too via Google Analytics and that is how the adverts you see on the side are customised.
So instead of reading ToI’s very good Page 2, which looked at the rampant destruction of the Aravalis – and what is surprising here is that NDTV despite winning an award for a show on illegal mining in the Aravalis and doing a ‘Greenathon’ is not following up. And the second thing that bugged me in the morning was HT’s HDTV anchor which kind of loses the ‘How?’ part. Of course, with the little bit calling HD 16 times better than standard def making me wonder how the math was done (1080 lines of resolution is somehow not 16 times 480 lines) and the rest of the story was classic Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD).
And the story was slightly old. DD has to record and telecast the games in HD (and might lose the rights unless it does - dated December 2007). Instead of talking about whether your TV is HDTV compatible – regular tube TV (negative) and the difference beween HD-ready and Full-HD and the slight matter of India’s total broadcast and transmission system being analog – no DTH system has the bandwidth for HDTV – the only way I can figure HDTV broadcasts being made are through either DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast – terrestrial) or Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) networks but for God’s sake - and the story has the classic 'not authorised to speak to the media' official. These have a funny way of turning up very so often.
many, many years ago, when I was a little boy, in a matter of speaking at least, rather when was a greenhorn, I was thrust into doing subsidiary work on Reliance's backdoor entry into telecom. And one of my friend's fathers asked me to explain what on earth was going on, because most of the copy, in each of the papers was full of jargon which went above most people's heads - WLL, CDMA, GSM, TDMA yada, yada... Explaining your story, even if you have 300 words can be easy. But for that you have to be completely clued in to what you are writing. A free byline does not mean you can write crap.
It is bad enough that journalists played their role, along with bureaucrats from the HRD ministry on the $10 laptop fiasco, just try not to make it worse you know.
PS: Vir's latest post is quite interesting. Fashion magazines in India, the home of horribly, botched photoshop jobs, making every woman's face featureless and adding the mysterious 'enlogated thumb' or 'third hand' (I'll post examples of these). Here is the strange thing, these places are incredibly cheap to advertise in. Seriously, if you were a Gigolo, you could probably get an advert there for cheaper than what the massage services (hah!) pay HT and ToI. No seriously. In one 'leading' magazine, a full-page colour advert can be placed for Rs 15,000. That just about covers printing costs, anyway I won't make this post too long. I need to take a dump.
EDIT: ContentSutra has an interesting story on Bennett's foray into the UK market.
So instead of reading ToI’s very good Page 2, which looked at the rampant destruction of the Aravalis – and what is surprising here is that NDTV despite winning an award for a show on illegal mining in the Aravalis and doing a ‘Greenathon’ is not following up. And the second thing that bugged me in the morning was HT’s HDTV anchor which kind of loses the ‘How?’ part. Of course, with the little bit calling HD 16 times better than standard def making me wonder how the math was done (1080 lines of resolution is somehow not 16 times 480 lines) and the rest of the story was classic Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD).
And the story was slightly old. DD has to record and telecast the games in HD (and might lose the rights unless it does - dated December 2007). Instead of talking about whether your TV is HDTV compatible – regular tube TV (negative) and the difference beween HD-ready and Full-HD and the slight matter of India’s total broadcast and transmission system being analog – no DTH system has the bandwidth for HDTV – the only way I can figure HDTV broadcasts being made are through either DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast – terrestrial) or Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) networks but for God’s sake - and the story has the classic 'not authorised to speak to the media' official. These have a funny way of turning up very so often.
many, many years ago, when I was a little boy, in a matter of speaking at least, rather when was a greenhorn, I was thrust into doing subsidiary work on Reliance's backdoor entry into telecom. And one of my friend's fathers asked me to explain what on earth was going on, because most of the copy, in each of the papers was full of jargon which went above most people's heads - WLL, CDMA, GSM, TDMA yada, yada... Explaining your story, even if you have 300 words can be easy. But for that you have to be completely clued in to what you are writing. A free byline does not mean you can write crap.
It is bad enough that journalists played their role, along with bureaucrats from the HRD ministry on the $10 laptop fiasco, just try not to make it worse you know.
PS: Vir's latest post is quite interesting. Fashion magazines in India, the home of horribly, botched photoshop jobs, making every woman's face featureless and adding the mysterious 'enlogated thumb' or 'third hand' (I'll post examples of these). Here is the strange thing, these places are incredibly cheap to advertise in. Seriously, if you were a Gigolo, you could probably get an advert there for cheaper than what the massage services (hah!) pay HT and ToI. No seriously. In one 'leading' magazine, a full-page colour advert can be placed for Rs 15,000. That just about covers printing costs, anyway I won't make this post too long. I need to take a dump.
EDIT: ContentSutra has an interesting story on Bennett's foray into the UK market.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Again and again...
HT launched their all-new bloggers today. That said, only one post is any fun, but what fun! Previous posts on the issue - the start of the matter, my crappy analysis, someone else wades in feeling indignant about something and there will be peace, no wait, that blood, right?
And this is a nice afaqs piece on the adverts for equity model being followed. Surprisingly, HT Media also announced in their last quarterly results that they'll be doing exactly the same thing.
EDIT: Afaqs link corrected
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Peace?
The Israelis and Palestinians can't do it, but over at everyone's favourite sniping ground HT House, it seems peace has broken out. Unless this column was written earlier. But that is unlikely, but then again. And when it comes to the Campaign story, I really have to be back The V here, the flyer was decidedly one-sided. Some people know why, but it seems that the master of ad-sales still has some friends in the world. And my god, as I am watching 'Slumdog Millionaire' again with my brother, I suddenly realise how bad some of the acting is, alright Anil Kapoor has to ham, and he does it well. But, seriously, I'm dreading the papers even if Rahman wins a deserved Oscar. If Slumdog doesn't win, just read the conspiracy theories on the fourth of February. No, you'll end up watching them throughout on the third. And if Slumdog does win, God help us all!
EDIT: According to his website, this was his last column and Pursuits will henceforth appear only online. So peace obviously has not spread, oh well so much for hoping. Also while similar to a previous column on spies, this was a new column.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Hoo Boy!
I don't quite believe everybody has realised just how much shit has been thrown up by The V's unprecedented attack on Mint. But there was, as the Israeli's would say 'unintended casualties', one of them being Campaign India which was brushed of as 'never heard of'. Maybe that is because Mint also has a little thing called 'Campaign' (or had) but Campaign (the real one) is one of the leading advertising publications in the world, and though I am not a regular reader my friends in advertising tell me that the Indian edition (much like most 'Indian' editions) is not a patch on the British one. Anant Rangaswami of Campaign India takes serious objection to The V's article and well, calls The V a liar for saying 'never heard of'. This is getting to be so much fun!
Lightning Rod
I really didn’t think that 2009 would start with a media bang – first a letter of resignation and then a column of indignation. Both posts became lightning rods for comments from both sides. Not that I should be surprised after the events of December 2007 and January 2008 when a constant stream of News X news flowed through this blog. And I take issue up with Vir, not just because he holds exchange4media up as a paragon of journalism (please!) but because I believe the coverage here was far better than anywhere else. Just kidding but anyway.
People have called and asked me what I think on the matter, now I’ve got divided loyalties. I believe Vir is a blessed writer, one of the best in the country. On television, it might be a different thing, but he is an amazing writer. Sukumar has the country’s best collection of graphic novels. In fact, both these guys have a bit in common with their attitude towards plebs, far too much in common, but I’m not going to go into that issue.
What would I have done? Lets look at it from both sides with my rather limited understanding of the media after almost a decade of working here and generally being myself.
As a columnist whose column was dropped, I would have written an indignant column in a rival paper or now that technology (of all things, given the person involved) allows make sure that I write a stinging rebuke (far better than the column incidentally) and make sure that it ‘leaks’ out to a media content ‘aggregator’ or ‘blog’ from a friendly source – which is exactly what happened and then wait and watch the fun from the moral high ground.
Also, remember to buy enough bandwidth to make sure that when two hundred people press the link on aforementioned blog (mine) at the same time the site doesn’t go under and leads to another round of speculation.
As an editor, it is my prerogative to decide which column goes through and which column doesn’t. No-one else can decide that, and no columnist, no matter how good (even Jeremy Clarkson or A.A Gill good), has absolute rights. However, given the equation in this case – this is no ordinary columnist not just because of his writing – I believe the piece should have been carried. Along with a rebuttal, a detailed rebuttal of the allegations mentioned in the piece and not least of all the bunkum about ‘gut’ feeling.
Sure, many of us are very lazy, but if we all started writing articles based on gut feeling, I would be spending a lot of time with Ramalinga Raju in jail for defamation or write that the price of fuel might come down by ten bucks based on some random sheet of paper, the fact of the matter is that political reportage still has that cloudy area where contacts determine everything, business reportage is based a lot on facts and figures reported to SEBI. The rules were made by politicians. Just because I might feel that daal mein kuch kala hai doesn’t mean I say it without resorting to facts. Sentiments are nice, but you can not be sentimental (in a matter of speaking) when writing. And what is with the Dhirubhai Ambani love?
Not least because that the columnist involved was an interested party and while I agree that Mint’s initial coverage of the INX saga was very one-sided, once their other media reporter (and I wish Sruthijeet all the best at ContentSutra, he is one the country’s best media reporters) came onboard the coverage improved manifold. Doing so would still have stirred the honey-pot and the bees might still have stung, but the moral high ground would not have been ceded.
Listen these are just my two cents on the matter. I know there are far higher political hi-jinx behind all of this and the philosophy of ‘never forget, never forgive’, is in play. By no means is this the end of the matter, and I will try and keep everybody posted on what happens next. As always please do comment and leave your opinions. Have a great weekend and Republic Day.
People have called and asked me what I think on the matter, now I’ve got divided loyalties. I believe Vir is a blessed writer, one of the best in the country. On television, it might be a different thing, but he is an amazing writer. Sukumar has the country’s best collection of graphic novels. In fact, both these guys have a bit in common with their attitude towards plebs, far too much in common, but I’m not going to go into that issue.
What would I have done? Lets look at it from both sides with my rather limited understanding of the media after almost a decade of working here and generally being myself.
As a columnist whose column was dropped, I would have written an indignant column in a rival paper or now that technology (of all things, given the person involved) allows make sure that I write a stinging rebuke (far better than the column incidentally) and make sure that it ‘leaks’ out to a media content ‘aggregator’ or ‘blog’ from a friendly source – which is exactly what happened and then wait and watch the fun from the moral high ground.
Also, remember to buy enough bandwidth to make sure that when two hundred people press the link on aforementioned blog (mine) at the same time the site doesn’t go under and leads to another round of speculation.
As an editor, it is my prerogative to decide which column goes through and which column doesn’t. No-one else can decide that, and no columnist, no matter how good (even Jeremy Clarkson or A.A Gill good), has absolute rights. However, given the equation in this case – this is no ordinary columnist not just because of his writing – I believe the piece should have been carried. Along with a rebuttal, a detailed rebuttal of the allegations mentioned in the piece and not least of all the bunkum about ‘gut’ feeling.
Sure, many of us are very lazy, but if we all started writing articles based on gut feeling, I would be spending a lot of time with Ramalinga Raju in jail for defamation or write that the price of fuel might come down by ten bucks based on some random sheet of paper, the fact of the matter is that political reportage still has that cloudy area where contacts determine everything, business reportage is based a lot on facts and figures reported to SEBI. The rules were made by politicians. Just because I might feel that daal mein kuch kala hai doesn’t mean I say it without resorting to facts. Sentiments are nice, but you can not be sentimental (in a matter of speaking) when writing. And what is with the Dhirubhai Ambani love?
Not least because that the columnist involved was an interested party and while I agree that Mint’s initial coverage of the INX saga was very one-sided, once their other media reporter (and I wish Sruthijeet all the best at ContentSutra, he is one the country’s best media reporters) came onboard the coverage improved manifold. Doing so would still have stirred the honey-pot and the bees might still have stung, but the moral high ground would not have been ceded.
Listen these are just my two cents on the matter. I know there are far higher political hi-jinx behind all of this and the philosophy of ‘never forget, never forgive’, is in play. By no means is this the end of the matter, and I will try and keep everybody posted on what happens next. As always please do comment and leave your opinions. Have a great weekend and Republic Day.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Counterpoint
Dude, there are websites and then there are websites but The V's website is not as good as it could have been (it cost five lakhs to develop supposedly) - it went live today. The most interesting snippet so far - Vir's fusillade at Mint - this is a no-holds barred attack on Suku (more fun soon? But also read Suku's esoteric but excellent blog here) EDIT: The site is back up (up, down, up, down - WTF?) in case it goes down again - view it here and the piece that wasn't carried here.
Also read Outlook Groups response to Monika Halan's resignation letter, they call Monika's charges baseless and defamatory. This could shape up to be quite good fun, stay tuned for more. The morning papers seem to have drunk the Obama Kool-Aid and overdosed on it, five, six pages to what was a rather ordinary speech but one that sounded like the Sermon on the Mount - though you can read Mihir's counter-argument to Obama-mania in the Express today. Obama sounded messianic yesterday according to my mother with whom I watched the speech and I must agree with her, and that frankly scared me - the man is an extremely intelligent man and extremely intelligent people are as scary as extremely dumb people. Talking about pomp and pageantry, I was thinking of going down for the R-Day celebrations on Rajpath, it has been at least a decade since I went to my last R-Day parade and while security has always been insane, if the weather holds, it should be fun.
Also, since the morning I've been getting text messages talking of lots of lay-offs at HT Media (read Nikhil's post on HTM's Q3 results and the immense amount of cash sunk into FireFly) companies and from what I've heard is that there have been lay-offs at all major media groups in the marketing, printing and distribution functions. In editorial functions there have been lay-offs in some media houses, but to the best of my knowledge there have been no lay-offs per se. at EchTee. I believe that several people might be, and this is not just in EchTee, taken 'off the rolls' where they become consultants rather than full-time employees.
Listen times are bad everywhere (I believe at Times Life, SToI's supplement is down to one or two adverts, this was until a few months ago an advertising supplement for all intents and purposes) and employee costs have soared over the past few years. fair enough people were being paid jack till the media boom, but there are far too many examples of rather lacklustre people getting paid quite a lot. Some people will lose their jobs in editorial, and one hell of a lot of interns will not get jobs. I've seen a couple of message boards with 20-somethings crying about their lot in the media, but this is the current economic reality.
Also read Outlook Groups response to Monika Halan's resignation letter, they call Monika's charges baseless and defamatory. This could shape up to be quite good fun, stay tuned for more. The morning papers seem to have drunk the Obama Kool-Aid and overdosed on it, five, six pages to what was a rather ordinary speech but one that sounded like the Sermon on the Mount - though you can read Mihir's counter-argument to Obama-mania in the Express today. Obama sounded messianic yesterday according to my mother with whom I watched the speech and I must agree with her, and that frankly scared me - the man is an extremely intelligent man and extremely intelligent people are as scary as extremely dumb people. Talking about pomp and pageantry, I was thinking of going down for the R-Day celebrations on Rajpath, it has been at least a decade since I went to my last R-Day parade and while security has always been insane, if the weather holds, it should be fun.
Also, since the morning I've been getting text messages talking of lots of lay-offs at HT Media (read Nikhil's post on HTM's Q3 results and the immense amount of cash sunk into FireFly) companies and from what I've heard is that there have been lay-offs at all major media groups in the marketing, printing and distribution functions. In editorial functions there have been lay-offs in some media houses, but to the best of my knowledge there have been no lay-offs per se. at EchTee. I believe that several people might be, and this is not just in EchTee, taken 'off the rolls' where they become consultants rather than full-time employees.
Listen times are bad everywhere (I believe at Times Life, SToI's supplement is down to one or two adverts, this was until a few months ago an advertising supplement for all intents and purposes) and employee costs have soared over the past few years. fair enough people were being paid jack till the media boom, but there are far too many examples of rather lacklustre people getting paid quite a lot. Some people will lose their jobs in editorial, and one hell of a lot of interns will not get jobs. I've seen a couple of message boards with 20-somethings crying about their lot in the media, but this is the current economic reality.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
EchTee responds to the Navy
Yesterday, one of the funnier banners I saw at the impotent protest marches read 'Thank you to the Media', which somehow came up over and over on CNN-IBN. I do not agree with a couple of mails doing the rounds that the English news media ignored CST - the attacks were ongoing at Taj and the Oberoi, but the Hindi channels which mind you, a bulk of the country watched did a far better job. Anyway, regarding this post and this follow-up the attack on the Navy Chief, who not so long ago was getting plaudits for going after the Somali pirates is being led by no less than The V himself. Somehow, the defence reads like 'How dare you attack us!'
Of course, one can be completely cynical and argue that it reads more like 'How dare you attack one of MY friends!' (and we could go on about that) But, despite the denials and the argument that the Admiral was not based on 'fact'. But then again, nor are fake emotions and stupid questions. That group I spoke about in my last post now has close to 2400 members and that should be worrying to some people in that channel (not even counting the several SMSes about her that are doing the rounds), because while there will be people who will dismiss the Internet as some new-age fad, these were former 'core viewers' and losing them is a problem. Yes, the Navy Chief should be in deep water for what should be dinner-table conversation, but the very fact that this incident (true or not, and I will not take General Ved Malik's word as the gospel truth, there is a shitload of stuff on Bharat-Rakshak that the establishment will deny, but is in all probability true), has been brought out into the open displays that some parts of the establishment are angry with televised media and one smug channel in particular. That NDTV is in trouble is not too difficult for someone to see, and I mean that from a completely financial point of view, but letting out the attack dogs in defence of the channel will not help. There needs to be serious introspection both by the journalist involved and the channel. There is a palpable sense of grievance that the general population, OK, the middle classes feel towards the English media, address that concern instead of closing ranks. Why on earth are people pissed off, and why did everybody switch over to watching a rabid Arnab on Times Now? Why on earth did Sreenivasan Jain, who was by far and away the best reporter out of Mumbai for the network in question (and actually, when you think about it, the best overall) not get enough airtime?
And really, with our current defence minister pussy-footing with the Defence Budget, rather the Naval budget over the past three years, why on earth are we going after the Navy? Like the rest of the incompetent and impotent UPA administration, A K Anthony has done nothing. The Naval Chief was indiscreet and maybe he needed to check facts, but maybe the facts are right. Filing for defamation may not be a great idea because skeletons might start pouring out from hidden closets. Skeletons such as the contrived coverage of the Kashmir earthquake from nowhere near the real site.
Listen, I am going to go back to what I said earlier. Introspection is the order of the day - in India's security apparatus too used to protecting politicians sell out the country, and by those politicians as well. But also for the televised English media. Otherwise we will no better than the Pakistani media. And my god, those guys are from a different planet.
Of course, one can be completely cynical and argue that it reads more like 'How dare you attack one of MY friends!' (and we could go on about that) But, despite the denials and the argument that the Admiral was not based on 'fact'. But then again, nor are fake emotions and stupid questions. That group I spoke about in my last post now has close to 2400 members and that should be worrying to some people in that channel (not even counting the several SMSes about her that are doing the rounds), because while there will be people who will dismiss the Internet as some new-age fad, these were former 'core viewers' and losing them is a problem. Yes, the Navy Chief should be in deep water for what should be dinner-table conversation, but the very fact that this incident (true or not, and I will not take General Ved Malik's word as the gospel truth, there is a shitload of stuff on Bharat-Rakshak that the establishment will deny, but is in all probability true), has been brought out into the open displays that some parts of the establishment are angry with televised media and one smug channel in particular. That NDTV is in trouble is not too difficult for someone to see, and I mean that from a completely financial point of view, but letting out the attack dogs in defence of the channel will not help. There needs to be serious introspection both by the journalist involved and the channel. There is a palpable sense of grievance that the general population, OK, the middle classes feel towards the English media, address that concern instead of closing ranks. Why on earth are people pissed off, and why did everybody switch over to watching a rabid Arnab on Times Now? Why on earth did Sreenivasan Jain, who was by far and away the best reporter out of Mumbai for the network in question (and actually, when you think about it, the best overall) not get enough airtime?
And really, with our current defence minister pussy-footing with the Defence Budget, rather the Naval budget over the past three years, why on earth are we going after the Navy? Like the rest of the incompetent and impotent UPA administration, A K Anthony has done nothing. The Naval Chief was indiscreet and maybe he needed to check facts, but maybe the facts are right. Filing for defamation may not be a great idea because skeletons might start pouring out from hidden closets. Skeletons such as the contrived coverage of the Kashmir earthquake from nowhere near the real site.
Listen, I am going to go back to what I said earlier. Introspection is the order of the day - in India's security apparatus too used to protecting politicians sell out the country, and by those politicians as well. But also for the televised English media. Otherwise we will no better than the Pakistani media. And my god, those guys are from a different planet.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Return of 'The V'
Read this interview, the last few questions of it. Given that Rajeev Chandrashekhar is a drinking buddy of the man and all this talk of his triumphant return to News X suddenly doing the rounds. In the furore of the past few days, a lot of this got buried, just like VP Singh's quietly unnoticed death. Has the deal already happened? And what does this mean for the several people who quit News X or in one high-profile case were physically removed from News X? I mean, that is, if the news is correct. And given Rajeev Chandrashekhar's tie-up with Star recently, would this, in some form or the other mean that Star might suddenly have an English news channel in India, albeit one with a slightly different ownership from the MCCS-controlled Star News (though 'The V' is very close to Aveek-babu also). It is all seeming very peculiar, but after the traumatic events of early-2008 (actually just read the entire January archive of posts), I cannot rule out anything. And after the hatchet job on Mike yesterday, Bunty and Babli are next in line for the Man. You read it here first!
Though, I still have my original question? Do we need yet another English news channel?
Though, I still have my original question? Do we need yet another English news channel?
MKN
I was a bit puzzled by The V's stinging rebuke of MKN yesterday. Puzzled not because MKN is admittedly a twat and should be held responsible, but the fact that all three HT Group papers gave the story the same treatment. I suddenly remembered that a few years ago, Sunday HT had done a brilliant piece damning MKN - the piece had been done by Aditya Sinha if I recall correctly and all hell broke loose after that piece. But I was just wondering how much was yesterday about settling scores and about finger pointing. As I said, I still maintain that MKN is a twat, and according to some telco officials he is also a corrupt twat but I have only anecdotal evidence from colleagues and peers of that.
Now, was there an intelligence failure that led to the Mumbai attacks? Yes. So why is RAW going around telling that they warned everybody. Yesterday the Navy Chief at his presser did mention something about 'general intelligence' and 'actionable intelligence'. You know that is like saying - 'You will die eventually' or 'You have Cancer and could die soon'. The former is a general statement of truth - like saying that the Pakistani media makes the Indian media look good, I mean lying bastards those guys are. So much so that a former colleague who was an unabashed Paki-lover, and I mean unabashed to the extent that wanted to strangulate him during a cricket match is saying this is time for Indian military action. Anyway, back to the point, do we know that there are training camps in Pakistan? Yes we do, but nothing can be done until we know when they send doped up assholes armed to the teeth across the border.
Reading between the lines and talking to a few other senior journalists, a theory occurred. This is the blame game starting. Someone is trying to protect his skin. Given the hard-handed way this petty government could react, we won't write about fraternal ties. But the fact of the matter is, several people are trying to protect their skins right now, and not just Vilasrao Deshmukh and a couple of media organisations that fell behind with the news. Anyway, I still beieve more heads will roll in the coming months, quite a few more heads will roll. Though, given the commies hold in Kerala, VS's head will not. But I have a bad feeling that the clip will be played over and over during the 2009 elections in that state. He had his 'Macaca' moment.
Also I haven't had the time to say a word of how good the major Hindi News Channels were, I found India TV's 'interview' a bit distasteful, but technically, it is good journalism. Biased, one-sided intellectual debates indulged in by one channel in particular, where Simi Garewal, of all people, spoke the way several people are feeling and got booed by the crowd (talk about audience management) was not at all good journalism. And that is seeming to reflect on the ratings where Times Now despite Arnab's occasional rants against politicians (yes I know Politicians are scum, but let us fix democracy and not talk about Army Rule as evidently some people were being goaded to do) has gained tremendously. We'll see if these gains are short-term or long-term gains and how advertisers react, since a lot of budgets are in for re-negotiation in a few weeks at the year flips over. Would Times Now's actions actually helped ET-TV it's soon-to-be launched sister channel? Hmmm... Questions to ponder.
And talking about ET, I feel sorry for the guys. The ET Awards were supposed to happen the next day 27/11 and in this crisis they have been indefinitely postponed. Bad luck there, but I don't think this is the time to do anything. I guess they will re-sched it, but that will be a nightmare of times and dates. And there is this perceptible feeling that things seem to have slowed down here as well. Anyway, I should get to work now...
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I agree...
I so completely agree with The V's column in Papermint today that I thought somebody had taken the words right out of my mouth. But I have to add, that, and this is at the cost of being snobbish, that the most irritating specimens are those second-generation desi's whose fathers usually moved into low-paying blue-collar jobs and whose new 'white-collar' status has to be protected at all costs. Airline ticket agents, immigration and police officers and store clerks are sometimes the worst. I remember in Atlanta several years ago how in the CNN Centre at a fast-food restuarant manned by a family we were give attrocious service. Maybe because I asked for beer.
I also found ToI's second lead about Manmohan's proclamation about 'Indians' being in love with George W Bush hilarious (and disturbing). I love lots of Americans such as Scarlett Johanssen, but GWB? Why? I don't want to know about MMS and GWB's man love, but don't get me involved, ugh! Surprising that the other papers didn't play this up. Maybe after the government has said that man-love is still illegal (and will not squash the colonial legacy of Section 377), they don't want to play it up. So does MMS have a perverse mind also?
And while many of you hate my political ponderings, all my hopes of Delhi being removed from under the yoke of Aunty Shiela, the BJP has gone and nominated the most ineffectual VK Malhotra (Can't speak, can't hear and can barely see) as the candidate for Chief Minister of Delhi. I would rather vote for the Communists than have Malhotra lead Delhi. Why does the BJP always manage to shoot itself sqare in the ass? Not in the foot, but they take a shotgun and fire it up their ass, it seems difficult but decisions like these have led me to this conclusion. What next? Sushma as Prime Minister?
And there are more bombs in Delhi. The night I plan to have a party. And if Pakistan is led by this, I'm scared. But then again, maybe he won't know how to aim the warheads!
I also found ToI's second lead about Manmohan's proclamation about 'Indians' being in love with George W Bush hilarious (and disturbing). I love lots of Americans such as Scarlett Johanssen, but GWB? Why? I don't want to know about MMS and GWB's man love, but don't get me involved, ugh! Surprising that the other papers didn't play this up. Maybe after the government has said that man-love is still illegal (and will not squash the colonial legacy of Section 377), they don't want to play it up. So does MMS have a perverse mind also?
And while many of you hate my political ponderings, all my hopes of Delhi being removed from under the yoke of Aunty Shiela, the BJP has gone and nominated the most ineffectual VK Malhotra (Can't speak, can't hear and can barely see) as the candidate for Chief Minister of Delhi. I would rather vote for the Communists than have Malhotra lead Delhi. Why does the BJP always manage to shoot itself sqare in the ass? Not in the foot, but they take a shotgun and fire it up their ass, it seems difficult but decisions like these have led me to this conclusion. What next? Sushma as Prime Minister?
And there are more bombs in Delhi. The night I plan to have a party. And if Pakistan is led by this, I'm scared. But then again, maybe he won't know how to aim the warheads!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The K-word
First, I'm sorry that I haven't been around the last couple of days, I was in Calcutta on some personal stuff. That city never ceases to amaze me, especially the fact that how eating and drinking out can be so much cheaper than the capital. Of course, what also doesn't cease to amaze me that in today's day and age, a general strike can only cripple one city in India - Calcutta. Am I the only one to think the cricket match is not quite co-incidental?
Moving on...
Two articles by two quite different writers this Sunday, in two generally pro-establishment papers has set the cat among the pigeons when it comes to Kashmir - Swami and The V have compelling and disturbingly similar arguments. Here is the strange thing, as far as media reportage goes, we know that the most mainstream English news channels (with the exception of Times Now) are fairly lenient towards the Kashmiri Muslims, and the exact opposite is true for most mainstream Hindi channels.
Both the writers make one crucial point, why on earth should the Indian state spend thousands of crores of rupees propping up the state? Left unsaid was the bit about the money going into the coffers of the Abdullah's, who I'm quite sure will seek asylum in India (Farooq's fate in an 'independent' Srinagar might be the same as Mussolini) and continue to milk the country. However, I think missed the the point about water. All the rivers that flow into Pakistan flow through Kashmir, and that is essentially why Pakistan wants Kashmir and why we won't give it up. Or so I think, and I'm no genius at geo-politics.
But even some people in the right now believe the situation will soon start to mirror Palestine, sure Israel has kept the West Bank under its thumb, but at what cost. India has more than enough souls to spare, but both writers ask whether it is worth keeping the Indian establishment locked in Kashmir forever?
Now, such thoughts will rankle the nationalistic feelings of almost everybody who read it, "Over my Dead B", people will scream. My civics teacher in high school, who never let us forget that she lost her husband in the 1962-War particularly once when I had the 'temerity' to suggest that we should delete Askai Chin off our maps - it isn't as if China will give it back. To even agree to the suggestion of these two quite different, yet extremely capable writers would be social hara-kiri for some, but in a weird sort of way, and I don't think this was planned, (some suspect it was) it is good that we are having this debate. Some think the arguments are petulant, but if Kosovo can gain independence (despite having nothing in the form of resources other than EU aid) why can't a part of the world blessed with a nice. Sure, separate Ladakh and Jammu, but democracy has brought us here. I still think the Kashmiri Muslims are mad to join a state that might break up itself very soon - honestly, I think Pakistan is on the verge of collapse.
It won't happen, I know that and you know that, for another 50 years at least, by which time, Swami and The V will be long gone and I will be on the verge of going as well. It will be political heresy to even suggest it, but the very fact that we are writing about it in the most mainstream of mainstream papers, something I'm sure the Kashmiri leadership will not allow (imagine a Kashmiri Muslim leader who doesn't swindle money from India writing that 'We should stay with India' - won't happen even if they believe it in their heart of hearts) is good. Sure, some might be cynical and claim that these articles were meant to provoke controversy, but I don't see why that is a cynical opinion. They clearly were, and aren't we a democracy - sure, we have awful leaders, but aren't we a democracy where debate is hopefully still a cherished thing.
Sure, there is a bit of the ultra-nationalistic Indian in me thinks that Swami and The V are treasonous, and after a few drinks too many when all rational sense goes out the window, I'm sure I might even find myself agreeing that 'things' should be done to them. But, stone-cold sober, I think The V's article wasn't his best-written one, and nor was Swami's, purely from a writing point-of-view, but both raised a question that we will have to answer someday.
Moving on...
Two articles by two quite different writers this Sunday, in two generally pro-establishment papers has set the cat among the pigeons when it comes to Kashmir - Swami and The V have compelling and disturbingly similar arguments. Here is the strange thing, as far as media reportage goes, we know that the most mainstream English news channels (with the exception of Times Now) are fairly lenient towards the Kashmiri Muslims, and the exact opposite is true for most mainstream Hindi channels.
Both the writers make one crucial point, why on earth should the Indian state spend thousands of crores of rupees propping up the state? Left unsaid was the bit about the money going into the coffers of the Abdullah's, who I'm quite sure will seek asylum in India (Farooq's fate in an 'independent' Srinagar might be the same as Mussolini) and continue to milk the country. However, I think missed the the point about water. All the rivers that flow into Pakistan flow through Kashmir, and that is essentially why Pakistan wants Kashmir and why we won't give it up. Or so I think, and I'm no genius at geo-politics.
But even some people in the right now believe the situation will soon start to mirror Palestine, sure Israel has kept the West Bank under its thumb, but at what cost. India has more than enough souls to spare, but both writers ask whether it is worth keeping the Indian establishment locked in Kashmir forever?
Now, such thoughts will rankle the nationalistic feelings of almost everybody who read it, "Over my Dead B", people will scream. My civics teacher in high school, who never let us forget that she lost her husband in the 1962-War particularly once when I had the 'temerity' to suggest that we should delete Askai Chin off our maps - it isn't as if China will give it back. To even agree to the suggestion of these two quite different, yet extremely capable writers would be social hara-kiri for some, but in a weird sort of way, and I don't think this was planned, (some suspect it was) it is good that we are having this debate. Some think the arguments are petulant, but if Kosovo can gain independence (despite having nothing in the form of resources other than EU aid) why can't a part of the world blessed with a nice. Sure, separate Ladakh and Jammu, but democracy has brought us here. I still think the Kashmiri Muslims are mad to join a state that might break up itself very soon - honestly, I think Pakistan is on the verge of collapse.
It won't happen, I know that and you know that, for another 50 years at least, by which time, Swami and The V will be long gone and I will be on the verge of going as well. It will be political heresy to even suggest it, but the very fact that we are writing about it in the most mainstream of mainstream papers, something I'm sure the Kashmiri leadership will not allow (imagine a Kashmiri Muslim leader who doesn't swindle money from India writing that 'We should stay with India' - won't happen even if they believe it in their heart of hearts) is good. Sure, some might be cynical and claim that these articles were meant to provoke controversy, but I don't see why that is a cynical opinion. They clearly were, and aren't we a democracy - sure, we have awful leaders, but aren't we a democracy where debate is hopefully still a cherished thing.
Sure, there is a bit of the ultra-nationalistic Indian in me thinks that Swami and The V are treasonous, and after a few drinks too many when all rational sense goes out the window, I'm sure I might even find myself agreeing that 'things' should be done to them. But, stone-cold sober, I think The V's article wasn't his best-written one, and nor was Swami's, purely from a writing point-of-view, but both raised a question that we will have to answer someday.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
I'm back...
Sorry, I was away on a trip out of the heat, getting a final series of stamps on my passport before it has to be renewed. This blog has not been 'shut down' by editors orders though ed claims blog is taking too much of my time, which may be correct. Anyway, I'm back now and here are some updates.
According to the grapevine, Jojo IS actually leaving - though no formal papers have been signed he is not only leaving but dragging around 15 senior editors from the Times and ET with him along with a posse of very good reporters. Plus, why did HT's last Executive Editor actually leave, was it because one video clip got released into the wild along with an email chat transcript? And what has been happening at Papermint in the RN-RS equation, who is exactly what now?
And the big news, now that Sanjaya Baru has finally decided to move on, his position will be taken over by The Hindu's current Political Editor Harish Khare and his position might be willed by Sid Vardharajan. Plus, and this is news about one of this blog's favourite personalities, The V is back in play and will be rewarded for years of unswerving loyalty to Italy (which is a frikkin' expensive but gorgeous country) by being made Chairman of Prasar Bharti.
Go figure!
According to the grapevine, Jojo IS actually leaving - though no formal papers have been signed he is not only leaving but dragging around 15 senior editors from the Times and ET with him along with a posse of very good reporters. Plus, why did HT's last Executive Editor actually leave, was it because one video clip got released into the wild along with an email chat transcript? And what has been happening at Papermint in the RN-RS equation, who is exactly what now?
And the big news, now that Sanjaya Baru has finally decided to move on, his position will be taken over by The Hindu's current Political Editor Harish Khare and his position might be willed by Sid Vardharajan. Plus, and this is news about one of this blog's favourite personalities, The V is back in play and will be rewarded for years of unswerving loyalty to Italy (which is a frikkin' expensive but gorgeous country) by being made Chairman of Prasar Bharti.
Go figure!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The Fall
People have mailed me and a couple have called me to ask why I did not write about M.J Akbar's removal or sacking whatever you call it from The Asian Age. The reason I did not write anything is because I did not have much of an opinion on the matter - even though Khushwant Singh and Rahul Singh did have a very strong opinion on the issue. What I was not terribly surprised about was the sudden fall from grace of two of Aveek-Babu's 'blue eyed boys' - two erstwhile and extremely overhyped editors from the ABP group out.
However, none of these two men were India's most powerful editor - who strangely enough is another old ABP hand - in fact, the number of ex-ABP hands in the top echelons of Indian journalism today - whether you call it a Calcutta/Bengali cabal or you don't is surprising - Jojo is ex-Telegraph also which is the point I'm making. But you know one good thing about this sudden fall from grace is that the 'Cult of the Editor' is dying out - you only have Prabhu and Vinod who are members of the Old Guard is any position of power in print media organisations who have a 'Cult' so to speak around them. Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge anybody their cult, but I would advise people to watch Apocalypse Now and the final set of scenes when Captain Willard finds Colonel Kurtz in the jungle.
Cults are dangerous things and the passing of the cult is good for Indian journalism, not bad for it. The anonymous editor, or the behind the scenes editor whose job is to improve the product rather than himself is a good thing for print. Yes, the editor should be well known, but the moment the editor becomes a celebrity, there is more than a faint degree of compromise - you lose objectivity when you make the news about you rather than do the job you are supposed to do - which is to put together a newspaper or a newsmagazine for your readers and make sure one hell of a lot of readers read it. I still think Jojo is the best editor of his generation, because his paper gets read and would not die if other media organisations and PR agencies stopped subscribing to it.
The problem is that with the passing of the cult in print journalism, you have the birth of the cult, or so people would like to believe in TV journalism. Most of those cults are over-hormoned young Indian men playing out their fantasies with various televsion anchorettes - look at this, it's scary - and it appears that Nidhi Razdan is the most popular female news anchor in India. No comments there, but some of these groups are disturbing! But, the new Headlines Today, which has very high rotation on AXN for some strange reason, brings out that fact pretty humourously.
I don't know, and I'm sure there will be comments accusing me of jealousy (I'm 29 goddamnit!) or wishing I had a cult myself. Cults lead to power and power corrupts. I have seen that first-hand, god knows I have seen that first-hand. I know it is easier saying something than doing it - like me saying that an upcoming holiday to Bangkok will not involve 'interesting' sideshows. You never know until you get there do you.
In other news - a quick roundup at EchTee, how could I do a post without mentioning them - there seems to be a lot of activity and several middle-level correspondents are being dispatched across the world on international assignments. Including one man who, despite being a very clever man has never written a word.And onme year after ToI decided to put a man in Beijing, EchTee is following suit, which is a good thing because I think Saibal has done a fairly decent job in China for the Times. There is also some activity at the top, which is rather ridiculous. If anyone in management reads this blog, guys, please get your act together.
Indian media coverage of the events in Tibet are surprisingly poor considering that the Dalai Lama sits in McLeodganj and China is the big neighbour - and the Hindu's coverage has been completely in line with the Chinese politbureau - check out The Chindu and this humourous post. I really am wishing that the Times trashes the Hindu in Chennai - the Times launches on April 14th, which is certain (Sunil Nair from ToI Mumbai has been appointed Editor), hopefully ToI has learnt from their disasterous Hyderabad launch where they got trashed by an Asian Age facsimilie. Weirdly enough, the Times' failure in Hyderabad is what gave ram reddy the muscle to buy off the rest of the Asian Age franchisees and finally kick out Akbar - see everything is interconnected. By the way, the name of DC's new business paper is 'The Financial Chronicle' - hopefully it will have a better readership than the other paper with Financial in its name.
Talking about another favourite topic of this blog - NewsX's launch which is scheduled for March 28 as a 'soft launch' - ask the anchors to pronounce lingerie to get an idea what you will see!
Our obsession with Pakistan among our neighbours is a bit much. We have whacked out states all around us - Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are in various states of anarchy and total media meltdown - though nothing beats the makldives when it comes to media repression though Sri Lanka is coming close of late. But the Indian media is in almost total radio silence, more concerned about rakhi Sawant's new item number than global geopolitics. What happens in Tibet is crucial because thats where a lot of our water comes from, but other than long, boring edits, we don't really care.
What I personally find fascinating about the Tibet events is final proof of this being the Nokia revolution. China has more mobile users than any other country and makes probably half of the world's phones every year. Now that phones all have cameras that can take standard-def broadcast videos, you are seeing a lot more images than you ever did than from Tiananmen. What is going on is a media war and the mobile phone is playing such an important role in it, I'm amazed. I don't think people have thought long and hard about the way the mobile phone, not the PC will change media. Maybe we need to do that, soon.
However, none of these two men were India's most powerful editor - who strangely enough is another old ABP hand - in fact, the number of ex-ABP hands in the top echelons of Indian journalism today - whether you call it a Calcutta/Bengali cabal or you don't is surprising - Jojo is ex-Telegraph also which is the point I'm making. But you know one good thing about this sudden fall from grace is that the 'Cult of the Editor' is dying out - you only have Prabhu and Vinod who are members of the Old Guard is any position of power in print media organisations who have a 'Cult' so to speak around them. Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge anybody their cult, but I would advise people to watch Apocalypse Now and the final set of scenes when Captain Willard finds Colonel Kurtz in the jungle.
Cults are dangerous things and the passing of the cult is good for Indian journalism, not bad for it. The anonymous editor, or the behind the scenes editor whose job is to improve the product rather than himself is a good thing for print. Yes, the editor should be well known, but the moment the editor becomes a celebrity, there is more than a faint degree of compromise - you lose objectivity when you make the news about you rather than do the job you are supposed to do - which is to put together a newspaper or a newsmagazine for your readers and make sure one hell of a lot of readers read it. I still think Jojo is the best editor of his generation, because his paper gets read and would not die if other media organisations and PR agencies stopped subscribing to it.
The problem is that with the passing of the cult in print journalism, you have the birth of the cult, or so people would like to believe in TV journalism. Most of those cults are over-hormoned young Indian men playing out their fantasies with various televsion anchorettes - look at this, it's scary - and it appears that Nidhi Razdan is the most popular female news anchor in India. No comments there, but some of these groups are disturbing! But, the new Headlines Today, which has very high rotation on AXN for some strange reason, brings out that fact pretty humourously.
I don't know, and I'm sure there will be comments accusing me of jealousy (I'm 29 goddamnit!) or wishing I had a cult myself. Cults lead to power and power corrupts. I have seen that first-hand, god knows I have seen that first-hand. I know it is easier saying something than doing it - like me saying that an upcoming holiday to Bangkok will not involve 'interesting' sideshows. You never know until you get there do you.
In other news - a quick roundup at EchTee, how could I do a post without mentioning them - there seems to be a lot of activity and several middle-level correspondents are being dispatched across the world on international assignments. Including one man who, despite being a very clever man has never written a word.And onme year after ToI decided to put a man in Beijing, EchTee is following suit, which is a good thing because I think Saibal has done a fairly decent job in China for the Times. There is also some activity at the top, which is rather ridiculous. If anyone in management reads this blog, guys, please get your act together.
Indian media coverage of the events in Tibet are surprisingly poor considering that the Dalai Lama sits in McLeodganj and China is the big neighbour - and the Hindu's coverage has been completely in line with the Chinese politbureau - check out The Chindu and this humourous post. I really am wishing that the Times trashes the Hindu in Chennai - the Times launches on April 14th, which is certain (Sunil Nair from ToI Mumbai has been appointed Editor), hopefully ToI has learnt from their disasterous Hyderabad launch where they got trashed by an Asian Age facsimilie. Weirdly enough, the Times' failure in Hyderabad is what gave ram reddy the muscle to buy off the rest of the Asian Age franchisees and finally kick out Akbar - see everything is interconnected. By the way, the name of DC's new business paper is 'The Financial Chronicle' - hopefully it will have a better readership than the other paper with Financial in its name.
Talking about another favourite topic of this blog - NewsX's launch which is scheduled for March 28 as a 'soft launch' - ask the anchors to pronounce lingerie to get an idea what you will see!
Our obsession with Pakistan among our neighbours is a bit much. We have whacked out states all around us - Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are in various states of anarchy and total media meltdown - though nothing beats the makldives when it comes to media repression though Sri Lanka is coming close of late. But the Indian media is in almost total radio silence, more concerned about rakhi Sawant's new item number than global geopolitics. What happens in Tibet is crucial because thats where a lot of our water comes from, but other than long, boring edits, we don't really care.
What I personally find fascinating about the Tibet events is final proof of this being the Nokia revolution. China has more mobile users than any other country and makes probably half of the world's phones every year. Now that phones all have cameras that can take standard-def broadcast videos, you are seeing a lot more images than you ever did than from Tiananmen. What is going on is a media war and the mobile phone is playing such an important role in it, I'm amazed. I don't think people have thought long and hard about the way the mobile phone, not the PC will change media. Maybe we need to do that, soon.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Updates
It has been a rather busy few days for me and the coming days will be even busier, thanks to circumstances beyond by control. Well, actually not circumstances beyond my control but rather because of a constant need to make more money. Anyway, while I also try to figure out some more guest columns from elsewhere and also try and get a grip on how the future will look for media on the whole, considering everything is going to be free, just read Chris Anderson's fabulous cover story in the current issue of Wired. I'll post a short excerpt from this piece, which is an universal truth about the media, but put brilliantly well.
"The most common of the economies built around free is the three-party system. Here a third party pays to participate in a market created by a free exchange between the first two parties. Sound complicated? You're probably experiencing it right now. It's the basis of virtually all media.
In the traditional media model, a publisher provides a product free (or nearly free) to consumers, and advertisers pay to ride along. Radio is "free to air," and so is much of television. Likewise, newspaper and magazine publishers don't charge readers anything close to the actual cost of creating, printing, and distributing their products. They're not selling papers and magazines to readers, they're selling readers to advertisers. It's a three-way market."
Well, I'll do a proper post around this sometime soon, but as Richard Hammond would say on Top Gear, it is time for the news. And we begin with Sakal, a Pune-based Marathi paper owned by the Pawar family. It is writing for this paper that Dilip Vengsarkar got slapped on the wrist by the owner's brother. Anyway, they feel they now need an English language paper and are on the verge of launching a broadsheet daily in Delhi which will supposedly be edited by Badshah (Anikendra Nath) Sen who was last editing the Kathmandu-based The Himalayan Times, Nepal's largest selling English language paper. After running a news organisation in the badlands that are India's neighbours, where I think Indian journalists might do well to spend a few weeks to understand what 'repression' is all about, I guess he would be battle-hardened.
And then there is HT, about whom we wrote that a new editor is on the anvil. The news was confirmed by three sources, then other sources denied it and now no-one knows what is happening. One story even goes that The V is coming back with people in tow. But, what is really interesting is how Private Treaties will pan out in the coming months. What is really interesting is the number of article placements of Private Treaties that is happening across the group, but even more surprising are the ideas that the marketing chaps come up with for their clients. You might soon be bombarded by a bunch of rags to riches tales, or riches to riches tales on places like the Edit Page of both ET and ToI. But with tens of thousands of crores wiped off the market, particularly of some of the rather long-shot scrips with crazy valuations, it would be interesting to see how valuations have been affected for TPT.
Talking about Times, it seems that their television channel Times Now is shedding people like the trees in Delhi are shedding leaves, which they always do in Spring. Spring in Delhi being just under 40 degrees. This after Times Now shed an investor a few months ago. Now, the channel claims it is doing well, and as far as news goes, it isn't bad, because they don't have the innumerable talking head shows that the two leading channels run, and nor do they run crazy campaigns when the middle classes feel they've been wronged. But, things are not going too well, and it appears that some senior ToI people have been asked to help out, which they have refused to do until they get executive powers. Watch this space!
And, I got this picture on email today and I was wondering why none of the papers carried it. If one of them did, please let me know, because I certainly don't remember seeing it in the brouhaha of a Tri-Series win. Click through for the faces of the guys, priceless! Anyway, looking forward to the Delhi Daredevils!
"The most common of the economies built around free is the three-party system. Here a third party pays to participate in a market created by a free exchange between the first two parties. Sound complicated? You're probably experiencing it right now. It's the basis of virtually all media.
In the traditional media model, a publisher provides a product free (or nearly free) to consumers, and advertisers pay to ride along. Radio is "free to air," and so is much of television. Likewise, newspaper and magazine publishers don't charge readers anything close to the actual cost of creating, printing, and distributing their products. They're not selling papers and magazines to readers, they're selling readers to advertisers. It's a three-way market."
Well, I'll do a proper post around this sometime soon, but as Richard Hammond would say on Top Gear, it is time for the news. And we begin with Sakal, a Pune-based Marathi paper owned by the Pawar family. It is writing for this paper that Dilip Vengsarkar got slapped on the wrist by the owner's brother. Anyway, they feel they now need an English language paper and are on the verge of launching a broadsheet daily in Delhi which will supposedly be edited by Badshah (Anikendra Nath) Sen who was last editing the Kathmandu-based The Himalayan Times, Nepal's largest selling English language paper. After running a news organisation in the badlands that are India's neighbours, where I think Indian journalists might do well to spend a few weeks to understand what 'repression' is all about, I guess he would be battle-hardened.
And then there is HT, about whom we wrote that a new editor is on the anvil. The news was confirmed by three sources, then other sources denied it and now no-one knows what is happening. One story even goes that The V is coming back with people in tow. But, what is really interesting is how Private Treaties will pan out in the coming months. What is really interesting is the number of article placements of Private Treaties that is happening across the group, but even more surprising are the ideas that the marketing chaps come up with for their clients. You might soon be bombarded by a bunch of rags to riches tales, or riches to riches tales on places like the Edit Page of both ET and ToI. But with tens of thousands of crores wiped off the market, particularly of some of the rather long-shot scrips with crazy valuations, it would be interesting to see how valuations have been affected for TPT.
Talking about Times, it seems that their television channel Times Now is shedding people like the trees in Delhi are shedding leaves, which they always do in Spring. Spring in Delhi being just under 40 degrees. This after Times Now shed an investor a few months ago. Now, the channel claims it is doing well, and as far as news goes, it isn't bad, because they don't have the innumerable talking head shows that the two leading channels run, and nor do they run crazy campaigns when the middle classes feel they've been wronged. But, things are not going too well, and it appears that some senior ToI people have been asked to help out, which they have refused to do until they get executive powers. Watch this space!
And, I got this picture on email today and I was wondering why none of the papers carried it. If one of them did, please let me know, because I certainly don't remember seeing it in the brouhaha of a Tri-Series win. Click through for the faces of the guys, priceless! Anyway, looking forward to the Delhi Daredevils!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
X Update and more.
On popular demand, this is what we know. Meetings have happened at Jodhpur Mumbai and now a meeting is taking place in Delhi. Essentially the meeting is between The V and Pratim with a view to saving the marriage, but from all indications is marriage is beyond saving, and these talks are on essentially to ensure that the divorce is as amicable as possible. But with some is the News X camp upset at Pratim's wife's vitriol-laced attacks on them and their 'Dear Leader', they want their pound of flesh and it seems they are going all guns blazing to get it.
Talking about TV, it seems that certain builders with plans of starting a lifestyle channel with a soon-to-be-driving-an-Audi A4 channel head might have been pushed back a bit. But these guys intend to start a network of 18 channels in the next five years, all of them apparently showing off the virtues of their bungalows I presume. UndieTV's latest partner, NBC has sent over a group of Yanks to teach their senior reporters the art of American journalism. But you see, I do not think the problem is with UndieTV but such paragons of journalism such as News 24, which are so mind-bogglingly inane, I really worry.
Anyway, on yet another TV note, while everyone talks about the News X saga, another yet-to-be launched channel has been quietly building up an extremely solid team. The Govindraj Ethiraj headed yet-unnamed UTV Business has been getting some solid people, so much so that they have gotten CNBC TV18 scared and worse still, people at Undie Profit are dreading dropping off the radar to third spot in the business stakes. I don't believe Govind will manage to beat Udayan and Co, but I am pretty sure much like Mint became a #2 overnight in the business daily space, so will this channel in the business channel stakes. This news item about UTV buying out ITNation becomes rather relevant in this context as well, because I am sure Govind, a longtime blogger who is quite a tech-head too will leverage these purchases on teh channel. Should be interesting to track that too. Erm, I don't hold out much hope for Mint TV with their current staff, but is Mint TV an euphemism for the Fox Business channel in India?
What about NDTV Imagine? Well I get it on Tata-Sky, but I can't be bothered to watch it yet, but then again I haven't exactly had the time of late. But do make time to watch Star Stories on BBC Entertainment, fantastic show, and MTV's 'Meet or Delete' show I believe is doing quite well.
Talking about TV, it seems that certain builders with plans of starting a lifestyle channel with a soon-to-be-driving-an-Audi A4 channel head might have been pushed back a bit. But these guys intend to start a network of 18 channels in the next five years, all of them apparently showing off the virtues of their bungalows I presume. UndieTV's latest partner, NBC has sent over a group of Yanks to teach their senior reporters the art of American journalism. But you see, I do not think the problem is with UndieTV but such paragons of journalism such as News 24, which are so mind-bogglingly inane, I really worry.
Anyway, on yet another TV note, while everyone talks about the News X saga, another yet-to-be launched channel has been quietly building up an extremely solid team. The Govindraj Ethiraj headed yet-unnamed UTV Business has been getting some solid people, so much so that they have gotten CNBC TV18 scared and worse still, people at Undie Profit are dreading dropping off the radar to third spot in the business stakes. I don't believe Govind will manage to beat Udayan and Co, but I am pretty sure much like Mint became a #2 overnight in the business daily space, so will this channel in the business channel stakes. This news item about UTV buying out ITNation becomes rather relevant in this context as well, because I am sure Govind, a longtime blogger who is quite a tech-head too will leverage these purchases on teh channel. Should be interesting to track that too. Erm, I don't hold out much hope for Mint TV with their current staff, but is Mint TV an euphemism for the Fox Business channel in India?
What about NDTV Imagine? Well I get it on Tata-Sky, but I can't be bothered to watch it yet, but then again I haven't exactly had the time of late. But do make time to watch Star Stories on BBC Entertainment, fantastic show, and MTV's 'Meet or Delete' show I believe is doing quite well.
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