The journalist who suddenly forgot everything

In the fourth anniversary issue of Open, Forbes India managing editor Charles Assisi recounts  what every journalist dreads—losing the one thing that counts most in our profession:

“To cut a long story short, a little over two years ago, some neurons misfired in my head. I was in my office when this happened. I won’t gt into the sordid details and drama that accompanied the episode—except that my colleagues were witnesses to my falling down in a heap, frothing and convulsing. A couple of them bundled me into a car and drove like maniacs where I was admitted into the intensive care unit.

“A month after I was discharged, my family and friends were told a virus had invaded my immune system, permeated the blood-brain barrier, damaged some parts of my brain, and triggered a bout of viral encephalitis—a rare disorder with high mortality rates in some conditions.

“I was among those who survived.

“The only problem is, survivors have to deal with various kinds of complications, In my case, I had lost my memory. I had no idea who I was, where I was, and save a few people close to me, who everybody around was. For all practical purposes, I was dead, But I was breathing, most of my other faculties were still intact, and I hadn’t forgotten the language….

“Between my wife, brother, parents and a few close friends, they took turns to tell me who I was. But I’d get in a few minutes and get back to being a body of nuisance to pretty much everybody around by repeating the same sets of questions.

“No, how do I know all of this happened? Because my wife Anna began compiling a notebook that outlined I detail answers to my questions. My brother Kolya tried to explain what was happening in my head. And my cousin Niffy wrote me long notes of events, places and things from our younger days when were growing up.

“My colleageues at work—IG [ Forbes editor Indrajit Gupta], [director of photography] Dinesh [Krishnan], and special features editor Peter [Griffin]—pitched in by trying to help put in place the pieces of my day job as a journalist.”

Photograph: courtesy Charles Assisi

External reading: Charles Assisi on Ankit Fadia

‘Business journalists are PR mouthpieces’: Bahal

Last week, Cobra Post, the website run by the investigative journalist Aniruddha Bahal made public “Operation Red Spider”, its sting operation into alleged money-laundering by HDFC, Axis and ICICI banks.

This week, in Open magazine, Bahal answers a couple of questions on the media treatment of the story.

The story is significant, but failed to create a furore, don’t you think?

We can’t say that. Most news channels took it live. There were live debates on every channel. However, the conduct of business papers and channels was disappointing. For them, this story should have been of overwhelming importance, which was apparently not the case. We need to examine the reasons for it.

It poses a question on the credibility of business journalism in India.

Not one journalist from a business paper or news channel contacted me for a detailed briefing on the scam. This tells you where their hearts and minds are. They are PR mouthpieces of establishment.

Photograph: courtesy The Hindu

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Aakar Patel: ‘Indian journalism is regularly second-rate’

SEBI chief: Business journalism or business of journalism?

Raju Narisetti: ‘Good journalists, poor journalism, zero standards’

New York Times: Why Indian media doesn’t take on Ambanis

How come none in the Indian media spotted Satyam fraud

Poems on anchors: this week, Sagarika Ghose

In Open magazine, Madhavankutty Pillai continues his occassional poems on news anchors. This week, his ode is directed at Sagarika Ghose, the host of Face the Nation on CNN-IBN:

Salutations, mistress of the echo

Blest with the force

Of eyes widening

until they greet the other

Of eyebrows leaping

like trampoline artists together

Reveal to us thy secret

How do you make

An answer’s last line

The next question

In the exact same words

Without a moment’s break

Goddess of ceaseless blinks

Queen-consort

Of the nightly misgivings

Anguished liberal voice

—notched up somewhat—

Guiding us from the rink

Loudest of the loud

We offer thee our ear drums

Partake it as oblation

Be generous with thy mercies

Rain down quiet on us

Shanti (blink) Shanti (blink) Shanti (blink)

Also read: Poems on anchors: this week Karan Thapar

Sagarika Ghose: 21st century media is an amoral being

Don’t ask me, ask her. Don’t ask me, ask him!

Indian journalist ‘applies’ to be the next Pope

In the latest issue of Open magazine, its editor Manu Joseph sends in an application to be the 112th Pope, now that the 111th has put in his papers.

To

The Roman Curia, The Holy See, Rome

Reverends,

In the aftermath of the sudden resignation of Pope Benedict XVI due to his advanced age and fear of delirium, which is reasonable taking into account the fact that when he was believed to be mentally fit he had said that condoms spread AIDS, as you seek a Supreme Pontiff of sound mind from an eminent pool of sixty-to-seventy-year-old virgins, kindly consider this application for the job of Pope from me, Manu Joseph I, a member of the laity.

I am aware that you do not seek applications, but I apply because the Church is in a precarious state and it has to consider extraordinary solutions.

My CV, which is enclosed, may appear unremarkable at first glance, even pointless when the marital status is noted, but if observed carefully the applicant has merit.

For instance, the Church is surely wise enough to know that men in long faithful tropical marriages are indeed somewhat acquainted with celibacy. Also, I am a young male, though not so young that I will lead cardinals to sin; and, once on Indian national television I was accused of misogyny; and, through my writings and one Facebook post, I believe I have relentlessly advertised the Son of God though in the form of an endearing sub-culture, actually to be honest, in the form of a liquor found in Kerala, which is named Jesus Christ because after you drink it, you will rise only on the third day. But more important than all this is that I am a novelist, which none of the former Popes have been, even though Christianity has emerged from the Great Story.

If his application is accepted, Pope Manohar could be the last to oversee the exercise of the Petrine ministry.

The 12th century clairvoyant St Malachy said there would be only 112 Popes and that during the tenure of the 112th, Rome—and the Church—would be wiped out.

In St Malachy’s own words:

“The City of Seven Hills shall be destroyed and the dreadful Judge shall judge the people.”

Read the full application: I am the man

Poems on News Anchors: this week, Karan Thapar

In the latest issue of Open magazine, Madhavankutty Pillai continues his series of poems on news anchors. This time, the TV anchor Karan Thapar gets his attention:

O, obstreperous weasel

Unregenerate blight

Cowering from the shock

Of my hair’s white

Prise your eyes

From my neon necktie

Prepare your deceits

Get ready to fight

 

This is how we will go

I shall ask and you shall lie

I shall tell you not to lie

I shall tell you what to tell

The how and when and why

I shall put it to you thus—

‘Let me put it to you thus’

And you shall put it to me thus

 

This index finger that I stab

Two inches from your face

Is the line I draw for you

Turn neither left nor right

Nor sputter nor stall

Allow me to make you crawl

To that overwhelming question:

What made you come here at all?

Also read: Why Karan Thapar stopped haggling with God

Did Karan Thapar stand a chance with Benazir?

Separated at birth: Karan Thapar and Keith Olbermann

Karan Thapar‘s new year resolution

The many faces of Aakar Patel (as per Google)

Google now has a search facility by which you can look up images of people by putting in an image in the search window.

This is what turns up when you look for Aakar Patel, at various times the executive editor of Mid-Day, columnist for Mint Lounge, Hindustan Times, Express Tribune, First Post and Open, and a talking head on CNN-IBN.

Just.

He said it: ‘Indian journalism is regularly second-rate’

Journalism lesson #1: No one’s indispensable

Tabish Khair, journalist turned poet, in Open magazine:

You were with The Times of India in Delhi for a little les than five years. How has your life as a journalist shaped your writing?

You lose your fear of deadlines, and learn to keep them. You realise that the world is far wider and weirder than you had imagined. And you discover that you are necessary but not indispensable.

 

Was Anna Hazare a creation of the media?

With the MMRDA grounds in Bombay not quite turning out to be the Ram Lila grounds of Delhi, and with the Lok Pal bill floundering in Parliament, it is time for introspection in the media of the media’s role in the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement.

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Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN, at First Post:

“At the 2011 CNN IBN Indian of  the Year awards, Anna Hazare candidly admitted that it was the media which was responsible for his rise from a regional figure in  Maharashtra to a national icon. ‘If your cameras ‘had not followed me everywhere, who would know me?’ was the activist’s honest response.

“There is little doubt that over the last nine months, Hazare’s advisers used the media quite brilliantly. Prime-time press conferences, made-for-TV spectacles, social networking campaigns: Anna Hazare did benefit from saturation media coverage.

“Yes, some of  it was high-pitched,  and, yes, some journalists did become Anna cheerleaders. But to see Anna as purely a media phenomenon would be a misreading of  the mood on the street. Crowds were attracted to Anna not because the TV cameras were there, but because he appeared the antithesis of  a morally bankrupt political leadership beset with a series of  scams….

“In the end, both the state and Team Anna mistook the medium for the message. Team Anna saw the frenzied coverage as its main weapon, forgetting that democratic politics is not a repetitive television serial, but a tortuous process of  negotiation and conciliation. The state, on the other hand, failed to recognise that cacophony will be part of  a media environment in which there are more than 350 news channels and several hundred OB vans across India.

“The media will be a loudspeaker of  grievances, not just of Team Anna, but of  many other protest movements in the future. Strong leaders will not be swayed by the noise, a wise civil society will seek legitimacy beyond the camera lens.”

Manu Joseph, editor of Open magazine, in the International Herald Tribune:

“The Indian news media generate public interest through two distinct kinds of stories — the reporter’s story and the editor’s story. In 2005, when Parliament passed the Right to Information Act, it was the result of a long and difficult process of influencing public opinion by reformers and persistent reporters.

“The anti-corruption movement, on the other hand, was an editor’s story from the very beginning, from the moment Anna Hazare arrived in New Delhi in April, sat on a wayside with his supporters and threatened to starve to death if the government did not create the Lokpal.

“Television news quickly converted Hazare into a saint who had arrived from his village to fight the corrupt authorities in New Delhi. On the first day of his fast, there were no more than 300 people around him, but the cameras framed the fast in such a way that it gave the impression that something big was going on.

“The television news media, which are largely headquartered in New Delhi, had very little understanding of Hazare, who is from Maharashtra. Until last April, his influence was confined to rural parts of Maharashtra. By the time the anchors asked the important question — “Who exactly is Anna Hazare?” — it was too late. They had already proclaimed him a modern saint, and he had amassed millions of supporters in a matter of days. As it turned out, Hazare is not a man the urban middle class would normally call a saint.”

Also read: Anna Hazare: 17 interviews in 11 hours

How The Times of India pumped up Team Anna

The ex-Zee News journalist behind Anna Hazare show

Ex-Star News, ToI journos behind ‘Arnab Spring’

Is the media manufacturing middle-class dissent?

Should media corruption come under Lok Pal?

When Manu Joseph met Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Manu Joseph, editor of Open magazine, in The New York Times:

“Nine years ago, I was invited by the Art of Living Foundation to interview Mr Shankar.

“Mr Shankar was in the house of a wealthy businessman in South Mumbai.

“In the living room he sat on a large, embellished, thronelike chair as about 50 of Mumbai’s rich and famous sat on the floor, among them the film actor Vinod Khanna and the actress Nagma.

“At Mr Shankar’s feet sat a newspaper reporter, taking down notes as he spoke.

“All the interviews that evening were supposed to be conducted in this manner, with the reporter on the floor, at his feet, and he on the throne.

“When it was my turn, an absolute silence filled the room as I dragged a chair toward him. When I sat down, there was an audible moan from his followers. The interview did not go well. Most of his answers were snubs that elicited loud guffaws from his audience.”

Read the full article: Indian spiritualism made for the new age

What Niira Radia told PAC on Barkha Dutt chat

The 21-member public accounts committee (PAC), which probed the 2G spectrum allocation scam and finalised its draft report in a hurry, has gone into a tailspin with the draft report being rejected 11-10 and the Congress members charging the chairman, Murli Manohar Joshi, of leaking the report.

Tehelka magazine has put up the PAC draft report and its recommendations on its website.

Chapter 13 of the draft report deals with the Niira Radia tapes that singed many a journalist and media house. Here’s what the Tata lobbyist, the central figure of the tapes, told the PAC about the tapes and her conversations with NDTV anchor Barkha Dutt, among other topics:

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13.16    The Committee asked Ms Nira Radia whether the transcriptions of her conversation with various people,  as published in the Outlook* and Open magazines were correct and authentic. Ms. Radia replied:

“We have not accepted any of these conversations”.

13.17    The Committee asked whether any notice had been served to the Editors of the two magazines.  In reply, Mr. Radia stated:

“We have served  a legal notice at the time they published the conversations, because, I believe, there is a tremendous amount of distortion in what they published and in the context in which they published the conversations and the real conversations.  I believe that there is a tremendous amount of editing that has taken place in the conversations”.

13.18    The Committee then retorted that they were informed that nobody had legally contests or contradicted what was published in the magazines.  In reply, Ms. Radia stated:

“If I can say, there are two aspects to this.  When the conversations were made public, we did what we had to.  We had to do it in terms of making at least protesting it as far as the magazine is concerned.  As far as legal recourse available to us is concerned, we have time for the legal recourse”.

She further stated:

“……. Our  priority at that time was to cooperate with the agencies because that was what was required of us to do.  That is what we have done.  As far as the magazines are concerned, I would imagine you are aware that my clients, who are the Tatas, have taken action and they moved the court on the larger issue of privacy in which the court itself has served notices to these magazines”.

13.19    Asked to state specifically whether any legal notice was served or not, Ms. Radia at last admitted:

“We served only a protest.  We have not taken legal action”.

She further stated that she was intending to take legal action.

13.20    When the Committee pointed out several of her exact conversations on payment of bride for spectrum allocation of portfolio in the Union Cabinet, she simply replied that she did not recollect any thing.

13.21    The Committee then desired to know that after she was made witness by the CBI, the investigating agency must have played the tapes to her and whether she agreed with the conversation or contradicted it.  In response Ms. Radia stated:

“Sir, the matter is sub-judice”.

She further stated:

“I am glad that the investigating agencies went into the details.  I am glad that they heard my conversations in the context that they needed to be heard.  I am glad that they looked at documents and papers that were submitted in the context that had to be given and not taken out of context just because a magazine chose to carry something in a particular way.  The magazine would have chosen to carry something in a particular way because we may not entertain the magazine.  Today, the media is driven in a completely different way.  It is driven bottom-line.  It is sensationalist.  So, we have taken a view to approach things slightly differently”.

13.22    The Committee then querried as to whether she meant to say that both the magazines were driven by some extraneous consideration.  In reply, Ms. Radia submitted:

“I think, there is a conspiracy.  I believe, there is a corporate conspiracy and I have seen it”.

Asked to point out the conspirators, she replied:

“Anybody who would not want competition”.

13.23    The Committee then desired to know whether she was performing a public relation service or actually lobbying for her client to get them certain advantages.  The Committee also categorically asked whether carrying Tata’s personal had written letter to Mr. Karunanidhi was to part of her job, according to the mandate.  In reply, Ms. Radia submitted:

“We are not lobbyists.  It is not our job to lobby.  Yes, it is our job to talk to various stakeholders, but that does not necessarily mean that we are lobbying for our client.  We are simply communicating a point of view”.

On the issue of carrying Mr. Tata’s personal letter, she clarified:

“…our role, as defined in our mandate, is to communicate our client’s point of view.  Carrying the letter was to hand over the letter to  Shri Karunanidhi on behalf of Shri Tata…”

13.24    Asked to state whether her conversation with Ms. Barkha Dutt did not give an impression that she was lobbying.  In response, Ms. Radia stated:

“I think if you listen to the conversation in the context that they need to be listened to, everybody is discussing who is becoming what cabinet minister and what they are doing at that time.  I do not think it was anything different from watching TV channels or watching new reports.  Giving a particular point of view, we were simply asking information from journalists who were in touch with political people, who were on the political beat, who had information or who may know things because they have been reporting certain things in a particular manner that they seem to know things.  All we were doing was just asking information from them”.

13.25    The Committee then asked whether the conversation did not indicate that Ms. Dutt was leading her up the garden path.  Ms. Radia replied:

“I do not think that anyone was leading anyone up the garden path.  I think, we were just having a conversation about who is becoming the Cabinet Minister and I was relaying to her the anxiety of what our client had lived through in the previous years, prior to that.  I think all I was giving her was information as I knew it about a particular person and the chemistry that existed between my client…”.

13.26    On being asked to state categorically and truthfully as to whether the tapes were genuine or not, Ms. Radia submitted:

“At least the tapes that I have heard from the investigating agencies are genuine tapes”.

13.27    Asked to furnish the list of the conversations that were played to her by the CBI, Ms. Radia deposed:

“Sir, we will write to the concerned agency and we will ask  them, if this is permissible under law.  We will also make a reference of the PAC”.

13.28    The Committee then asked Shri Ratan N. Tata whether he had heard the Radia Tapes.  Shri Tata submitted in evidence in the affirmative.  Asked to authenticate whether it was his voice in the conversation with Ms. Neira Radia, Shri Tata replied in the affirmative.  He also submitted that it was absolutely the voice of Ms. Radia too.  When asked to state whether the tapes were manipulated or doctored, Shri Tata replied in the negative….

13.35    When the Committee asked Shri Vir Sanghvi and Ms. Barkha Dutt, who also figured in the Radia tapes, about the authenticity of their conversation as published in the magazines, both of them in separate written communication stated that they had challenged, objected and protested against etc.  But none of them had so far initiated any legal proceedings.

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On the role of media and whistleblowers, the PAC says:

“The Committee note that the  brazen  irregularities in the allotment of 2G spectrum and UAS  licences were unravelled  by some investigative journalists much before the Radia tapes  came into the public domain.

“A journalist who played a stellar role in exposing the irregularities, on being asked about  the sources of his information,  replied that the information was collected through the RTIs and from some public-spirited insiders.

“The publishers  of the news magazines who first published the  tapes,  testified  that they were  actuated  by their journalistic duty to reveal the truth and the irrepressible urge of public  interest.

“The Committee appreciate the exemplary professional job done by these journalists who despite the imminent possibility of the serious hazards both physical and financial undertook the venture they embarked upon.

“When the Committee sought the response of a senior journalist about these taped conversations he candidly deposed that what they did was utterly unprofessional.  He  conceded  that  the journalists do  speak  to various sources as it is their job  to   fathom out and reveal  the truth but  they ought not  get involved in lobbying for any one and certainly  the taped conversations show that they transgressed   the line of propriety – the ‘lakshman rekha’.  More so, senior journalists as they were, they knew when they made such a transgression….”

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Text: courtesy Tehelka

Also read: Scribe says tribe crossed line in Niira Radia tapes

External reading: “Indian media’s conspiracy of silence”

* Dislcosures apply