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Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami has done the unthinkable.
After resisting the charms of social media for seven years, the social anthropologist from Oxford has joined his colleagues, competitors and compatriots in Twitterosophere, reports The UnReal Times.
Above is a screenshot of his first tweet; below is his second.
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Read the full story: Arnab Goswami on Twitter
Follow Arnab Goswami on Twitter: @arnabgoswami
Also read: What is sans serif?
Emran Hashmi, the Bollywood actor who has attained the reputation of a “serial kisser” in his film career, is to play the role of an “upwardly mobile journalist with a top news channel” in the upcoming film, Rush.
HT City, the city supplement of the Hindustan Times in Delhi, quotes the movie’s director as saying Hashmi’s character is based on Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN and Arnab Goswami of Times Now.
For politicians, an election is a loaded game: there is one winner and the rest are losers. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Unless, of course, it is a hung parliament or assembly.
Not so for those in the business of capturing their victories and defeats.
All three of India’s leading English news channels are claiming that they were the channel of choice on results day, March 6, when the verdict of the elections to the five State assemblies, including Uttar Pradesh, came out.
# Times Now* newspaper advertisement: “Times Now reaffirms its undisputed leadership on election counting day.” Citing TAM ratings, it claims fullday viewership of 39% (versus 23% for CNN-IBN and 22% for NDTV), and primetime (7pm to 11 pm) viewership of 48% (versus 18% for CNN-IBN and 20% for NDTV).
# CNN-IBN newspaper advertisement: “Elections = CNN-IBN & IBN7. India’s best team = India’s best results. CNN-IBN, IBN7 and The Week post-poll conducted by CSDS gets the projections right again.” On air, CNN-IBN says it was the most watched of the channels.
# NDTV 24×7 newspaper advertisment: “Who won the election without any shouting and screaming? NDTV24x7 had more viewers than all other news channels COMBINED.” Using an opinion poll by GfK-Mode in 11 cities (sample size 5,000), NDTV claims it had 51% viewership compared with CNN-IBN’s 19%, Times Now’s 15% and Headlines Today’s 10%.
* Disclosures apply
Also read: Times Now. Times Now. Times Now.
The fears over what happens when a big business house with deep pockets and political influence across parties funds a big media house to legitimise its hitherto-hidden media interests, are coming true even before the controversial Reliance Industries -Network18/TV18-Eenadu Television deal can be inked.
Obviously, the political class is silent. Obviously, TV18′s competitors won’t touch the story for reasons not difficult to imagine. Obviously, The Hindu won’t even publish a media column for reasons not difficult to fantasise.
But there has been no serious discussion of the implications of the deal on the media or on democracy in the mainstream media. Not on any of Network18′s usually high-decibel shows since the tie-up was announced on 3 January 2012. Not even on Karan Thapar‘s media show on CNN-IBN, The Last Word.
Print media coverage too has at best been sketchy. Even the newspapers and newsmagazines which have attempted to probe the complexities of the menage-a-trois, The Economic Times and The Indian Express, Outlook* and India Today, have barely managed to go beyond the numbers into the nuance.
Rajya Sabha TV, the newly launched television channel of the upper house of Parliament, has filled the breach somewhat with a no-holds barred discussion on the subject.
Anchored by Girish Nikam, a former Eenadu reporter who wrote five years ago on Eenadu‘s travails, the RSTV debate—with an honourable mention for sans serif in the third segment—flags all the important issues raised by the deal and underlines the role public service television can play in the service of the public when the corporate media gives up—or gives in.
Some of the comments made by three of the four participants on The Big Picture:
S. Nihal Singh, former editor of The Statesman: “My first reaction [on reading of the deal] was that it was time for India to have a really good anti-monopoly law for media, which is the norm in all democratic countries in the world, including the most advanced….
“The press council of India is totally dysfunctional because of the new chairman Justice Markandey Katju, who is baiting the media, who doesn’t believe in conversing with the media, or exchanging views with the media.”
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Madhu Trehan, founder-editor of India Today and director, content, of the soon-to-be-launched media site, News Laundry: “It need not have happened if the government and corporates were more alert. One person owns much too much….
“Already every policy is decided by corporates as the 2G tapes (of Niira Radia) show. Not only is it dangerous that Mukesh Ambani will be deciding what policy will be decided, as you know has happened in the past, but he will also decide whether we can talk about it, or criticise it or expose it….
“Why is Reliance interested in media? It is not for money; it is obviously for influence. Rupert Murdoch was endorsing PMs and Presidents in three continents. Now we have the richest man in the country owning the largest network. Yes, there is an independent trust, but I don’t believe that. The purpose is to control the media. You are influencing policy, you are influencing how the government decides, and now you are going to decide how the people will hear about about you and the government….
“When a politician or a government spokesman speaks, we don’t believe them, but when somebody like Rajdeep Sardesai or Sagarika Ghose speaks, or anyone at IBN7 or TV18 comes on, we presume we should believe them. Now there is a big question mark [when RIL has indirect control over CNN-IBN]….
“In a deal of this size we are looking at very subtle plants of stories, subtle angles, subtly putting things in a certain way so that people think along in a certain way for a particular way. I don’t know if anyone can shut the door. It’s too late.”
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Dilip Cherian, former editor Business India, head Perfect Relations: “Globally we have seen when big capital enters media, that is exactly what we are about to replicate for ourselves.
“Oligopolistic tendencies are visible in global media today, whether it is Silvio Berlusconi or Rupert Murdoch, the fact is they exercise humongous influence not on media but politics. Are we headed down the same road? At this time, the answer seems to be yes. Is it good? The universal answer from the question is that it isn’t, not just because it affects the quality of news but because it affects the quality of politics….
“The entry of big capital is not new or news. What has happened in this case is a big distinction between foreign investment and domestic. Because of 4G, because the same business house owns the pipe, owns the content, there could also be another issue of monopoly. If I were the owner, I would say there needs to be a publicly visible ombudsmanship [to dispel the doubts]….
“There is room for concern, there is room for elements of self-rgulation. As a country we are not able to legislate for two reasons. One because of the influence business houses have on policy making. And two, when you bring in legislation (on regulation) up, the other group that is affected are politicians who own media houses of their own. You are talking about now a coalition of forces which the public is incapable of handling. You won’t see Parliament doing the kind of regulation they should, in an open manner, because there are interests on all sides.”
* Disclosures apply
Mail Today, the tabloid newspaper from the India Today group, has a report today that Gul Panag, the former Miss India Universe, has been signed up by the maverick film maker Ram Gopal Varma to play a crime reporter in an upcoming film.
The buzz in film circles is that Gul Panag may play the role of Jigna Vora, the Asian Age crime reporter who was arrested for her alleged involvement with the underworld in the murder of J.Dey, the investigations editor of Mid-Day.
But true to her movie metier, Gul Panag—a regular on the Sunday night television circuit with a number of journalists among her followers on Twitter—is offering no confirmation.
“I play a crime reporter in the film, a woman who has made her mark in a field that is otherwise dominated by men…. All I can say right now is that the film deals with the underworld and its various connections including the media.”
On her website, Gul Panag’s bio reads “actor, activist, animal lover, adrenalin junkie, adventurer, avid traveller, automobile enthusiast and biker” all rolled into one. At least the on-screen hack has one thing in common with the rest the pack: she is a jack of all trades.
The media is a recurring theme in Ram Gopal Varma’s oeuvre. He made an Amitabh-starrer called Rann on the television industry not too long ago.
Also read: Guess who came to Rajdeep Sardesai‘s house last night
Shekhar Gupta: The journalism film Dev Anand didn’t make
Supriya Nair: When a film star weds a journalist, it’s news
Devyani Chaubal: the queen bee of Bombay film journalists
Amitabh Bachchan: I want to expose the media
Sashi Kumar, Ranganath Bharadwaj: Acting is second string in bow
It’s that time of year once again, when columnists crawl out of their quilts, double-dip their quills in vitriol and go for kill (yes, it’s a punny time of year, too).
The veteran journalist Jawid Laiq—with Indian Express, New Delhi, Economic & Political Weekly on his resume—does the needful in Mail Today, with a list of politicians and “other public nuisances” he would like to see less of in the year of the lord 2012.
In his firing line: two news television anchors—Barkha Dutt of NDTV 24×7 and Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN—and a newspaper editor, Chandan Mitra of The Pioneer.
Images: courtesy R. Prasad/ Mail Today
Also read: When Rajdeep Sardesai got it left, right and centre
Indian Express contributing editor Coomi Kapoor has this item in her diary today:
“Superstar Shah Rukh Khan‘s face is normally a passport which ensures open doors just about anywhere in the country. But the security guard at the house of CNN-IBN’s Rajdeep Sardesai failed to recognise the actor.
“Khan, whose in-laws live in Panchsheel Park [Delhi], decided to take a late night stroll in the colony along with minister of State, Rajiv Shukla. When they passed Sardesai’s house, they thought they would drop in, but the guard barred their entry, claiming it was 11.30 pm and his boss was not answering his phone.
“He suggested they leave their names and contact numbers and come back the next day. Khan left a note urging Sardesai to have a good sleep.”
Moral of the story #1: SRK will go to any lengths to push a film, especially if it is a disaster like Ra.One.
Moral of the story #2: Rajdeep Sardesai does take his “good night” tweets seriously and goes to bed early.
Moral of the story #3: merely because your boss reads the news, it doesn’t mean you need to know the news.
And moral of the story #4: the new Press Council chief Markandey Katju can rest assured that despite the worst designs of TV channels to divert the attention of the nation from poverty by peddling cinema and related movie trivia, at least one prominent security guard hasn’t fallen into the devious trap of the TRPwallahs.
Exclusive interview with Barkha Dutt on NDTV 24×7. Exclusive interview with Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN. Exclusive interview with Rahul Kanwal on Headlines Today.
“Live” exclusive interview with Arnab Goswami at “8.23 pm” on Times Now….
It was all in a day’s work for anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare on Tuesday, 13 September, as he rolled out the charpoy for Delhi TV wallahs in his “model” village, Ralegan Siddhi, and went on a PR overdrive.
Now, DNA reports that 74-year-old Hazare, who sat on a 12-day fast in Delhi last month, gave 17 interviews during the day and spoke for 11 hours.
“It was decided to give time slots to 17 TV channels yesterday. Though tired, Anna kept his word and obliged all channels talking continuously since early morning to night in a marathon interview session lasting about 11 hours,” said one of his close aides.
The interview sessions also witnessed “skirmishes” between TV crew as they could not agree to sequence and timing of the interaction, leading to heated exchanges when the embargo decided upon were jumped by some channels.
Read the full story: Anna Hazare gives 17 interviews over 11 hours
Also read: 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’
The verdict in the assembly elections to the five States has been signed, sealed and delivered, but the battle is still on between the English TV news channels, with both Times Now and CNN-IBN making contrasting claims of their leadership on E-day and the accuracy of their exit poll and survey predictions.
As the former Times Now CEO Chintamani Rao wrote some months ago:
“These are not conflicting statements. But when you see the ads from which these claims are quoted, notice the asterisk: *conditions apply. It seems that at every news channel there is someone whose job is to slice and dice TAM data until they find a combination of audience, markets, and dayparts in which that channel is No. 1. The most prolific of these data analysts seems to work at CNN-IBN.”
Nevertheless, Times Now‘s potshot at CNN-IBN’s post-poll survey—”get the right picture, not the wrong figures”—is interesting because, for all its heft, Times Now was happy doing a a cheap “poll of polls” debate in the studio, while CNN-IBN was spending good money to feel the pulse of the nation through Yogendra Yadav‘s CSDS.
CSDS got many things wrong, but at least it is better to have spent and failed than not to have spent at all?
Also read: It’s their opinion that they have done an exit poll
