SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2014
CNN-IBN - Happy Endings
Slowly but surely many Congress members are acknowledging the inevitable; that they had lost connect with the people and therefore did badly in the recent elections. This is dawning upon other parties like NCP, BSP, SP and AAP too. One Congress member from Kerala even called Rahul Gandhi a “joker” for the failure. There are many such jokers in the media too. Like the Gandhis, they too were like kings and queens who sat in their offices and had no connect with people. When they did speak to people, they scoffed at their ideas, sound-bites and tweets. They said SM would have no impact on elections. Now they’re reversing that opinion too. The Indian news media had become the poodles of one family and party. They survived on crumbs thrown at them without really having any real business model. I’ve said before that poodles surviving on crumbs cannot have the nose of a blood hound. They couldn’t smell the churning on the ground. A sorry chapter at CNN-IBN and their parent company Network 18 is coming to an end. Years of hate-mongering has its price.Raghav Bahl has already quit. Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose are reportedly on their way. Here’s what a report says:
First things first! One must compliment Raghav Bahl for putting together a news organisation from scratch. Building an organisation is not easy and takes a lot of toil, patience and passion. It must be painful for him to exit a company that he built but his only mistake, as with others, is not being able to see the writing on the wall. He allowed two of his senior editors to run amok with their political propaganda, lies and bad journalism. He refused to take feedback and measure the pulse of people. A company is built with talent in its early stages but as it grows it also acquires a certain amount of baggage. Such baggage is often confused for ballast. Rajdeep and Sagarika have indulged in extraordinary hate-mongering. They coined terms like “Hindutva laboratory” “Hero of hatred” “Mass murderer”; did they really think people will sit back and watch? In addition, their constant ridiculing of ordinary people and anti-Hindu stance did not endear them to people. N18 had become a slave of the Congress party and when that ship was sinking the entire network became a promoter of AAP. Sagarika, in particular, has indulged in crass skulduggery and mischief on many occasions. She should have been sacked long ago. That Bahl sacked ordinary employees and retained Sagarika reflects poor thinking and poor management vision. The bottle-neck is always at the top of the bottle.
The astonishing fact about N18 is that conflict wasn’t so much on the business or revenue front but more on their political preferences. I had tried to understand their political conflicts in two parts earlier (Part-1, Part-2). It should be of concern to the entire media on why there should be upheavals in a media house as a consequence of political changes. People in news media have political preferences but as news channels life should go on regardless of who is in power and political changes. And it was all out in the public with Sagarika’s mischievous tweets. Let’s follow the sequence. On February 7, Sagarika tweeted about an “evil” that is choking their voices:
She was on a rant as if some major calamity had befallen journalists. And who exactly is that “Evil”? Obviously, she was referring to Raghav Bahl or Narendra Modi or Mukesh Ambani or a combination of them jointly operating from behind the scenes. Was there anything like that? The same Shivam Vij (whose report appears in the first pic above) carried an article about how “Sagarika can’t criticise Modi anymore”. And then Ram Guha (the family’s Nehruvian sidekick) also made noises about it. This became a major discussion in media circles. What happens then? There is a flurry of emails exchanged between Raghav Bahl and Rajdeep Sardesai. Here are some excerpts with date and timestamp (in blue):
Feb 10 – RB to RS 6.46am
Please see tweet below from Ram Guha. Coming from somebody as influential/credible as him (also one of your closest professional associates), this one is damaging. What’s more, Sagarika’s mail to me yesterday, clearly saying that she has NEVER been “muzzled” over the last 8 years in N18, completely and totally contradicts this. So in all fairness, I suggest we do one of the following things:
1 Sagarika isses a CATEGORICAL denial of this tweet; OR
2 We could release the relevant text from Sagarika’s mail to me, so that this matter is put to rest.
Do let me know how you would like to proceed on this.
Feb 10 – RS to RB 6.55am
This is I believe in response to an article appearing in scroll.in, which is a website run by someone called shivam vij. I have already replied to shivam, saying judge us by actions not innuendo. Can respond to ram too if need be. The point is, and I have learnt this to great cost, that any reply only leads to an avalanche of more responses and attracts even more attention. A denial can easily be issued, alternately, we just have to stay above the noise.
Feb 10 – RB to RS 7.07 am
Rajdeep – this one is too close/credible/for comfort/silence. Ram Guha endorsing this is almost equal to you /Sagarika saying this (especially since Sagarika was in Bangalore just yesterday). A full, formal and UNAMBIGUOUS clarification/denial, of the sort that Sagarika wrote to me, must be issued….. Silence is golden, but not always.
Feb 10 – RS to RB 7.11 am
Sagarika has not met/spoken to ram in a while. Ram is, however, close to a few of those who run the scroll.in website which is an ideologically left website. Ram, like many, has allowed perception to cloud his judgement, and to be fair, he has been a great supporter of the channel at all times. However, a categorical denial on twitter can be easily issued.
Interesting, eh? On February 9 when Ram Guha tweeted the alarm, Sagarika was in Bangalore and claims she couldn’t speak to him. Could be that she was very busy. Do note the time stamps in the emails above. All of it is early morning. I have not seen Sagarika tweeting early morning in the past but it’s possible I may have missed some. But as the transactions in the emails are going on what does Sagarika do? Here’s what she tweet early morning on February 10 to Ram Guha:
Wow! Bahl and Rajdeep are trading emails and Sagarika wakes up to tweet at 7.38amin reply to Ram Guha’s alarm. And what does she now say? It’s not Bahl or Modi or Ambani but ordinary folks on the SM who are stalking her. People on the SM are stalking her? Her story changes from “Evil” threat to “stalkers” on SM in just 3 days. Such is the mischief and lie-mongering of this woman. Anyone who calls her a journalist or employs her as an editor has to seriously have his head examined. But those who have observed her and Rajdeep for a dozen years know well how these two have consistently peddled crap through their channel or their articles. Rajdeep’s lies and hate-mongering goes all the way back to Star News and NDTV when he first covered the Gujarat 2002 riots and then participated in the malicious campaign against Modi. And all this nonsense for what? Because Sagarika and Rajdeep wanted to promote AAP unhindered in their political campaign under the garb of a news channel. So turn everyone – bosses, social media, everyone into “Evil”.
Apart from their own hate-mongering, these two got every charlatan who could condemn Modi or spew garbage against him in whatever form they could. They got “intellectual morons” like Amartya Sen, Amitava Ghosh, Dipankar Gupta and the whole lot to wilfully lie and rubbish Modi for their convenience. This is hardly the conduct of journalists or editors. Everyone has his or her bias but to peddle lies and even paint Hindus as monsters cannot be passed as journalism. And the constant spats with ordinary people on Twitter heaping abuses on them and then playing victim. Where did all this come from? Politicians pay the price for failing to read the people’s pulse and media crooks will not be exceptions anymore. Elections are over but habits die hard. CNN-IBN still continues to lie and twist statements coming from BJP as can be seen in the pic. I prefer not to comment on the finances of N18 or the luxuries in which many editors live at the cost of their sinking organisation because that is not the concern of this site.
There is a flip side to all this that cannot be overlooked. While the liars posing as editors may leave along with founder Raghav Bahl, the idea of Reliance taking over the whole network is not without dangers. In a note Bahl has stated to his employeesMukesh Ambani is a good human being and the company is in good hands. That may well be true and there is no reason to doubt that. But the idea of a corporate giant controlling N18, apart from other networks, is not a healthy turn. The very size of Reliance when all their businesses are put together is phenomenal. There may come a time when anything you purchase or consume will have Reliance behind it or Reliance maybe in the market for the same product with a controlling share. Reliance likes to control every commodity market – from yarn to gas to news to communication and so on. That’s a bigger problem to be addressed separately. Politicians and large businesses (that are not purely news media) controlling the media is a bad omen for citizens.
One may change cars, change cities, change jobs and even change spouses but many people don’t change the easiest person to change: “the self”. No matter where Rajdeep or Sagarika go it won’t make a damn difference. This is true for many other crooks posing as editors in the media. I wonder what lessons they have learned. From their communications it doesn’t look like they’ve learned any. They will bring the same filth to the table and I doubt they are capable of learning any lessons. They sank CNN-IBN and they will sink someone else. There are no happy endings.
interesting that both of you'll consider arun jaitley to be anti-modi as PM ( and so does ram jethmalani). But from what i have observed, narendra modi does seem to trust and rely on arun jaitley a lot. Refer modi speech in Amritsar. And arun jaitley is mp from gujarat. So not sure what to go by.
well all the above points i am aware of.
but that still does not make him anti-modi. If you go thru the entire 12 year witch hunt against modi, he ( arun jaitley) would not have any anti modi act or words attributable to him. On the contrary, he did explicitly cone out in support of narendra modi many times. So still not clear to me why he too is considered anti-modi.
Brilliant post as usual...I love your one-liners:Such baggage is often confused for ballast...
As with SG an RS, they got what they deserved...In the grand scheme of things, there is no escape from one's own Karma...Let them take a break and do some introspection...
so not sure what karmic nonsense you are alluring to ?? They will always exist and continue with their charade
they have done so much of evil in the past two decades - that even one lifetime in jail would not be enough as karmic justification.
indians , in general, do suffer from very low standards, lower expectations and misplaced judgment.
Goodbye Rajdeep, and don't ever comeback..You and your wife won't be missed.
There was a lecture yesterday by YoYa, about whether the media caused a swing in the election. I can't imagine the intelligence of this so-called psephologist. Whilst it may be true, that a lot of people like myself were just disgusted with the English news channels, and banned TV from our lives, to get their news only from SM. However, what AAP and YoYa have been claiming, is that media helped BJP. Anyone with even ordinary intelligence can see that media had all but barred, all positive news of Modi. They tried to bar Modi's rallies and speeches too...but failed as Modi simply bypassed all media and went live online. So how did media help BJP? Perhaps by disgusting people enough to make them vote for Modi!
The craziest thing I see now, is the Congis and news-traders act almost as if the people are evil by voting Modi. All these intellectuals and so-called bhakts of democracy, suddenly don't like democracy so much, when the people choose someone inconvenient. Not just our local presstitutes, even international ones nearly accuse Indians of choosing the wrong guy! So much for their belief in the people!
Another thing both Congis and presstitutes refuse to believe, is that people voted for something positive. There was more than just rejection of Congress...it is faith in Modi to actually build a strong nation. A casual glance on twitter will reveal, that those who supported Modi are also his harshest critics. Every step that Modi has taken since winning elections, even before taking oath, has been debated in the SM. I expect that to continue even later. So what Sagarika and her ilk dismiss as blind faith, is actually a well debated decision to support Modi...and that support is not unconditional.
I don't remember, that a single news channel has put in effort, to investigate any of the big issues and present a program based on facts...rather than gossip from spokies. Nalini Singh had made programs on the Bhagalpur killings or booth-capturing in Bihar...many years ago. Nothing of that quality is aired now...just shouting matches between idiots.
I hope to see a change for the better in the media, just like the rest of the country. These days dreams do seem to be coming true :D
One aspect you learn or rather do not want to remember is their utter disregard for self respect. Spit on them, they happily wipe and continue trading. These media leeches will survive. As you pointed, there can be no happy endings for them. There will not be, as karma catches with everyone of us.
In the end if we all remember " One may change cars, change cities, change jobs and even change spouses but many people don’t change the easiest person to change: “the self”, and make this our life mantra, world would be a better place to live..
Long live paid media!
And news traders!
HINDU RAM IS HAVING HIS OWN AGENDA OF LEFT LEANINGS
Look at the way all of them are going for SP in UP for those unfortunate gang rapes and deaths and look at the way Rahul Gandhi has been "rushed" to Badaun.
If DD can professionalise better, it can force closure of all these news traders or at least force them to become more objective.
1. he used to sarai.net, which is of CSDS
2. Shivam Vij registered kafila.org which hosts JNU intellectuals.
From whois kafila.org
whois kafila.org
Domain Name:KAFILA.ORG
Domain ID: D128464354-LROR
Creation Date: 2006-09-07T06:36:23Z
Updated Date: 2010-09-07T06:25:53Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2019-09-07T06:36:23Z
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, LLC (R91-LROR)
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL:
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Registrant ID:CR8448714
Registrant Name:Shivam Vij
Registrant Organization:Caste No Bar
Registrant Street: Delhi
Registrant City:Delhi
Registrant State/Province:Delhi
Now you can see that circle: Aditya Nigam, Nivedita Menon, Rajeev Bhargava, Nira Chandoke, CSDS, JNU, Ram Guha.
I remember Aiyar suggesting India must hedge its crude imports when crude went to 140 in 2008 or so. His reasoning was that crude will go to 200. In a few months, crude was back at 40 USD per barrel.
Well written article. One thing though is about corporatization of the media, was it not corporatized like any other sector. And should we fear it? unlike other sectors, where we have to buy the product (think sugar water they call as carbonated drinks like coke and pepsi) or remain thirsty, media at least for the pro-active citizens is not as monopolized as other products. Internet and social media with free wailing of ideas and the existence of media crooks itself is a vindication of this.
By the way, first post which is now completely taken over by network 18 had always been pro-congress but the readers there (including me) spends most of my time on first post reading comments sections than they article itself to get a grip of things.
Secondly, it whittles down eventually to personal integrity, even with huge pressure, jagannathan the editor of first biz, the sister site of first post never trickled his ideas to suit the Rajdeep or other such morons, he continued to post pretty good articles based on his convictions regarding polity and economics. Even CEO's knew the people with integrity will make their business fly and not parroted words of journalists. It might not be exaggeration to say that most come to first post to read jaggi.
Finally, you have written extensively well about the business model of the media companies, the model being lap dogs of the ruling establishment. This model served them as long as the ruling govt was thoroughly corrupt, but now no longer. If you check the link here http://resize.outlookindia.com/Uploads/outlookindia/2014/20140609/page_17_20140609.jpg.ashx?quality=40&width=1000
It is better if political organizations fund these institutes and think tanks openly and propagate the ideas than now seemingly doing wasteful expenditure of controlling media companies as congress has now realized. People have been becoming clever, Mukesh ambani must worry.
on your cautionary note about media in the hands of corporate giant ( valid point and well intended ), but then have not media always been in the hands of large corporates on account of their advertisement revenue ???
and if one peruses the balance sheets of all large news channels - any of them are hardly profitable ( many are deep into losses ) and they have built up monolithic structures simply to exist and leverage out of 'mindspace' captured ( their captive audience ) .
The days of journalism of integrity are long over ( probably ended with arun shourie/indian express era . The ones that would have still some integrity left are irrelevant in these times ) .
on the contrary, now that it is clear the media house is controlled by the corporate - any biases / prejudices would also be more apparent and accordingly factored. However since government may still be their largest benefactor ( unless namo sticks only to doordarshan), these media houses will continue to pro establishment ( or go anti establishment to seek more revenue).