*** Gopalkrishna Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma, in the Hindustan Times: “The immortals, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev had just attained martyrdom on the gallows of the British Raj. The country was astir, angry and aspiring to acts of supreme courage for the country’s liberation. “Yet another kind of martyrdom, no less demanding, no less…
Monthly Archives: January 2012
Absolute Annarchy, and what’s more it is online
An online exhibition of cartoons by E.P. Unny, the chief political cartoonist of The Indian Express has gone live. Curated by Sundara Ramanathaiyer of the Centre for Comic Arts (CCA), the cartoons examine the Anna Hazare campaign through the eyes of India’s foremost political linesman. Visit the exhibition: E.P. Unny
Sachin Tendulkar, Mid-Day & the Indian Express
Thankfully, Sachin Tendulkar‘s below-par performance on the Australian tour has dimmed the spotlight somewhat on the Indian media batting for a Bharat Ratna for the cricketer in quest for his 100th hundred. In Lounge, the Saturday section of the business daily Mint, columnist Aakar Patel argues why, among other reasons, Sachin shouldn’t get the nation’s…
Shobha De tears into Vinod Mehta in India Today
There are two tried and tested formulas for commissioning reviews in the shockingly incestuous bordello of Indian books that has now spread its wings into Indian journalism. The supposedly dignified formula is to get an author’s friend or associate to do the unctuous needful (say a Khushwant Singh to “review” a David Davidar) so that…
N.Ram denies ‘landgrabbing’ charges
After the AIADMK won the Tamil Nadu assembly elections in a landslide last year, several DMK ministers and leaders have been slapped with landgrabbing charges by the Jayalalitha government. N. Ram, who remitted office as editor-in-chief of The Hindu last week, has been dragged into the controversy, reports the Hindustan Times. He is now threatening…
How Hindu aimed at The Times but shot DNA
It is never a pretty sight when a giant wakes up after a nice, long slumber. After snoring through the thinly veiled insinuations of The Times of India that it was a sleeping inducing newspaper, The Hindu has woken up with a jolt through three TV, super-aggressive commercials that are already airing on television channels…
Only one journalist on 109 Padma Awards’ list
For the second year in a row, there are no working journalists— i.e. those still burning the phone lines and greasing the totempole in anticipation of the big day—in the 2012 Republic Day honours’ list. Aside from the recently deceased cartoonist Mario Miranda has been decorated with the nation’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma…
Are journalism’s best practices in your DNA?
On the eve of the nation’s 63rd Republic Day, the Bombay newspaper DNA, from the Dainik Bhaskar and Zee groups, devotes its front page to publicising its code of ethics. Before laying out its key principles—responsibility, freedom, independence, truth and accuracy, impartiality, fair play—the code reads: “Our Constitution, protecting freedom of expression, guarantees to the…
Times group, Hindustan Lever & Shrijeet Mishra
On Saturday, The Times of India carried on its business pages (top) news of a senior Hindustan Lever executive leaving the company, the second in a year. On Tuesday, The Economic Times followed suit on the front page of the third major exit from HUL in the last 18 months. Fact: Shrijeet Mishra, one of…
Why Prabhu Chawla didn’t become media advisor
Prabhu Chawla, editorial director of The New Indian Express and Sunday Standard: “Personally, I’m against the idea of journalists associating with the government in a formal advisory capacity without joining the ruling party. When former Prime Minister V.P. Singh offered me his media advisor’s job in 1990, I reluctantly declined. I suggested Singh not to…
Did Chidambaram walk out of Express awards?
The grapevine is that some ministers boycotted events in which media houses had chosen members of Team Anna for awards last year. Now, this item appears in the gossip columns of The Sunday Guardian. Apparently home minister P. Chidambaram vamoosed from the Ramnath Goenka excellence in journalism awards function organised by The Indian Express after…
ET joins Mint, has questions on RIL-TV18 deal
Two days after Mint front-paged a story that SEBI was looking into the Reliance-Network18/TV18-ETV deal, the country’s biggest business newspaper, The Economic Times has joined force. A story on page 9 of ET, headlined “Will the RIL-TV18 deal trigger takeover code?“, says SEBI “may ask for details” about Reliance funding Network18/TV18 to help it purchase…
At 7, Race Course Road, this is Pankaj Pachauri
In what is perhaps the first acknowledgement of the fact that the UPA government could do with slightly better media schmoozing, Pankaj Pachauri, the host of NDTV Profit’s magazine show, Money Mantra, has been roped in as communications advisor at the prime minister’s office. Pachauri, 48, has previously worked at The Sunday Observer, India Today…
N. Ram’s farewell letter to The Hindu staff
The following is the full text of the letter sent off by Narasimhan Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu group of publications, to his colleagues on Wednesday, 18 January 2012, on the eve of his relinquishment of office. *** January 18, 2012 Dear colleagues Today I step down as editor-in-chief and publisher of our publications, The…
An ad? An edit? Advertorial? Edvertisement?
The front page of The Sunday Times of India on January 15, with the anchor story at the bottom headlined”Get 110% out of your body with Functional Manual Therapy”. Credited to “TNN” (Times News Network) and printed in the same body font as the rest of the paper, the article touts an “effective evaluation and…
Shekhar Gupta slams conflict of interest charge
Shekhar Gupta, the editor-in-chief of The Indian Express, has responded to a press release from a nine bunch of activists led by the Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan that the sponsorship of the Ramnath Goenka awards for excellence in journalism this year was tainted by allegations of conflict of interest. Bhushan & Co had linked…
‘India’s cricket reporters too soft on cricketers’
India Drown Under. Surrender Down Under. Wallopped! Tigers at home, lambs abroad. The adjectives are tripping off TV screens and sports pages, following the precipitous fall in Team India’s performance in Australia, where the 0-3 scoreline looks less from a cricket series, more from a tennis match. The blame, as usual, is being laid at…
Mint says SEBI looking into RIL-TV18-ETV deal
Finally, some critical coverage of the Reliance-Network18/TV18-ETV deal in the business media. Mint, the business newspaper from the Hindustan Times stable, has a story in today’s issue that the stock market regulator, SEBI, is looking into RIL’s financial statements and reports to see if the company had divulged its holding or investment in ETV before…
Power of press belongs to those who own one!
It’s raining daughters in the Delhi papers—daughters of media barons, that is. Mail Today has devoted at least four full tabloid pages over the past month to herald the launch of India Today founder Aroon Purie‘s daughter Kalli Purie‘s book on weight loss. Today’s Times of India has a large story on the city pages…
Rajya Sabha TV tears into Reliance-TV18 deal
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…
IJR 