The debasement of the editorial and op-ed page of newspapers, by turning them into the plaything of maaliks and marketing mavens, is a work in rapid progress. Hindustan Times and The Indian Express run signed advertisements by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath—an extension of the jacket ad flanking their front pages, to mark his…
Monthly Archives: March 2021
Page 1 to Page 12: What newspaper coverage of the death by suicide of a sitting BJP MP reveals
As the old saying goes, once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action. Or, as we say in journalism, a trend. In the space of just 20 days, two Members of Parliament have been found dead. The first, 7-time MP Mohan Delkar, was found hanging in his hotel room in Bombay in February.…
How the Marathi daily ‘Prahaar’, owned by M/s Narayan Rane & Sons, proves a ‘New Yorker’ writer right, every single morning
The legendary New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling is credited with the aphorism that “the freedom of the press belongs to those who own one”. Meaning: he who pays the printer calls the shots. The Marathi newspaper Prahaar underlines the truth of that observation like no other. *** The 8-page Prahaar, published from Mumbai, Thane and…
Press Council of India invites applications for its 14th term
The Press Council of India (PCI), is inviting applications for the 14th Council with an amended set of rules. Advertisements inviting claims have appeared in at least 18 newspapers across the country. The Press Council is a quasi-judicial body that comprises 28 members, and a chairman, usually a retired Supreme Court judge. The current chairman…
‘The Telegraph’ sports journalist who is now the Chief Justice of Madras High Court
Madras High Court has a new Chief Justice, its 42nd: Justice Sanjib Banerjee. Nothing new there, all high courts have a first among equals. The interesting part comes through two tweets by The Hindu’s legal correspondent, Mohamed Imranullah, who reveals that Justice Banerjee, 60, began his career as a sports journalist with The Telegraph in…
Simple: Presbyterians (7,6)
Crossword puzzles with big prizes were a big draw for newspapers and magazines in the time before the internet. The Illustrated Weekly of India, among others, ran giant puzzles to keep readers and subscribers hooked, and its wordsmith Raju Bharatan had quite a reputation setting it. As The Times of India dumbed down in the…
Dr R. Krishnamurthy, the scholar and owner-editor of ‘Dina Malar’, who simplified the Tamil script, departs at 88
Dr R. Krishnamurthy, the former Editor of the Tamil daily newspaper Dina Malar, has passed on, aged 88. A full-page obituary adorns the front page of the paper in today’s issue. Dr Krishnamurthy was its Editor for 40 years. *** Dr Krishnamurthy was also a renowned epigraphist, as an obituary in The Times of India…
IJR 