In its hey day, The Pioneer counted Rudyard Kipling, Winston Churchill and Harivanshrai Bachchan among its star correspondents. But 155 years after it rolled off the press in Lucknow, the newspaper has run into serious financial trouble, with insolvency proceedings being launched against its publishing company CMYK Printech. *** Purchased by the Thapar Group in…
Tag Archives: Chandan Mitra
President speaks of paid news, dumbing down
The following is the full text of the speech delivered by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, at the inauguration of the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) in New Delhi on Thursday, 27 February 2014: *** By PRANAB MUKHERJEE “Seventy-five years ago, the world was a very different place. Our country…
Are journalists already poised to ride Modi wave?
As the 2014 general election campaign gathers steam, the masks are beginning to come off, as journalists who make no pretence of their political and ideological inclinations (without disclosing it publicly) walk over to the other side, just as they did in previous elections. Ashutosh of IBN-7 is officially the Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate from…
‘You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war’
Modern journalists not used to the thrills and travails of sending despatches on the telegram and the teleprinter and the telex machine from the back of beyond will not understand the hoo dash ha in today’s papers on the decision of the Bharat sanchar nigam limited bracket open BSNL bracket close to wind up the…
When the Gang of Four meets in IIC, it’s news
An item appearing in Raisina Tattle, the gossip column of Mail Today, the tabloid from the India Today group. Also read: Who are the journos “running and ruining” the BJP? For the BJP, pen is mightier than the trishul? Don’t laugh: do journalists make good politicians? The lone-ranger of loony Hindutva versus…?
No half-truths for New Delhi’s newest paper
Yes, Kumar Mangalam Birla is right: the media is a sunrise sector and further proof of it comes through the launch of New Delhi’s newest daily, the Millennium Post. The 16-page, all-colour broadsheet priced at Rs 3, boasting the tagline “No Half Truths”, was launched on May 2. (Click here to view the front page…
Anchors, editors, motormouths & other nuisances
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…
Right or left, some hometruths from the old pros
Chandan Mitra, editor-in-chief of The Pioneer, speaking at the annual convocation of the Pioneer media school, in New Delhi on Monday: “Despite the advent of new mediums of mass communication or news dissemination over the years, print journalism is still a vital force and journalism is defined by the print media… “Students are free to…
When Samir served a thali, Vineet served a scoop
SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: As it approaches its dosquicentennial, India’s biggest English language newspaper, The Times of India, truly deserved a meticulous biography to tell the world on “what goes on inside this amazing media machine”. Sadly, Bachi Karkaria‘s Behind the Times (Times Books, 325 pages) is not that. Poorly structured, poorly sourced and…
To err is human, to cc and bcc is divine
A correction and retraction appearing in The Hindu, issued by the editor-in-chief, N.Ram, appearing in today’s paper: “It was wrongly stated in the report by our Special Correspondent published in The Hindu of January 23, 2011 titled “Expunge remarks against Graham Staines: Supreme Court’s remarks ‘gratuitous,’ say editors, civil society members” that the statement was…
When nothing’s sacred, everything’s suspect
In the cynicism that now envelopes modern Indian journalism, even the Ramnath Goenka awards for excellence in journalism awarded by the Indian Express are not beyond ideologically motivated barbs. This letter to the editor of The Pioneer was published by the right-wing daily on Wednesday, 28 July, and it leaves no room for doubt about…
The K-word, the P-word, the G-word, the A-word
The ghosts of Jammu & Kashmir seem to repeatedly haunt the BJP Rajya Sabha member and editor-in-chief of The Pioneer, the very erudite Chandan Mitra. Over a decade ago, the journalist-activist Kuldip Nayar, then a member of the upper house, moved a privilege motion for an overly enthusiastic editorial that questioned Nayar’s patriotism. In February…
Why (perhaps) BJP sent Chandan Mitra to RS
Chandan Mitra, the editor-in-chief of The Pioneer, has been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha for a second term, this time as a nominee of the BJP. In a piece in his paper, Mitra once again addresses the conflict of interest in being the editor of a paper and an active politician. “While it is…
RSS feed: New BJP chief spikes journalists
Coomi Kapoor in the Indian Express on the journalists’ contingent in the new team of BJP office-bearers. Also read: For the BJP, is the pen mightier than the trishul? Who are the journalists running, ruining BJP? L.K. Advani: PM maybe but not a very good sub Don’t laugh: do journalists make good politicians? ‘The lone…
The Lone Ranger of Loony Hindutva versus…?
A somewhat tenuous peace has been achieved in the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party after the “nasty jolt” it received in the May 2009 general elections. But a detente eludes journalists aligned with the BJP. This, above, is the public exchange of words between the columnist Swapan Dasgupta and the Pioneer associate editor Kanchan…
The best editor The Pioneer, Delhi, never had?
The writer Rudyard Kipling was once on its rolls; the former British prime minister Winston Churchill served as its war correspondent. Now, The Pioneer, New Delhi, has announced its best editor who wasn’t: Eric Arthur Blair In a front-page story, the right-wing paper reports that the left-wing novelist and political thinker (born in Motihari, Bihar)…
For the BJP, is the pen mightier than the trishul?
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: Four months after the “nasty jolt” in the 2009 general election (RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat‘s description), the BJP continues to be in a flap over the role of “friendly journalists” in its defeat—and after. Twice the party’s resident intellectual “for all matters requiring an IQ of 60”, Arun Shourie…
How Chandan Mitra has his halwa and hogs it too
One of India’s oldest English dailies, The Pioneer, has undergone not so much a transformation but a transmogrification in recent years. Once a paper which had Rudyard Kipling on its rolls, and for which Winston Churchill served as a war correspondent, the low-circulation paper has returned to its politically conservative roots and become an unabashed…
Will this man be the next US Secretary of State?
When Indian journalists like M.J. Akbar, Arun Shourie, Chandan Mitra, Sudheendra Kulkarni et al cosy up to politicians, tout a particular ideological line, stand for elections, grab non-journalistic posts, negotiate deals, etc, we look at them with a slight degree of circumspection. Are they, you wonder, misusing their editorial positions and platforms to advance a…
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