The December issue of Caravan magazine has a 16-page cover story on how the Raghav Bahl founded Network 18 has taken a turn towards right-wing politics after its takeover by Mukesh Ambani‘s Reliance Industries. Headlined ‘The Network Effect’ and written by Rahul Bhatia, who authored the Arnab Goswami profile last year, the article chronicles a…
Tag Archives: Sagarika Ghose
Poems on news anchors: this week, Barkha Dutt
In Open magazine this week, Madhavankutty Pillai continues his occasional series of poems on news anchors. This week, the face of NDTV 24×7: Barkha Dutt, the host of We the People and The Buck Stops Here. Ye destitute widow, acid attack victim Forgotten spy, despairing cripple Who was once trapped in rubble And ye burnt…
‘Network 18’s multimedia Modi feast, a promo’
As news channels bend backwards to give flight to Narendra Modi‘s prime ministerial ambitions, the Indian Express‘ television critic, Pratik Kanjilal, writes on the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Network 18‘s unquestioning schmoozefest with the Gujarat chief minister: “Modi also addressed a business forum in Kolkata, but the big one was the multimedia love-feast organised by Network 18.…
Arnab Goswami finally—finally!—joins Twitter
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. *** Read the full story: Arnab…
Poems on anchors: this week, Sagarika Ghose
In Open magazine, Madhavankutty Pillai continues his occassional poems on news anchors. This week, his ode is directed at Sagarika Ghose, the host of Face the Nation on CNN-IBN: Salutations, mistress of the echo Blest with the force Of eyes widening until they greet the other Of eyebrows leaping like trampoline artists together Reveal to…
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…
The saplings Usha Rai planted on our Fleet Street
Delhi is celebrating its centenary as the capital of India, and a number of newspapers led by the Hindustan Times have been using the opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane. The Hindu Business Line too is running a series, and the sports journalist Norris Pritam (left) turned his eyes on the Fleet Street of India—Bahadurshah…
The Chetan Bhagat-ification of Indian newspapers
Business Standard books’ reviewer Nilanjana S. Roy—and CNN-IBN anchor Sagarika Ghose (who has a column in Hindustan Times)—provide the latest update on the state of Indian newspapers.
NDTV, CNN-IBN and Mani Shankar Aiyar “Live”
Reader Kollery S. Dharan forwards two screengrabs, shot with his mobile phone, of the 10 pm shows of NDTV 24×7 and CNN-IBN on Thursday, 13 January 2011. Both channels carry the “live” logo on the top right-hand corner. And “live” on both channels at the same time on the same day is the diplomat-turned-politician Mani…
When Rajdeep Sardesai got it left, right & centre
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: There were two “key takeaways”—as TV anchors remind us every night, two “key takeaways”—from the post-Niira Radia chintan baithak organised by the Editors Guild of India, the Press Club of India, and the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) in New Delhi on Friday. The first takeaway is what the…
Anybody here who’s Dalit and speaks English?*
The UPA government’s reported inclination to include an extra column in the 2011 census to enumerate caste, for the first time since 1931, has seen politicians and political parties close ranks, although the Union cabinet is said to have been divided on the issue. But there has been an avalanche of criticism in the media.…
Did media overreact to SRK? Press QOTD ‘Y’
“Film maker, TV producer, businesswoman, writer, blogger, teacher and the main slave to an imperious hound”, Harini Calamur on the Indian media’s reaction to the detention of movie star Shah Rukh Khan by officials at Newark airport: “At first, when my nani called me up to tell me that SRK was arrested in the USA,…
Don’t ask me, ask her. Don’t ask me, ask him.
How differently can two journalists of the same house and the same media house think on the same issue at the same time, said issue being West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi‘s stand on violence in the State? Exhibit A is Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN, seven hours ago from the web. Exhibit B is Sagarika…
It ain’t so cute when hunters are hunted, is it?
“This is Sunidhi reporting! It’s Dr Prannoy Roy. He just got down from his Merc close to Khan Market. I can’t believe my luck. The aging ‘Father of Indian television’ is still so handsome! He has started walking towards Khan Market. Prannoy’s car is driving past the market. Wait! What do I see? A sweet little…
For Modi, like Bush, either you’re with us, or…
Sagarika Ghose writes that in the “opposition-free environment” of Gujarat, it is the media that is the only opposition to the alpha-male of Gujarati asmita, Narendra Modi. And like the masses he lords over, he has ensured that there is a sharp polarisation among the messages carrying his word to them. Those who sing in…
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