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…
Tag Archives: Star News
When Madhuri Dixit’s ghagra is ‘breaking news’
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar in the Business Standard: “When Madhuri Dixit danced to the song “TV pe breaking news hai re mera ghagra,” I wanted to hide. Her sizzling dance number in a red-light area from the latest hit Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani roughly means, “My skirt is the breaking news on television.” “…Many Hindi films now…
Ex-Star News, ToI journos behind ‘Arnab Spring’
In today’s Mail Today, Headlines Today executive editor Rahul Kanwal adds another name to the roster of journalists working with the Anna Hazare campaign against corruption: former Star News anchor Shazia Ilmi. He also throws light on the media strategy adopted by the team to craft India’s “Arnab Spring”: # Never start a press meet…
‘Yeh thi khabrein Aaj Tak. Intzaar kijiye kal tak’
Fourteen years ago today, Surendra Pratap Singh aka S.P. Singh, the founder-anchor of Aaj Tak, the 30-minute Hindi news bulletin that became a 24×7 news channel, breathed his last after a fortnight-long battle for life. “SP” was one of the first print journalists to successfully graduate to television—he had edited the Hindi daily Navbharat Times…
‘Star News ne Baba ko LIVE dekha’
As Baba Ramdev‘s fast was abruptly ended and the yogi shifted to Dehradun in great secrecy, Star News had a breaking news slide: “Star News ne Baba ko LIVE dekha“. Meanwhile, Sunday’s Indian Express provides some evidence that the preferred newschannel in the corridors of power may be changing in Lutyen’s Delhi.
Star News chief made to ‘sweep’ Kashmir street
The renewed violence on the streets of Kashmir—against the presence of armed forces, the stifling of free movement and speech, the alienation of the State and the humiliation of the people—is not sparing journalists on the job, too. Samar Halarnkar of the Hindustan Times reports in today’s paper that… “A friend’s husband, the chief of…
Guess who monetised editorial space first?
“Paid News”—editorial space being sold for a fee, without revealing to news consumers that it is an advertisement—is suddenly all the rage, with the Magsaysay Award-winning journalist P. Sainath weighing in on the issue. In just the last week, the Foundation for Media Professionals (FMP) has conducted a seminar on the topic*; the communist party…
Do papers, magazines have nothing to claim?
The political winners and losers of the Indian elections are, respectively, exulting and sulking. But the dust is still to settle over who won the air waves and grabbed the most eyeballs. Rupert Murdoch-owned Star has jumped into the fray claiming that its network of Hindi, Bangla and Marathi channels was number one on counting…
It is their opinion they have done an exit poll
Exit polls are said to be more reliable than opinion polls in gauging the mood of the electorate since pollsters catch respondents immediately after they have cast their ballot. But for the second successive time in five years, mainstream Indian media organisations have fallen flat on their faces in their “exit poll” projections, throwing a…
When the OB vans came rolling in
At the shootout at Virginia Tech last year, there were 130 satellite vans on campus, roughly translating to one van for each of the 33 students killed. It wasn’t as bad in Bellary in Karnataka today, but outside broadcasting vans lined up by the horde for the elections to the Karnataka legislative assembly. Polling in…
Indian television literally goes to the dogs
On Rupert Mordoch‘s Star News channel, the bellwether of tabloid journalism on Indian television, a blogger captures another piece of pure magic. Breaking News shouts the super: “Dilli: Commissioner sahab ka kutta mila” (translation: “Delhi: Commissioner’s dog found) Also read: When AB baby’s cold becomes hot news Link courtesy Content Sutra
IJR 