[Reader-list] Shouldn¹t Vir, Barkha step down now?

[Samvit]

This is such excellent stuff. It seems like a piece from a soap opera
with all the masala of intrigue, deceit, backstabbers, etc. The dark
and dirty side of the Congress and Barkha is so openly portrayed.
Barkha who has/had this image of "holier than thou!!" comes out like a
broker in the audio tapes. And there are people who call
Karunanidhi..."us, buddhe ko bo do!!!" <tell that that old man(sic!)>



On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 7:04 PM, SJabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
> Check out the Outlook website for more dirt.  Here's just one of the
> sickening audios.
>
> http://business.outlookindia.com/view.aspx?vname=16-CongApniDukan20090522-17
> 0040.wav
>
>
> On 19/11/10 4:10 PM, "Aditya Raj Kaul" <kauladityaraj at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>    Shouldn¹t Vir, Barkha step down now?
> GN Bureau | November 19 2010
>
> Nira
>> Radia, a PR professional ­ or to put it plainly, a lobbyist ­ dictated
> what
>> goes into senior editor Vir Sanghvi¹s column and what NDTV anchor
> Barkha Dutt
>> should tell the Congress ahead of cabinet formation, going by
> the telephonic
>> conversations authorities tapped (read the
>> transcripts
> here<http://www.openthemagazine.com/>or read a report
> here
>> <http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=19112010>).
>
> There¹s much
>> more here than merely consulting an expert before writing a
> column or
>> anchoring a story. Veteran and iconic journalists purportedly took
> brief from
>> a corporate lobbyist and purportedly coordinated the backdoor
> wheeling-dealing
>> of a cabinet formation on behalf of business tycoons, if
> these tapes are
>> authentic. While we are in no position to endorse the
> content, wouldn¹t these
>> opinion-makers have asked a politician to resign
> pending an inquiry?
>
> The
>> tapes reveal the ugly side of two of our venerable four estates.
>
> As for the
>> media, a veteran editor who plays a role in helping millions of
> readers form
>> opinion (we are being charitable here), stands compromised.
> This is only an
>> extension of the business of paid news (read our analysis
> and the Press
>> Council¹s unpublicised
>> report
> here<http://governancenow.com/news/regular-story/paid-news-press-counci
>> ls-sham-report-hide-indian-medias-shame%29>.
> While the other three estates
>> have a degree of public accountability,
> the
> fourth estate goes scot free. A
>> voter can question an MP once in five years,
> but as a reader she has no way to
>> question the editor.
>
> As for the polity, the tapes raise the spectre of
>> Œcorporate democracy¹, for
> the corporates, by the corporates and of the
>> corporates. To stem this trend,
> as a small step, shouldn¹t the guardians of
>> the public interest ­ Hindustan
> Times and NDTV in this case ­ ask Sanghvi and
>> Dutt to step down and face
> inquiry?
>
>   --
> Aditya Raj Kaul
>
> India Editor
> The
>> Indian, Australia
>
> Web:
>> http://activistsdiary.blogspot.com/
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