This is really a welcome move by the BJP, something they should’ve done many years ago. The reason for media’s ruthless, unfair and incessant criticism of everything Hindu and the BJP in particular is that the Hindus have been playing the game by the rules set by the Opponent. As such the BJP should’ve tackled it at the ideological/discourse level.
In this case, however, Turdesai provided it the opportunity perhaps unwittingly by agreeing to conduct the sting op in the first place. He smelled a killer story but as, the boycott statement says, backed out
… under severe pressure from the Government and/or certain corporate houses.
As disgraceful as Turdesai is, this episode is amusing. For one, Turdesai’s channel gets most of its TRPs by ridiculing inviting BJP leaders on its dictatorial “talk shows.” Second, with elections a few months away, Turdesai is in Troubleland again. What a BJP victory in the polls will spell for him is pretty evident.
Turdesai must be reeling under the taste of the same turd his channel emits everyday.
PostScript: It struck me suddenly that we don’t see the regular bogey of candlekissers mourning the victims of the recent bomb blasts.
Tags: Commentary, Elections 2009, Indian Politics, Media Watch, Pseudo Secularism Hall of Shame, Society & Culture
Sandeep,
If any one has been bruised in this Cash-For-Votes_hide-The-Tape-Scandal than it Rajdeep Sardesai.
Bribe givers might escape from the proverbial ‘long arm of law’ through the much abused ‘laws on course’ BUT Rajdeep will be haunted for long long time to come.
On hindsight, this ‘not aired’ sting is a ‘blessing in disguise’ for the Indian right wing parties and their supporters.
This episode has exposed the MSM for what they are, in Rajdeep’s own barb he throws at politicians (BJP in particular) ‘HAMMAM MEIN SAB NANGE HAIN’
PI.
I don’t see this as a Hindu vs Media issue. It is a People vs Media issue. The citizens’ first line of defence against an errant government is the media. But what if the government and the media are hand-in-glove? A “committed” media is as much a threat to our freedoms and rights as a corrupt, bullying government is.
‘But what if the government and the media are hand-in-glove?’
Ot, don’t be worried. It’s not govt sleeping with media. It’s just the media sleeping with the leftie Congress I and, of course, it’s allies. The media will get back to bashing govt, so called accountability, when Congress I is out…
[...] Turdesai is not content with smoking Mountain Weed alone. He feeds it to his staff as well by making them write an “explanation” for why his channel didn’t telecast the damaging tapes. From trying to assuage his non-existent conscience to enforcing his guilt upon his staff, Turdesai sinks to newer and newer lows. Owe it to panic over the BJP’s boycott of CNN-IBN or to a late realization of his blunder, he CNN-IBN offers justification an explanation about the decision to not telecast the sting operation tapes. The “explanation” is a study in contradiction. [...]