Sidd V blasts corporate India - editorial on Radia scam

This blog has not been kind on Sidd V and we don't plan on being so anytime soon. However we do tip our hat every time there is a hard hitting post on the cHindu and it is our hope that they become the norm than the exception. So when Sidd Varadarajan hammers corporate India's ability to spin yarns on the Indian population by buying ministerships,spectrums etc. that is exactly the hard hitting article we wanted cHindu to publish a week back when the issue was hot.

In one of the tapes, an unidentified interlocutor asks Ms Radia, whose clients include both Mr. Tata and Mukesh Ambani, why “you people [i.e. the Mukesh Ambani group] are supporting [Raja] like anything ... when the younger brother [Anil Ambani] is the biggest beneficiary of the so called spectrum allocation”. “Issue bahut complex hai,” Ms Radia replies. “Mere client Tatas bhi beneficiary rahein hain (my client, the Tatas, have also been a beneficiary).”
Apart from telecom, the tapes also provide valuable insight into the gas dispute between the two Ambani brothers. This was a dispute in which Mukesh Ambani made skillful use of the “gas is a national resource” argument with a pliant media even as he used his influence with individual MPs to try and orchestrate a massive tax concession for his company from the same national resource, Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin natural gas.

The entire article strikes hard at the nexus between the various parties and companies involved to keep key players involved (or in the case of Marans excluded) to ensure certain benefits were accrued.
The key gripe here on this article is that it does not focus on the DMK infighting and involvement in the entire affair given A. Raja was the other key focal point. Lets see if there's going to be some follow up in the near future.

Rasheeda Bhagat of The Business Line exposes media hypocrisy

During the whole #barkhagate or 2G scandal or Nira Radia imbroglio the Indian media has played it incredibly safe. Not wanting to move an inch against the key media members involved, most of the journalists perhaps held by some 'Omerta' or honor code or intimidation by higher powers have stone walled.
However in what is really a landmark initiative shown by vigilant citizens leveraging the power of social networking tools - Blogs, Tweets etc. have forced the media to cover this issue.
Props have to go to cHindu's Rasheeda Bhagat who writes for the the Business Line exposes the media hypocrisy in this article - Those living in glass houses….

Our TV channel debates are infamous for their high decibel levels and, on some channels, the anchors out-shout everybody else on the show. But all these channels, their anchors and expert commentators have gone into silent mode since the Radia tapes have aired in public the participation of some top-notch media personalities in animated conversations pertaining to the formation of the UPA-II government. The main hitch then, it may be recalled, pertained to the DMK demanding more than what the Congress was willing to offer. There were also issues pertaining to internal wrangles within the first family of the Dravidian party.

The entire article is written with a brutal honesty one looks for cHindu to provide. By giving more credit to Rasheeda here we would be praising someone for sticking up to their journalistic ethics which is wrong.
But it deserves to be recognized when her peers have chosen silence to exposing the truth.

cHindu-NDTV silence on barkhagate- Friends with benefits

Hat tip to KVSarma for identifying this unholy alliance and appropriately coining the phrase FWB.
The rooted silence on the barkhagate scandal, stoic defense of A.Raja, denial of any existence of Nira Radia, all leads to one question why? Simple answer the cHindu NDTV alliance. Its akin to 'Honor among thieves'. NDTV is the media "Godfather" and has collected many chips and its collecting them by means of total blackout (barring few non-consequential discussions) into this issue. In all likelihood it will provide some information to the JPC or whatever committee and in return be promised some minor slap in the wrist (no impacts to Government advertising).

Alternative Theory by Pilid (Which I have shamelessly copied from the comments)

The alternative explanation for cHindu's silence is the involvement of senior DMK figures. Perhaps it is some of both. Also senior folks in The Hindu have themselves acted as "conduits of information"; in fact Malini Parthasarathy defended accused journos on twitter on this ground. So the sympathy is understandable not to mention accusations would have amounted to the pot calling the kettle black. Also, the censorship is not unusual for The Hindu; most other major media outlets have not carried the item either. So the explanation for silence may lie in their loyalty to the broader fraternity of powerbroker/journalists.

Burkha Dutt vs Arun Shourie

Arun Shourie teaches Burkha Dutt a few things on journalism.

hattip: anonymous comment on this blog. what is with using a name so that we can acknowledge properly. i am desisting from disabling anonymous comments.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx?id=37698

Burkha Dutt's acts of foolishness continue (there is a popular story about how she was responsible for the death of two soldiers in Kargil war through her "journalism of courage"). At about 8 mins into the video, Arun Shourie asks if journalists actually make the effort to read the text themselves or just go around asking people for sound bites. His question on the use of adjectives is also very valid.