oppn parties Chat Records Expose Arnab Goswami As Manipulative And Uncouth

News Snippets

  • Karnataka HC has ruled that a harassment complaint lodged by a wife after receiving a divorce notice from the husband loses its weight in the eye of the law and quashed the FIR filed by a women against her husband and in-laws
  • 35 people killed in renewed violence in Manipur, 30 of them militants
  • Manipur boils on the eve of Home minister Amit Shah's visit as militants strike, vandalize MLAs home and loot armouries
  • Kerala chief minister P Vijayan says Centre's decision to cut the borrowing limit of the state is 'sadistic' and shows its negative mentality towards the state's development
  • Rahul Gandhi recieves passport, set to travel to the US
  • Centre said that the march-to-Parliament by wrestlers was a 'deliberate provocation'
  • Prime Minister Modi inaugurates the new Parliament building, calls it 'cradle of empowerment'
  • Mamata Banerjee will most likely attend the opposition meet called by Nitish Kumar in Patna
  • With container prices, which were on fire, crashing by 40% YoY, importers and exporters in India heaved a sigh of relief as the burden of high freight costs will reduce
  • In an aim to push lenders to manage risks better after the US financial crisis, the RBI has reviewed bond value norms
  • 14 countries under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), including India, entered into an agreement to boost supply chains and counter China
  • Malaysia Cup badminton- H S Prannoy wins the title beating Weng Hong Yang of China 21-19,13-21, 21-18
  • Yashasvi Jaiswal replaces Ruturaj gaikwad as stand-by opener for the WTC final
  • IPL final washed out due to rain, rescheduled for today, the reserve day
  • In a shameful incident, Delhi Police manhandled international wrestlers when they sought to march peacefully to the new Parliament building to highlight their greivances, detained some top wrestlers
Fifth IPL title for Chennai as Ravindra Jadeja hits 10 off last two balls to spoil the party for Gujarat Titans
oppn parties
Chat Records Expose Arnab Goswami As Manipulative And Uncouth

By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-01-18 06:17:00

The leaked WhatsApp chat records of Arnab Goswami show how some in the media have become so powerful that they have unbridled access to official information earlier than others and how they use their power to crush others. It also shows how biased certain sections of the media have become, not due to their political leanings but mainly due to the ownership and the backing they receive from the party in power at any given point of time.

The way Goswami used his position to manipulate TRPs in collusion with Partho Dasgupta, the ex-CEO of BARC proves that all kinds of underhand dealings took place to skew a system that provides viewership data based on which advertisers make their media buying decisions. At one point in the chat records, Goswami gloats how his insider knowledge made Republic TV 'kill' the TRPs.

What is the big deal in killing TRPs with insider knowledge? Is it journalism at all? If you have everything handed over to you on a plate and you just present it before the public, you are doing the job of a broker and not a journalist. Arnab Goswami's bravado and slanging matches will not survive a single day without the backing from powerful sources.

In fact, if Goswami had knowledge of "something big about to happen" three days before others, it shows how national security is treated in a cavalier manner by those in power. Such information must not be leaked to anyone outside the government. The Congress is right in demanding a probe in the affair by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Media must do its job of providing information and analysis of events in a fair and non-partisan manner. This episode tarnishes the image of media in the eyes of the public and the advertisers. With fake news and planted stories, along with untruths being spread over social media, traditional media's responsibility has increased manifold. Scams like these will erode the trust people have in traditional media.