He writes on the latest hoo-ha, courtesy the Slimes/Crimes Group whose publication, the Economic Times (ET), recently carried a so-called smooch between Kiran Majumdar Shaw (of Biocon) and Vasundhara Raje Scindia (Rajasthan Chief Minister) on their front page. Needless to say, that photo created the required controversy.
If that photo wasn't stupid enough, they've stooped even lower by the apoplectic fit of self-righteousness they raised in this column carried on their yellow rags today.
Over to Mishti who, also angry at the ET, has written this piece below. Comments welcome.
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The Times of India group every day sets lower and lower standards in journalism (if you call it that for the lack of any other more appropriate word) and never tires of its sick holier than thou attitude. One example was recently pointed out by Amelia Gentleman, a columnist at the International Herald Tribune.
The ToI group has this smartly designed logo (I must give credit where it is due - ToI groups ads and logos etc are smart; after all it is a marketing juggernaut and nothing about journalism) called " The Global Indian Takeover", which in a celebratory mood it appends to any and every article. Do not know which moron decided which article it should get appended to, but apparently last week it got appended to an article on a girl of Indian origin winning the Miss UK title (pointed out by the IHT columnist) . Someone out there is in a desperate need to have his/ her head examined.
Economic Times believes it is a financial newspaper just because it aped the colors of Financial Times many years back (called it salmon pink, I remember, although I am yet to see a salmon on my plate of that color. I have a suggestion - they should change the color to yellow). In recent times ETs budget coverage has been especially deplorable especially for the visuals that they use. It suffers from an identity crisis as it tries to ape its sister publication Bombay Times.
But I am digressing. What takes the cake is today's article "Much ado about...." on page 3 of The Economic times. This is on the picture of Rajasthan's CM and Biocon's CMD air-kissing each other, with the camera angle being such which invited a lot of comment and some called it obscene.
ET felt that the politicians and Hindi TV channels are bereft of ideas (true for once, but it forgets that it itself false into the same category) and hence, debated on what was just another picture. Fair enough. But ET with all its sagacity and wisdom, decided to devote a couple of columns to it, after having published the picture the previous day. It castigated the TV channels and the politicians for starting a debate on the photograph.
And in its holier than thou attitude, ET went on to say "At ET, we had carried the picture in good faith, without any intention of hurting the sentiments of both Ms Raje and Ms Shaw. In our wall-to-wall coverage of the World Economic Forum, this is one of the few pictures we felt deserved to be carried." Good faith, ha, ha, ha.
Will the ET editor (if there is one, because the Jain's do not believe in editorial content or freedom or how can a newspaper have two viewpoints on an editorial subject matter on the same day) please clarify why "this one is one of the few pictures" that deserved to be carried? Were they the two most important personalities gracing the occasion at WEF on that day? Did they make some major news by what they had to say on that day? I do not remember ET mentioning anything about what they said in ETs "wall to wall" coverage!
ETs stooping does not end there. It also says, "As readers of ET know, air-kissing is a common phenomenon at corporate dos and high-society parties." ETs readers are indeed a wise lot. Other poor souls who do not have the benefit of reading ET do not know such social niceties.
Unfortunately (I believe) the ABP group (erstwhile owners of Business Standard) did not show its marketing acumen with Business Standard the way they showed with The Telegraph in Kolkata and T N Ninan unfortunately never had the backing of the financial muscle power of the Bennet Coleman group. BS would have punched ET if only FDI in newspapers and journals was allowed.
Guess which votary and champion of reforms puts out editorials against FDI in newspapers? No prizes for guessing - it is the venerable publications from the ToI group, which are so keen to protect their turf. Of course, their editorials are full of righteous indignation against Bombay Club and any whiff of protectionism in any other sector. Hopefully HT in association with WSJ will launch a paper which will tell us something more about business, companies and sectors rather than tell us what kind of kissing is a common phenomena at what dos. That I must admit can be safely left to ET, Bombay Times, Mumbai Mirror and of course, the one and only Times of India.
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14 comments:
C’mon guys, it was just a stupid kiss, donno what the biggie is here. So what if Ms. Raje air kissed or even kissed Kiran Shaw.
Don’t tell me that polite hugs and air kisses are only for the socialites or the elite class. Don't tell me that. We should know better.
Newspapers want tidbits to fill up their columns, if it were me kissing a Mr. Nobody now that wouldn’t be such a hot and happenin’ newz to print now would it?
So what if the newz was on ET, let them earn their penny that is how they make a livin’. Y react so vehemently. Y react at a stupid kiss at all.
i agree with you completely..
they will do anything for publicity
recently the editorial opinion carried an article saying "lara, not sachin is the greatest batsman of this generation"
even though i am an ardent tendulkar fan, i thought i would read the article and see if his title comes with some examples to match with it
the answer it.. it did not
he simply stated that he did not care for the statistics (tendulkar the clear winner here).. but the fact that lara has carried "the world's worst team" makes him the best player
now i ask.. how are west indies the worst in the world?
tendulkar single handedly took india on his shoulders through the nineties
and now that lara is in prime form.. while tendulkar has just returned from injury.. and needs time to settle.. we need to back tendulkar even more
but the times of india has proved that not only the common indians are fickle minded and plebian-like
but so are the professional journalists at the times group
Iengar chick - Exactly ! it was just a stupid kiss (or a bad camera angle). Why print it in the first place ?
I ask why did ET put it on the front page ? Because it wanted to raise a controversy, create attention over a complete non-issue. And it got what it wanted with the ensuing chaos.
Matters should've ended there, but no ! they go and print a holier-than-thou column..that's bit much, isn't it ? ET of all the people getting self-righteous ?!! Hah !
And that's what the reaction is about.
Hey, thanks for dropping over. Liked that post of yours !
Akash - thanks for the visit. Agree again. And..er.."professional journalists at the Times Group" ? hehe..I think that's against Times Group's core philosophy !
Journalism...it's much the same in Australia - only our Financial review doesn't usually have pictures of people 'kissing'! I think journalists are getting lazier and investigative journalism is being thrown out the window because of the way it is teached. In Australia, you have to get a degree first...unlike the 'old days' when journos never went to uni and instead did cadetships where they learnt on the job and acquired noses for news. I think the fact that journalism has also become a 'profession' also causes ego inflation. Very interesting article about the media in India by the way!
Thanks Amy. In India, I have no idea what education, or ethics, our journalists have. But somehow I think the owners have to take most of the blame, because they are the bosses and the owners. I'm sure I don't want to generalise and paint all the journos with the same brush. In this case I'm sure ET knew what they were doing and what they wanted when they put the photo on the front page. But to follow that up and take the moral high ground - and that too over this issue - was really a bit much.
Thanks, everybody for the comments. I obviously agree with those who agree with me :-)
More seriously, iengar chick, it is a question of what you expect to see and read in the columns of a finacial journal/ newspaper and in the columns of a gossip magazine. Of course, every newspaper baron (for that matter media baron) has a right to decide where he or she wants to position his/ her product. And thus, the ToI group is at perfect liberty to decide what it wants to put in its pages.
My vehement reaction is to the holier than thou attitude post the event. It is the attitude of "We know bext what the hoi polloi doesn't" that sucks. My reaction was not to a "stupid kiss", but to the article thereafter.
Mishti
Mishti: Ouch... for stepping on unknown toes.
But I guess it all boils down to making a penny and how we make our penny don't count attitude.They wanted in as much as the next guy. Who doe not wanna cash in.
The holier-than-thou-attitude-ish column, all a play of words..what more could one expect. What would have satisfied the Mishti-think-alikes...
Iengar Chick - Actually, you do have a point..if they didn't do it, somebody else would have..Agree.
As for the column, yep, it was a play of words, and that's what we're pissed off at. And hey, they're exercising their freedom of expression and so are we ! vot say ?
BA: Cat got my tongue !
But if you (all) are putting to practice your rights for freedom of expression then I would like to quaintly add that "Me's got the right to be opinionated as well"
Say wat ??
Iengar chick - Yes you have and say it loud !
Ppl, this is just yet another example of the fetid "journalism" or rather media that the BC (I convieniently forgot to put in the and there ;) Group feeds to the country. While we are verbally lashing these buggers then why leave out the Oh so entertaining Zoom channel, where you can watch Pooja Bedi discussing various blowjob techniques and then switch to their 'junta' radio station - Radio Mirchi, where the asinine RJ will be drumming up house-wife support to stop vulgarity on TV. These buggers have to be stopped. The day is not far when the Jain brothers will orchestrate a war with the Pakis - a-la James Bond - Tomo Never Dies to increase their paper sales.
Hey, was wondering...are publications really so different from each other?? there's the same star gossip, controversies and junk news in all papers...agreed the edit team of HT and IE is better...but their policies so far as news coverage goes looks just the same - cover whatever sells...y just talk about the TOI grp then.
Quest Girl - Agreed, but "Economic Times" is supposed to be a business paper..sheesh..I'm sounding stupid saying that because ET's as much a business paper as Paris Hilton is a genius.
We talk (rant!) about Times Group because they set the standards and are so good and bringing them lower and lower. That's not to say that HT's any better (but they're following the leader!) and on that I agree with you. Thanks for the visit.
Anon7.15pm - But who's going to stop the buggers ?! After all they're just printing what people like to read. But that is one hell of a scary scenario you paint !
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