Manufacturing a controversy
On the diabolical role of certain sections of electronic media in the latest Tharoor controversy.
Another public statement by Shashi Tharoor and another controversy. So what’s new with that? It is easy to dismiss that off with a shrug and get back to watching that heady cocktail of Bollywood, cricketers [its not about the sport any more, but only the stars], horrors of jehadi terror, saturated coverage of the union budget for days culminating in an overdose of stuffed nonsense on the budget day, and shrill studio debates which, at the end, leave you little wiser about the subject. Welcome to the world of Indian television news. And this excludes stations like India TV and Aaj Tak, which are not worth wasting your breath over, unless you are suffering from jetlag like GreatBong.
Incidentally the above description of Indian news television has been drawn from the blogposts [here and here] by two TV reporters themselves. And we are not even venturing into that apperceptive — and accusatory — piece by P Sainath in the Hindu, which has gone unanswered by otherwise so-prone-to-feign-indignation star editors and editor-cum-owners of the Indian news television houses.
Just a quick recap of what happened earlier today. In response to a question on whether India will seek Saudi Arabia’s support to influence Pakistan to address India’s concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistani territory, Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor, as part of the Indian PM’s delegation to Saudi Arabia said:
We feel Saudi Arabia has a long and close relationship with Pakistan and that makes Saudi a more valuable interlocutor to us.[TOI]
The statement was unequivocal, on-the-record, captured by the TV cameras and accurately tweeted by ANI News editor Ms. Smita Prakash. A little discussion on the subject took place on twitter between Smita, Acorn, Offstumped, Filter Coffee, and this blogger, which resulted in a blogpost on the subject by The Acorn. Attempts to search the above quote and related news item on the web met with no success for a couple of hours after that.
By late in the afternoon, the Indian TV news stations woke up from their Sunday slumber and flashing tickers on TV screens said that Tharoor had asked for Saudi mediation with Pakistan. More amazingly, TV news stations played the video clip of Tharoor making the statement and followed up the clip with newsreaders interchangeably using the words like interlocution, mediation and intervention in their commentary. English news channel editors are supposed to possess a decent knowledge of the language to not make such basic errors. Even if they don’t, a quick glance through a good dictionary or a Wiki search on the internet would have explained the meaning of interlocutor to the editors. Perhaps, as someone suggested, this being a Holi weekend, editors were on leave, leaving this to rookie interns. More on that weekend thing later.
If one reads it carefully, this is not really a path-breaking statement. Even if one were to read signs of a tactical shift in India’s position on bilateral nature of disputes with Pakistan, it nowhere — by any stretch of imagination — calls for a mediation or intervention. It merely suggests that India is asking Saudi Arabia to use its influence over Pakistan so that India and its citizens are better protected from the jehadi terror emanating from Pakistan. They say it is a dramatic shift without looking back at the active interest displayed by the US [interlocution, mediation, intervention, interference... take your pick here] to bring the Kargil conflict to an end in 1999 and then to stall the military stand-off between India and Pakistan in the wake of the attack on the Indian Parliament. The Acorn explains the geo-political context in which this is a realistic option for India today; although other analysts and media houses are free to disagree with the proposition and criticise it vehemently. What they are not free to do though is twist the statement to suit their argument and create a controversy that harms the national interest.
That bring us to the real issue under the scanner. It is not about Shashi Tharoor or the choice of English words. It is about the nature of some media houses in this country to feed off manufactured controversies to sustain their TRPs. National interest be damned.
The callous and disdainful attitude of the electronic media is best exemplified by this twitter conversation between Suhasini Haidar, Deputy Foreign Affairs Editor of CNN-IBN and The Acorn. First, the tweets from Suhasini.
suhasinih Methinks the articulation of interlocution may have been particularly badly timed….on a long news-free holi weekend.
suhasinih Or maybe we say it like it is….that India wd love for US, China and Saudi to intervene on OUR behalf with Pak. But nt the other way around
suhasinih Anyway Tharoor has now clarified….
Here is Nitin Pai’s reply.
acorn @suhasinih It is shameful that media decided to misrepresent a nuanced point @shashitharoor made, because it was a news-free holi weekend
acorn Good people of India beware, the TV media has a long news-free weekend!
And here comes the killer patronising line, with a smiley in tow, from Suhasini against the other media [i.e. bloggers and twitter users]
suhasinih @acorn also beware of media that blames media rather than gov
And finally, Nitin again.
acorn @suhasinih We do need media to keep media on the ball. Government is checked by opposition, media & punished by public. Not so for media
It was more surprising because Suhasini, in her media pieces and social media interactions, comes out as one of the more sensible and down-to-earth journalists on Indian television. One can then well imagine the attitude of those starry TV news editors that populate and shine on the Indian news channels.
It is difficult to digest the patronising and dismissive tone which reeks of unbridled power — We make the rules, we decide how it is done, we know best, how dare these petty bloggers correct us or point out the facts to us? And finally, we give a damn.
There were even more cynical responses from the media fraternity. Mr Tharoor has again created a controversy to stay in the news. Well, one may disagree with Mr Tharoor and his conduct or views but to bring it down to the level of a personal vendetta campaign is rather disagreeable. Personal attacks are just not done, whether on a politician or on a journalist.
A related argument is that why can’t Mr. Tharoor be like other politicians and keep quiet. This actually seems to be the whole agenda of this campaign to create controversies around Mr. Tharoor and diss him in the public domain. Certain sections of the electronic media are so rooted in their old ways that they don’t want our ministers to directly talk to the people, and talk a lot more at that. Rather than report that accurately, they want to continue with the old-style nexus between certain journalists and ministers. These ministers will either provide leaks attributable to sources within the government or interviews to favoured news channels, resulting in exclusives. Once the government becomes more transparent and accessible to all in its direct communications, these journalists and media houses will lose this exclusivity and the business their channels derive from that nexus, and consequent exclusivity.
This is not a rant against a particular journalist or a media house or in favour of one smart politician. This is not even about bloggers versus mainstream media. That’s an old story played many times over. This is about the role and responsibility, or lack of it, amidst sections of the Indian mainstream media, especially those broadcasting in the English language on television. If they claim to hold a mirror to all the other sections of the society, they must learn to hold a mirror to themselves. Else it will hurt them badly when active sections of the society, or even the government, are forced to hold a mirror to them and their ugly reflection is out in the open. They won’t certainly want that to happen. Nor does the nation.
Update [03 March] — Here is the response from Ms. Suhasini Haider.
This is getting worse, I mean for the press folks of our nation. This is degrading from translating slangs to Page 3 gossips to gross and deliberate misrepresentation of facts and now to total ignorance re a plain English word. Why don’t the experts on the debate table get a Thesaurus?
Well said, this wont stop until we have laws that keep the freedom of the press that is being rampantly misused.
Many people I know and I no more watch these (Indian) English news channels. We don’t follow their tweets too. Surprisingly, we are not devoid of any real news because of not watching these non-sense channels!!
Shame on you indian press, or at least a section of the indian press. How pathetic and mean can you get in misrepresenting facts or distorting the truth to sensationalise news. And you call the journalim……..
Its time the government starts thinking of ways to make such people / newspapers accoutable for the lies/ they invent and distribute. They get away under the cover of Freedom of the press when in fact they are promoting freedom of lawlessness.
Now that was a great post. Thanks for writing it.
I think that the problem here is not limited to Indian media – Geo in Pakistan and Fox in America are guilty of the same – manufacturing controversies and needlessly sensationalist journalism. But unfortunately any attempts to check the irresponsible media is labeled as a threat to freedom of speech. To an extent that’s what Musharraf was trying to do when he declared a state of emergency in Nov 07 – at least I think so. And many ‘liberals’ in Pakistan have lambasted govt efforts to hold back Geo for promoting unreasonable and illogical views, but now hate Geo themselves. It’s a worldwide problem – I think the ‘freedom of speech’ argument needs to be revisited.
Oh, and that was an excellent post!
This post should be carried on the editorial pages of ALL dailies this coming weekend and must be made mandatory reading for legislators, the public at large and most importantly, the mediapersons themselves.To vindicate their statments about their good faith in not carrying any unvarnished news, all print media houses should carry this blog post.
To the news editors at NDTV, Times Now, CNN-IBN and other wannabe news channels -we know you’re fairly active in the blogosphere and probably read this blog post before most of us did. Now please stop the pretend game and refrain from exhibiting mock ignorance of the fact that you’ve soiled your already sullied reputations.
Clean up your act now.
frankly i am not surprised by the coverage of this maufactured controversy,a news reader in HT says “its again the media which is accused even though Mr.Shashi Tharoor puts his own foot in his mouth….”
out of 30 minutes of a news bulltin,first 20 minutes is resrved for a film star and his film by snubbing the tragedy of army jawans during a avalanche breakdown in kahsmir….
Only internet seems to be keeping some checks on the blatant Indian media, thankfully it’s influence is growing. Media’s blatant-ness seems to be growing because they can sense that the days of paid news is numbered, they just want to max out their influence over the uninitiated.
I dont see why everyone is blaming the media for raising this issue. If anyone, its Shashi Tharoor who should be held accountable for his statement suggesting any sort of Saudi “involvement”. That too, when the two countries are engaged in dialog.
Its time the social media stopped deifying Mr. Tharoor because he gets picked on by conventional media and instead asks him some tough questions about the decisions and actions of the Government that he is part of. Again, in my opinion the last two paragraphs of this article make the most sense instead of endless debates on definition by people wielding lexicons.
“English news channel editors are supposed to possess a decent knowledge of the language to not make such basic errors.”
There was this gent [say G1] who went to a surgeon and said regarding his ‘ interlocuter’ – “please to castrate me ji ” Doctor says “sure ? ” He says “ofcourse.” Later in the post op recovery room G1 woke up groggily and asked his neighbour [say G2] – what are you here for ? Reply ” Me, I came here for a circumcision.” Says G1 ” that is what I meant ” Moral of the story, if your angrezi is poor you may lose your balls ie credibility.
@Pragmatic Euphony,
I wish you had actually addressed the substance of what Shashi Tharoor said – i agree that he has been misinterpreted but what else is new with Indian news media?
Saudi Arabia being an interlocutor looks like a good idea until you realize that it is not one. They do have influence on Pakistan but as the Acorn pointed out some time back, the Pakis might be churning out nukes for the Kingdom to prepare for the eventuality of a Shia nuclear power state (Iran)… so the Pakis are doing KSA a huge huge favor here.
Besides KSA is a steadfast friend and supporter of Pakistan and may actually like the idea of turning the Wahhabists on India rather than having to deal with them directly in Saudi Arabia.
Also if Saudi Arabia actually wants Pakistan to contain its jihad against India we wouldnt need to request them to use their influence – they already would have asked Pakis to do so.
Sashi Tharoor must be questioned about the substance of his idea rather than picking on him needlessly – but then again we are sooooo sensitive when it comes to Kashmir or Pakistan that we always seem to look for the worst when ever any one says anything about it.
Normally, the BJP supporters whine that there is no one with a panache to deal with the international media, and yet when such a person appears on the scene, instead of learning lessons from such people they go the traditional way of all self-serving twits and trying to find news ways to play politics based on lies and innuendo. Maybe political parties and news media need to be issued a dictionary, so that these worthies in the media can look up the definition of words before they get an urge to sensationalize news the wrong way — the India-KSA treaties are noteworthy in very imporatant ways, but all the self-serving and loathesome tools in the english TV media can do after all their “thinking” is pick on a tweet by a junior minister who is trying to explain the government’s perspective on this important event. So who is going to inform the nation about the real reasons why it is important to have India involved in a regional security architecture?
Clearly, not the navel-gazing, self-serving lowlives that think they can mess with public opinions for their personal profit and ratings. That is where the government and the public need to draw the line and force the shameless twits in the english TV media to either shape up or face the consequences in terms of public opinion….when their worthless behaviour against the public interest is all well-documented and spelt out to the public at large. It is not impossible to achieve that.
@scorpiogenius, @Dilip, @Venkat, @Simon, @Shashwat, @ Nabeel, @DaveyBoy:
Thanks for the kind words.
@krishna, @sanjay, @SR Murthy: Agree.
@worry : As always, you have the punch-lines.
@Harsh: The main idea was in the last two paragraphs only.
@N Sivakumar: Please hop over to The Acorn’s post on the subject. You may be satisfied with the answer there.
@ Harsh Agarwal
Is media above scrutiny?
TOI says – “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday disclosed that he had asked Saudi Arabia to persuade Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism against India”. Now isn’t that exactly what Shashi Tharoor said they intended to do? but that is not the point, IMO he only stated the obvious, this is not the first time india has asked a foreign country to “persuade Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism”. if media thinks he shouldn’t have disclosed the intended purpose of the visit why ask him in the first place?
I agree with you that no one should be deified, and that includes conventional media.
If Suhasini Haider seems to be “one of the more sensible and down-to-earth journalists on Indian television”, then not even god can help India. She is one of the snottiest, most elitist and air headed journalists.
During attacks on Indians in Australia, she said on twitter that meant liike.”why only rural Indians are getting attacked,”. There was her article on Indo-Pak “peace process” recently which I thought was written by a Paki or some foreigner before I read her name. Journalists like her don’t think as Indian.They like to imagine themselves as some kind of elite world citizen who can stay neutral to Indian interests and adopt the viewpoint fair skinned, high class foreigners who will in turn reward their “secularism, neutrality and wisdom” with some “prestigious award”.
@jjamwal:
Please keep off personal attacks while you comment on the subject of the blogpost.
She also said on Twitter about her invention of term “Internet Hindu” and gloated how her invention is causing offence to lots of people.. Although am an atheist her gloating annoyed me a lot. I’d dare her to talk about Muslims or SIkhs in same terms and brag later like that. Truth is that your assumptions about her are very very wrong.
I’m also not so sure about KSA being somebody to trust here. Saudis are official supporters of radical Wahabi ideology resonsible for majority of terrorist attacks all over the world. They are also responsible for funding most of radical madarsas all over the world. Their offer of renovating some mosques was turned down by India a few years ago.
Apart from that, Saudis emply many Pakis to fly their fighter planes. Influence of US apart, Saudis will never support India over co- Islamic Pakisatan. Even US is doing its best to undermine Indian interests by providing Pakisatan with billions of dollars worth of weapons and aid which will inevitably be used against India. India will have to understand that she will have to stand and fight alone for herslef. Saudis, Americans, Europeans and their harping about democracy means nothing.
@jamwal: You are confusing between Suhasini Haider & Sagarika Ghose. Please check your facts before commenting. And can we keep off personalities please and focus on the issues?
nice, very nice. keep em coming.
What perplexes me is why the idea of talking to Saudi Arabia and seeing if India can persuade it to lean on Pakistan to satisfy the concerns of India is a big deal. After all,Saudi Arabia is the source of a lot of Pakistan’s money. and also pushes the hardline Wahhabi version of Islam that justifies terrorist attacks, etc. So it makes a fair amount of sense to talk to them.
It is likely to be a waste of time,because the Saudi policy of encouraging troublemakers to leave Saudi Arabia and cause trouble elsewhere is in the interest of Saudi Arabia. Also, Saudi Arabia is likely to continue its policy of supporting Pakistan against India. So I wouldn’t be rushing to trade India’s de facto alliance with Iran for a deal with Saudi Arabia.
But most diplomacy, most of the time, is a waste of time. It is certainly worth talking to Saudi Arabia and seeing whether or not this will prove to be an exception.
As for the media flap, well,the media always overstate things. Since India’s decision to talk to Saudi Arabia is new, it is News. People in the media assume that News is important, and usually overstate its importance. Unless Shashi Tharoor is suggesting the India trade Saudi Arabia something, for something Saudi Arabia is offering India, who cares? There seems to be no evidence that Shashi Tharoor is saying anything more than that Saudi Arabia has something to offer India, which is obvious.
[...] response to the earlier blogpost on the controversy surrounding Mr. Shashi Tharoor’s ‘interlocutor’ statement in Riyadh, Ms. Suhasini [...]
Interlocutor and mediation is the same as downturn is recession or Urdu is Hindi or Pronoy is Arnab while TV Jurnos and Morons are in no way related. Suhasini is fine but Arnab is getting out of control while doing some useful work?
Great Post. Going by the quite earnest rejoinder by Suhasini , have to admit you guys at INI are making a big difference to the otherwise Indifferent and Arrogant main stream Media, who ( as proved earlier in Mr Kunte’s instance ) prone to silence those who criticize or challenge them. Thanks Once again for taking up the cudgels!
excellent article.. ! and again media will say.. shashi tharoor created controversy.. and again.. it’s otherway round…!!
maybe it’s something of sautan syndrome by print and visual media..
they are jealous of tharoor favouring another unconventional media to talk with people.. 
if anything shashi tharoor is guilty of.. again.. is using his eloquent english in front of people/media who ..sadly.. are not that proficient in it..
even his cattle class remark controversy was the result of media’s great understanding of english and it’s nuances..
i am sure.. shashi tharoor have learnt not to use his english in front of media.. if they couldn’t understand cattle class and holy cows.. it is hopeless for them to understand interlocutor..
Manufactured? Check this out. Million thanks to Shri Rajiv Malhotra for his extensive investigation. Ordinary Hindus are becoming morons and Evangelicals & Jihadis are rejoicing. Please read . It pains immensely to see how much the Church goes to destroy Hinduism and Hindu leaders. A civilizational assault on India has begun – what happened to the Europe, Americas, Australia, Africa, Pacific Islands – is happening to our motherland as we speak.
http://myexperimentsagainstprejudice.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-church-destroyed-swami-nithyananda.html
Excellent post! Listening to NDTV and Times Now, in particular the latter, it seemed like organized assault on Tharoor. The Times Now ticker actually flashed questions all day such as “will Tharoor be allowed to get away”. What is more, when it became apparent two to three days (!) after the original comment, the news channel was able to handle their embarrassing goof up rather easily. By ignoring that it had ever happened. So from running a massive witch hunt to acting as though nothing ever happened, all in the course of one days. This is not a case of prejudice, but of a lack of accountability.
Perhaps one solution is a non-government organization of press accountability formed entirely by eminent media persons who will have the authority to force public retractions when a mistake has been acknowledged. But in my opinion, the best solution is definitely to remove somehow the stigma on journalists criticizing other journalists.Media solidarity borders on the absurd as evidenced by the fact that you couldn’t even get a different opinion on a crystal clear Tharoor remark on any news channel.