I-TV on News TV

I-TV: I am charged with dodgy deals,so I arrange a “frank and candid” interview of myself and I upload it on my website or on YouTube and then news broadcasters run the video and then they have prime-time chats on it.

If I-TV catches on,what will news TV do? That news TV staple,the exclusive interview with the alleged dodgy dealer (ADD),will be rendered obsolete by the ADDs arranging their own Q&As. All that the ADDs need is a free floating journalist,or anyone really,willing to do I-TV duty. That’s easy. True,exclusive news TV interviews with the ADDs are not always exclusives — four news channels can have an exclusive interviewing the same guy on the same day. But we have learnt to live with that. Can news TV live with the ADDs organizing their own confessionals?  

Call me conservative,or a biased member of big,organised media,but I am on the side of news TV here. Okay,not only are exclusive TV interviews not always exclusive,hard-hitting TV interviews are sometimes oh-so-soft (NDTV’s interview with Tharoor comes to mind),but at least there’s the clear presumption of institutional separation. Am I being paranoid or is there something fundamentally disturbing about Lalit Modi’s “official” website hosting a “frank and candid” interview “about a number of allegations which have been levelled against him”? Obviously,Modi or any other ADD has the full right to arrange “frank and candid” interviews “about allegations”. But what should the media,especially the broadcast media,do?

News is news. Lalit Modi arranging for Lalit Modi to be interviewed can’t perhaps be ignored. In any case,it will be up on an “official website” or YouTube. Will the broadcast media or the media in general ignoring an I-TV interview make a difference? Methinks it will. And it will because there’s some meaning,some value to the mainstream media being the first among equals as disseminators of news. Note to critics of the mainstream media: The preceding statement doesn’t imply the media is perfect,it merely means that an institutional set-up for news dissemination is necessary.

I suspect the ADDs know this. If Lalit Modi knew for sure that the video of his “frank and candid” interview would be ignored by news broadcasters,would he have felt a little less enthusiastic about his confessional? He might have. After all,on Modi’s website,the interview video starts with a montage of what the mainstream media has been saying about him.

The fact that these self-organised ADD interviews may not be convincing — as indeed Modi’s wasn’t — is not the point. The point is,should news TV become a regular vehicle for I-TV?

Suppose,though,I-TV on news TV catches on. Well,in that case,let’s have some fun. Which ADD would I really like to watch as he or she sits down for a frank and candid interview he or she has arranged? Yeddyurappa talking about the sweet innocence of his children? Ashok Chavan talking about his deep and abiding respect for his mother-in-law? My personal preference would be Shashi Tharoor,provided the confessional is so arranged that Sunanda Pushkar interviews him.

Q: That Kochi IPL stake for me,you had no idea,did

you,all you knew was that I am an internationally respected sports consultant?

A: How right you are,it was such a surprise to me when Lalit tweeted about it. I was so happy for you. But then the media completely misunderstood the whole thing. By the way,do you know most journalists travel cattle class?

Won’t that be fun?

saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com