Opinion Cable Wars

Because,as Times Now will tell you,just doing a decent job is not enough. Your real task is to assert ownership and demand answers. Or,as Arnab Goswami closed his show with on Thursday: “Most of the questions I ask tonight come from the people who watch Times Now,it is the most watched channel,you cannot dismiss these questions as sensationalist.” True,assuming nobody watches a channel because it is sensationalist. We wouldn’t do that,no sir.

Goswami’s theatrical despair was understandable; he had to endure Ravi Shankar Prasad calling him “Orno” throughout. The ‘b’ is not silent,Mr Prasad. (Nothing about Times Now’s headliner is silent.)

He had to endure Amar Singh,looking dapper and man-of-the-world,who explained the cable thus: “Somebody must have gossiped in bravado after a couple of drinks in the evening….”,which caused Goswami to groan “Oh my God” audibly in the background. And he also had to endure Manish Tewari,who talked non-stop and incomprehensibly for most of his time on air. At one point,Goswami had to remind him,“This is not the Lok Sabha”,which is,of course,not India’s highest deliberative body anymore now that we have news TV. Tewari,who assured us that cash-for-votes had been “investigated extenso”,also tried to call The Hindu,which published the leaks,“a particular English newspaper”,denying them airtime — even though the paper’s logo was on air,and Tewari had just discussed at length a conversation he’d had with its reporter.

Times Now usually owns any story,even those others have broken,simply by demanding answers on the strength of its market-leader position. However,CNN-IBN,the channel of choice for the original 2008 cash-for-vote stingsters,would think this story had their stamp on it. And so Rajdeep Sardesai asked some Congressman Arnab Goswami’s favourite question,appropriately apoplectically: “Is this not embarrassing?”

Really,people,stop asking that. Your guests will never say yes. CNN-IBN asserted ownership by repeatedly showing the sting-operation video,which it had originally decided not to air during the trust vote. At the time,they said they didn’t want to bias Parliament’s inquiry,and would show it to them first. Now,they said they wanted to do due diligence first. A somewhat weak claim,as I’m not sure whether they did any due diligence on the WikiLeaks cables they were happily reporting,with the sting-video visuals playing on a flashy loop. (Our story! OURS!) Sardesai,meanwhile,asked everyone: what happened to the investigation Parliament recommended? It’s been three years! Yes,three years in which CNN-IBN forgot about its own story,too. “The home ministry did nothing… is that not a whitewash?” would have sounded stronger if you’d been checking up on why they did nothing all this time.

And if all other attempts at asserting property rights fail,call yourself The Country. The Hindu’s Siddharth Varadarajan said expansively on CNN-IBN,“The country wants an independent probe.” Sardesai was not to be outdone: “That is the point. The country wants it.”More likely,The Country wants the World Cup,but whatever you say,sirs. Far be it from me to question your nationhood.

mihir.sharma@expressindia.com