Journalists or Cheerleaders

She may not be white skinned, blonde haired or bikni clad but none of them mattered in the vulgar striptease that was enacted on the CNN-IBN in the run up to the final vote count as an out of control Sagarika Ghosh exposed much more than political bias and instant punditry. ?She reminded us of the abyss journalistic standards have hit in the 24×7 news media as she jumped up and down as a lap dog yelping the “ayes have it”, “ayes have it” even before all of the votes were tallied. That moment marked the rock bottom that journalistic standards have hit in moden Indian democracy making them indistinguishable from political cheerleading.

Chronicling the murky saga of a confidence vote won by defections and abstentions would not be complete without a full accounting of the off-camera motives, on camera actions and the circumstances leading up to the recording of a sting operation and the continued dithering in airing its contents.

As Rajdeep Sardesai continues to drag his feet in coming clean on where the alleged tapes are and struggles to explain why his channel is adopting double standards in airing the contents of the sting the nation continues to count the wages of parliamentary deal making.

The media may have chanted “Singh is King” but Indians across the spectrum are left wondering “of which political whorehouse” ?

Dr. Singh may want to believe that yesterday’s events were vindication of sorts, his cheerleader brigade in the media may do its bit to have us believe that was indeed the case but the facts from yesterday dont change.

Fact#1 – A real sting operation took place

Fact#2 – Real money was exchanged at the behest of Amar Singh

Fact#3 – Amar Singh with gutter verbiage did not deny the facts and did little to dispel his image of the political whorehouse he is runing that Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi have now become chief patrons

Fact#4 – Rajdeep Sardesai went on air on CNN-IBN to admit that his channel had in possession the tapes and that they were being handed over to the Speak

Fact#5 – An out of control Sagarika Ghosh could not wait for the finall votes to be tallied to declare the UPA winner

Fact#6 – That premature tally with over 40 votes to be counted was enough for Rajdeep Sardesai and Diptosh Majumdar to declare on air that the taint of the cash for votes scandal was washed away 7

Fact#7 – 24 hours after the fact we are yet to see the tapes or an explanation from Rajdeep Sardesait?and his cheerleader better half on why the double standard in airing the sting operation.

Offstumped poser to CNN-IBN: This aint over Mr Sardesai and Ms. Ghosh. We will not forget and we ill not forgive unless there is a full accounting. You may have reduced Journalism to naked cheerleading, you have the freedom to do so. But it is a free market and it works both ways. Sooner or later this despicable conduct will come back to bite you.

Filed under: Uncategorized