Saturday, July 24, 2010

Trysts with MSM - Part 9

MSM - Main Stream Media
IBN's National Bureau Chief, Bhupendra Chaubey announced recently that he has the story of the year, and when he exposes that "dhoodh ka dhoodh, pani ka pani" will happen! And on the evening of Thursday, July 22nd, a 30 minute program was aired on how "evidence" found by CBI will nail Amit Shah, the Minister of State for Home, for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin encounter case.

While talking about phone records collected by CBI, Bhupendra Chaubey explains that the minister spoke continously on the phone to police officers (now arrested) involved in the encounter. And then goes on to say that it is constitutionally wrong for a minister to talk to police officers directly! Not once but twice!

Upon asking him to clarify, he said this:

@ssudhirkumar check facts sudhir. This is a matter of constitutional propriety. Don't behave like the rest of twitterati

Upon repeated questioning how the constitution has come into the picture, he hasn't bothered to reply back.

Today, I sent a mail to Editor in Chief of IBN Live, Rajdeep Sardesai seeking a clarification:

Dear Editor,
First, let me congratulate you on the "dhoodh ka dhoodh, pani ka pani" expose on the "evidence" against Amit Shah gathered by the CBI. However, while watching the expose on Thursday, National Affairs Editor Bhupendra Chaubey has said that it is Constitutionally wrong for a minister to talk directly to the police. This is a factually incorrect statement and needs to withdrawn at the earliest available opportunity. There might have been a command structure failure, but nowhere does the constitution come into the picture here. In the heat of the moment, it looks like the constitution was bought into the picture.

Sadly, I haven't any retraction of any sort from IBN on this factually incorrect statement, yet. I am sure you will agree that this is a fit case for retraction, and this will also set a good precedent in TV media clarifying on errors.

Hoping for a response on this issue.

Rajdeep replied saying this:

I have checked the recordings. I think what mr chaube wished to say was to highlight was the question marks over mr shah talking to the ats continuously while the encounter operation was on and before and after it. That was the thrust of what he was saying, he may have been wrong to use the word 'constitution', but it does not detract from the substance of his story.

About 10 minutes after this reply came from Bhupendra Chaubey, who still stands by the statement!

Dear mr kumar
Glad that u r an avid viewer of cnn ibn. The statement that was made is factual and is correct. A home minister speaks to officers thru the dgp, a home min rarely speaks to officers of the ranks of sp and below unless in situations of emergency. That's the pt that has been made. I suggest u don't fall for clamour of twitter and appreciate the nuances of statements.

Best wishes

Bhupendra

The problem was with the use of the word "constitution" and this is what I replied back to Mr. Chaubey. Either way, I guess it is pretty evident that the error has been noticed, will rest the case now :)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sudhir, You should point out to the Padmasri that the IBN journo is trying to influence viewers by claiming constitutional backing for his claims, and that this is manipulative and unethical journalism

A Doosra Perspective said...

Mate; Bhupendra Chaubey is the the National Bureau Chief of CNN IBN. Diptosh Majumdar is the National Affairs Editor of CNN IBN. Do change when you see this comment.

Saikumar.k said...

Bro..Can you find any video of it ? I mean the part where Bhupendra Chaubey said that it was against the constitution. So We can upload it on Youtube and let people know about these so-called intelligentsia.

Anyway, Nice work Bro...

Anonymous said...

Good work bro! Keep up the good work.
Media must report the facts not hype the stories
unnecessarily.

Basavaraj Vannur.

Sudhir said...

@Doosra Thanks for pointing out, I made the change.

@saikumar that video of the show is not available on the website..it was a 8pm show..IBN generally has the 9pm and 10pm shows online.

@Anons - thank you.

Anonymous said...

Good work Mr. Kumar

Kris said...

As always appreciate your perseverance.We should also appreciate CNN IBN for making an effort to clarify we can't expect the same from NDTV.We should strive so that our MSM will be more responsible while telecasting their so called news

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