Those here from the old days will remember the kind of "debates" Rajdeep used to run on his dog-and-pony shows first on NDTV and then in his own kirana shop, CNN-IBN for more than a decade.
Before we proceed, we need to remember how naive the Vajpayee govt was. But for NDA 1.0 which opened up private players in TV news, crooks & fixers like Prannoy, Barkha, Rajdeep, et al would be unable to inflict the irreparable damage they've done on public discourse
The script on these dog-and-pony shows were obviously rigged with the same theme. As long as Vajpayee govt was in power, the relentless and vicious hounding these media houses did is unbelievable. The idea was to somehow bring down the govt at any cost.
2002 was the goldmine. Whatever Rajdeep's internal differences at NDTV, 2002 was the enormous cash cow ready to be milked almost endlessly. It perhaps gave him confidence to start his own kirana shop. Even till the mid-2013, Rajdeep kept ranting about Modi & 2002.
After $onia became the unquestioned dictator, Rajdeep truly had a field day. He would invite leaders of L.K. Advani's stature and stopped short of abusing him. The kind of open contempt he showed for Advani is unbelievable. Check the archives if they exist.
Guess who was a regular "intellectual" and "fearless crusader for justice" on Rajdeep's channel in those days? Teesta Setalvad.
But his reportage on the Gujarat riots was at a completely different level. It was as though his channel *wanted* people to kill each other so that the BJP could be blamed. That opens up another chapter.
You see, when the Gujarat riots began, the entire secular gang thought that through their blackmailing and pressure tactics, Narendra Modi, a newbie, would be dismissed by the central leadership. It didn't happen. That was the beginning of systematically targetting him.
Anyway, a 1000-page book can be written about the kind of appalling crap that Rajdeep alone has done during this period. His most degenerate moment was his dalali role in the 2008 cash for votes scandal. And this guy still continues to preach media ethics with a straight face.
There's a reason only Rajdeep was publicly heckled in New York. The public's fury against him was real. You can't do the crap he did for a decade & act as if nothing happened.
Anywhere else, his career would have gone to dogs and he'd either be in jail or bankrupt or both. Lucky for him, he's got an equally corrupt ecosystem that protects him.
It was Rajdeep who coined that infamous term "tyranny of distance" as an excuse to NOT cover the Kokrajahar jihad against Hindus in Assam. Of course, "tyranny of distance" was the coded message to his fav party that, "Madam, we are always at your service."
Not ONCE in his entire stint at CNN-IBN did Rajdeep even mildly criticise $onia. On the contrary, even if opposition members on his circus show were critical of her, he'd say, "no wild allegations against the Gandhis please!" And cut them off. THIS is journalism?
Remember Siddharth Gautam, Rajdeep? Your former reporter at CNN-IBN? Care to tell us why he resigned? Perhaps this screenshot might help.
Full story is here: outline.com/kJW9uU
Full story is here: outline.com/kJW9uU
Chalo, enough for today. Lots of stories in the archives. :)
