The pitch: “What kind of story do you want? Because this will go as Counterpoint, so it will be like most-most read, but it can’t seem too slanted, yet it is an ideal opportunity to get all the points across.”
The tapes and transcripts released by Open Magazine, Outlook and Mail Today accuse journalists Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt of lobbying for a cabinet rank in UPA-II for scam-tainted A. Raja.
Both of them have denied the allegations and questioned the very authenticity of the tapes, a ruse often employed when politicians and fraudsters get caught in a sting.
While Sanghvi has posted a long response in his personal website Barkha has responded using NDTV and her personal twitter account.
Their argument is almost similar: Journalists have to deal with wide variety of sources while gathering news and they use them to trade information.
Writes Sanghvi: “While gathering news, journalists talk to a wide variety of sources from all walks of life, especially when a fast-moving story is unfolding. Out of a desire to elicit more information from these sources, we are generally polite. I received many calls from different sources during that period. In no case did I act on those requests as anybody in the government will know.”
“Journalists talk to many people, savoury and unsavoury to get news. It doesnt translate into endorsements”, tweets Barkha.
While there appear to be nothing ‘remarkable’ in their conversation with Niira Radia regarding lobbying for A. Raja Sanghvi’s attempt to steer clear of allegations regarding plugging a column to serve the interests of Mukesh Ambani falls flat.
In the response Sanghvi takes the moral high point of journalistic impartiality by selectively quoting from a column he wrote on a later date.
“My friend, Tony Jesudasan, who represents Anil, took me out to lunch and made out a case for Anil. I was totally convinced till my friend, Niira Radia, who represents Mukesh, gave me the other side which frankly seemed just as convincing to my inexpert ears”, writes Sanghvi.
He quotes himself again to prove his neutrality another line from the same piece:“Why do the Ambanis think that all of us should take sides in their battle? Or that we should care what happens to them?” Did this piece come as a conscious pricking afterthought or did he get rapped on the knuckles by Anil camp lobbyist.
The Radia-Sanghvi conversation over the Ambani row is dated June 20, 2010. Time – 12:09 pm. Sangvi posted his column on HT blogs on June 20, 2009 at 9:31 pm.
Ironically the Counterpoint piece allegedly hand-fed by the lobbying queen Radia begins with an apology for not being timely. And it does raise some of the points that Radia coached him over the lunch. The column does not seem to be openly pitching for Mukesh Ambani but it does trash the MoU between Anil and Mukesh as suggested by Radia.
To be fair to Sanghvi he does use the column to raise the question of the right over national resources and the corruption in the government including the spectrum scam.
Read it [Link].
