Long live journalism. Journalism is dead.

I’m not being trite or flippant. But Saturday 10 am – and the monologue one heard roll off the subdued tongue of Arnab Goswami in the first ten minutes of his news channel, Republic TV going on air, was worrying, to say the least. Now, we’ve all been waiting for Republic TV to launch. Even if only so that the posters emblazoning the street corners of various cities could be taken down. Along with the hoardings counting down to “Pakistan’s migraine” coming to our TV screens and those videos of him writing letters to all and sundry.

We’ve been reminded repeatedly that Goswami would soon return into our world of news-watching, thanks to Bennett Coleman sending him a cease-and-desist regarding using the term, “the nation wants to know”, when they filed for a trademark of the two phrases “nation wants to know” and “the nation wants to know” in December 2016. Goswami’s company, ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd filed for a trademark of the same phrases in January 2017. A bit of a silly want on BCCL’s part, going by the fact that it’s an oft-used phrase and not the name of a show. Goswami cried, “I am persecuted, but will fight for my right to say ‘The Nation wants to know’ till my last breath”. Before that Subramanian Swamy slapped a lawsuit on Goswami, saying he couldn’t name his channel Republic because this was restricted under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950. Goswami then changed his channel’s name to Republic TV.

Much water has flowed under the bridge. And finally, Republic TV made its debut on Saturday morning at 10 am. Ruining many a person’s weekend.

First, let me explain why I commend Goswami on launching his news channel before I get into the not-so-commendable aspects of Republic TV and its launch. Goswami is the only news editor from the original NDTV coterie, who has left the NDTV stable and made it on his own, and how. Rajdeep Sardesai left and then had to leave again and now has one news bulletin on India Today TV. Barkha Dutt has left NDTV 24X7 and has shuttled between The Print to election reporting for Quint and being one of many analysts on NewsX to interviewing Karan Johar for MoJo. The bottomline being, that Goswami – neither related to any famous journalist or famous person nor a Delhi-insider – has done what his colleagues and seniors haven’t been able to. He has been able to start his own news channel and make himself into a brand worth backing.

Not that that makes him a good journalist. Or even means that he understands what journalism should aim to be. As we found out on Saturday during Goswami’s monologue.

It is important to remember that his channel has been started with Rajeev Chandrashekhar, vice-chairman of the NDA in Kerala, as one of the largest investors in the venture. Chandrasekhar has invested over Rs 30 crore in the channel. It was also reported that the channel’s editorial team received an email from the CEO of Jupiter Capital, Amit Gupta,  instructing that all editorial talent be hired keeping in mind that the person be “right of center in his/her editorial tonality”, “Pro-India, Pro-Military”, “aligned to Chairman’s ideology” and “well familiarised” with the chairman’s thoughts on “nationalism and governance”. “Offers being rolled out shall be summarised and shared with Chairman’s office as regards the credentials (only) and hiring managers have to ensure that the above has been ticked appropriately.”

The fact that this is a channel funded by a politician, not that there aren’t others, explains a lot. Including why the promos of the channel are of people waving flags and saluting the flag and pinning the flag onto others. It also explains the tonality and content of what Goswami said in his 10-minute soft-spoken opening monologue.

There was Goswami in a red tie, with slightly long greasy unkempt hair, smiling benignly into the camera telling us that he would not be fair, impartial or non-jingoistic. I do not exaggerate. The channel went live with the voice of Kamal Haasan telling us that “This is Republic World. Republic TV.” And tickers proclaiming, “Republic Super Saturday” and Breaking News that “Republic TV Now Live”.

A subdued, benign Goswami’s exact words were:

I don’t know what the nation wants to know today, but the game has just begun…It’s been 5 months and 18 days to be exact. And trust me, I have measured every day, I have counted every minute, I have counted every hour.  I have missed every moment that I was unable to connect with you, speak with you, reach out to you…  

We have three targets. One is to move the centre of gravity of the Indian media away from the political capital. The Indian media must not surround itself in an echo chamber which only survives in the corridors of power in New Delhi. Two, to bring a spirit of pride in our great nation in the media. I am amazed that the same media has the temerity to question when an army officer makes a civilian sit on the bonnet of a car as a last act of self-defence. I am a nationalist. And I want to say today that being a nationalist is a prerequisite to being a journalist. IN our reporting and in our relentless pursuit of the truth, our nationalism is out strength, our nationalism is at our core. Third, we want to pursue real news stories. We at the Republic, feel that the country can change faster and for the better if all of us in the media use all means possible and every tactic to expose the truth. No truth is ugly enough to be disguised. We will take on very powerful people.

Some will find our reporting harsh, others will find it opinionated and I’m sure others will find it inconvenient.

On the 14th of November, I ended my last show on TV without being given a chance to even say goodbye to you…So yes, dear viewers, I know I never said goodbye on the 14th of November. But look at it this way, you never went away and neither did I. The game has only just begun.

Oh Arnab. You were supposed to be the messiah. The one who broke the mould. But instead, you turned into the Indian version of Fox News. And of course, there’s India TV and Zee News already ruling that nationalistic roost, but none of them have the star power that Goswami does. Since when did it become kosher for a journalist to first align with a politician and second, tout the politician’s political views professionally? And does Goswami really feel that a journalist must be a nationalist to be a good journalist? Woodward & Bernstein haven’t stopped choking since. Imagine if they’d followed Goswami’s thoughts, they’d never have spoken to Deepthroat or investigated Watergate and the FBI. What is Goswami talking about?

There is nothing wrong with presenting different points of view. So, if a Major Arya is brought on board as Republic Advisor or the jingoistic Anupam Kher has a show on the channel, which seems like a rip-off of Satyamev Jayate – it’s good that their views are being presented. But it seems that the Right’s will be the only view that will be heard on Republic TV.

The channel launched with an exposé on Lalu Prasad Yadav speaking to one-time MP and convicted criminal Shahabuddin, while the latter is in prison. No, it’s not new that convicts can speak to politicians from jail or even manage their constituencies and have durbars while in jail. Raja Bhaiyya is the most famous of the lot to do so. And it’s a worthy investigation to undertake. But that can’t be the only report you do in 24 hours.

To ensure that you kept worrying about the death of journalism, Ravi Shankar Prasad, NDA Minister of Law & Justice came on and said, “Nice to have you back. To hear your voice. As the conscience-keeper of the country in many ways”. Say what? You’re a Cabinet minister and a person with a brain. You’re actually telling a journalist that he’s “the conscience keeper of the country”. Why not announce that you’re giving him the Padma Shri next?

I watched the channel off and on through the day, and there frankly wasn’t anything new on it. We kept being told that a reporter is standing “live” outside Lalu’s house. Today, we were told they were staking out Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal’s house. This is akin to a newspaper tweeting every time a journalist of theirs’ writes an article. That’s their job. You don’t need to tweet about it each time.

Come Super Primetime at 9 pm, you realised that the more things change, the more they remain the same. There were those same talking heads, fitted into 10 boxes and Arnab holding forth.

I do want to ask a critical question. Why does Arnab hate people who go to Litfests? Why? He has a promo running that says that he will silence the “pseudo-liberals who go to litfests”. How will he identify them from the BJP MPs who do the same? Does he not like books? Or does he not like literate people who like having a coffee while listening to people talk about books?

My levity though is only my attempt at numbing the shock that an editor-in-chief of an English news channel of Arnab Goswami’s popularity, is proudly proclaiming jingoism as not just the cornerstone of journalism, but also as a quality, journalists should aspire to. I suppose the only silver lining is that unlike other editors and news channels who push an agenda, Goswami is being open about doing so. He may be a sad excuse for a journalist, but at least he isn’t a hypocrite.

Update: The article has been updated to reflect that Woodward and Bernstein are alive but still not very excited about Goswami’s journalism.